The conference attracted several prominent speakers such as Ine Eriksen-Søreide, Norwegian Minister of Defence, János Martonyi, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jakub Kulhánek Deputy Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic, Artur Nowak-Far, Undersecretary of State of Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Knut Vollebaek, former Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Janusz Onuskiewicz, former Polish Minister of Defence or Géza Jeszenszky, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary to name a few (for more details please see official conference booklet). More than 120 members of foreign affairs and security community attended the conference.

Main panel of the conference called „The Role of NATO after Afghanistan: Adaptation to New Challanges“ focused primarily on most recent developments in Crimea, Ukraine. Members of the second panel called “Expectations and Realities – Evolution of the NATO Membership“ agreed that membership in the Alliance increased overall security in Europe, cemented security guaranties for new members and helped in modernizing of their respective armies from static to mobile forces. Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are not just recipients of security guaranties but they also accepted their share of responsibilities in collective defence and in various missions (Western Balakns, Afghanistan etc.). The main theme of the third panel called „NATO´s Role in the Future“ was increased need of European allies to accept larger share of Alliance expenses’ burden as well as more prominent role in crisis management of the Alliance.

The Ambassaodrs of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, Excellencies Milan Dufek, Géza Jeszenszky and Stefan Czmur also commemorated the anniversary of our joining NATO in article in Aftenposten on March 12, 2014. The article is available here

While in Oslo, Jakub Kulhánek, Deputy Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic met for consultations with his counterpart Øystein Bø, State Secretaaary of Norwegian Ministry of Defence.