On October 13 – 15, 2008 BALTDEFCOL Conference took place in Baltic Defense College in Tartu, Estonia.

    BALTDEFCOL is a tri-lateral project of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia created to develop the military educational system of the Baltic countries. The intention is to establish a high quality and widely respected international military educational institution. BALTDEFCOL aspires for the status of NATO Training Centre. It provides career and professional courses designed for military professionals and civil servants with international participation as well supported by NATO and PfP Countries.

    This conference was dedicated to evaluation of BALTDEFCOL activities focused on the participation and support of the countries involved in this project as well as defining the vision for the future.

    Opening speech was given by Minister of Defence of Estonia, Jaak Aaviksoo. He expressed his strong belief that NATO and PfP Countries supported high standard education which BALTDEFCOL provides will be valuable and beneficial.

    Discussion of the representatives from participating countries proved that BALTDEFCOL is an important institution in terms of military education and professional development of Baltic and PfP Countries military personnel. Developed system of education and wide scale of NATO Courses provided by training centres of member and partnership countries and issues concerning the external lecturing activities provided by guest speakers and foreign students enrolment in BALTDEFCOL courses were pointed out.

    Col Juraj Vyrostek, Vice-rector for Military Issues of Armed Forces Academy have participated in the conference as a Slovak Representative. He declared that “on the basis of the discussion Baltic Countries representatives responsible for the matters concerning the military education in the region will be able to make a proper decision on the future aims and activities of BALTDEFCOL.