Twenty two junior officers from 12 countries graduated from the International Staff Officers' Course (ISOC) in November 2008. Graduation ceremony took place at the Armed Forces Academy of General Milan Rastislav Štefánik on November 13, in attendance of Brig. Gen. Juraj Krištofovič, Deputy Commandant of Training and Support Forces.

    The course was officially opened on September 11, 2008. By the speech of the Minister of Defence, delivered at the opening ceremony, the main aim of the course is to provide junior staff officers with comprehensive training in order to enable them to serve in multinational staffs and participate in operational planning process at the tactical level of command and control.

    Col Peter Slovák from Multilateral cooperation department, MoD in his speech addressed to the students from Azerbaijan, Albania, Serbia, Ukraine, Bosnia a Herzegovina, Macedonia, Moldova, Croatia, Latvia, Estonia, Czech Republic and Slovakia said: “you are the proof that NATO apart from playing role as an important security actor is also able to bring people from different nations together (which some of them former adversaries) and build cooperation and trust among them.“

    The best ISOC student, 1 Lt Hanuš Ort from the Czech Republic, was awarded the Prize of Commandant ISOC.

    This international project was approved at the Minister of Defence Committee Meeting in May 2007 according to the Memorandum of understanding between the Slovak Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its mission is to foster the cooperation, transparency and initiatives of North Atlantic Treaty Organization by supporting the training programme of PfP countries.

    The next run of the International Staff Officers’ Course will start on January 8, 2009.