The Baltic Defence College hosted the 26-28 September 2003 Brigade Training Seminar for the three Baltic States with the aim to develop a common understanding of characteristics and responsibilities of the staffs in brigades within NATO - mainly in training of: itself, the commanders and staffs of subordinate units. The seminar covered both a deployable brigade and a brigade preparing for operations post-mobilisation.

All three Baltic States were represented with competent, as well as relevant, personnel. Guest speakers were contributing with honest and to the point briefings, resulting in an overall very fruitful seminar with a good exchange of information for all participants as well as guest speakers.

The seminar was lead in with a national briefing on the current status of the respective brigade development succeeded by briefings from UK, Germany and Denmark on their different approach to: brigade staff training; brigade training as well as training / assessment of brigade commanders and brigades by the superior commander.

The formal briefings were followed by discussions in national delegations and discussions in cross delegation groups in order to share common views and lessons learned. The seminar did not bring up any specific conclusions on the way ahead for the continued development of the brigades, but it was commonly understood that it was necessary to define an end state such as the continued development of the brigade. Additionally for some it was decided upon to keep the defined end state in focus in order to be successful.