The annual Partnership Training and Education Centre (PTEC) Marketplace took place on 29 November 2018 at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. High-level representatives from 23 PTEC from around the world met to exchange expertise, forge new links and discuss further synergies in the key domain of military education and training. NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller, Chairman of the Military Committee Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach opened the event.

    The event was once again attended by representatives from Armed Forced Academy of general M. R. Štefánik in Liptovský Mikuláš (SVK AFA) led by the commander of International Staff Officers’Course LtCol Jozef Wesselényi. SVK AFA gained PTEC status in 2004 and in 2018 became unconditionally NATO accredited institution, which meets all the training and education criteria and is eligible to certify courses.

    The main purpose of the visit was to promote Slovak republik, SVK AFA and its international courses. SVK AFA also provides courses as a mobile training team who has worked in Ukraine several times under the Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP). The Academy provides international courses not only for NATO members, but also for partner countries, the Mediterranean Dialogue, the Istanbul Initiative and the Global Partnership countries. SVK AFA has reaffirmed that it is a prominent and important player in the field of the training and learning of partner countries. SVK AFA was supported by Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Slovak Republic to NATO Radovan Javorčík, , and Military Representative to the NATO Military Committee General Ondřej Novosad.

    The event itself was preceded by other accompanying event as training to ETOC database management and ePRIME and meeting of PTEC working group, where activities from 2018 were evaluated and plan of action for 2019 was discussed.