Moldovan military members to visit North Carolina Guard

Story courtesy of North Carolina National Guard

RALEIGH, N.C., (7/26/10) -- Five members of the Moldovan military are scheduled to visit the North Carolina National Guard this week as part of the National Guard's State Partnership Program.

The Moldovan military members are here to learn about medical evacuation and search and rescue operations conducted by the North Carolina Guard.

The program links U.S. states with partner countries for the purpose of supporting U.S. security cooperation objectives. The program's goals reflect an evolving international affairs mission for the National Guard using the unique civil-military nature of the Guard to interact with both active and reserve forces of foreign countries.

The partners actively participate in a host of engagement activities ranging from bilateral familiarization, fellowship-style internships, civic leader visits and medical events.

All activities are coordinated through the theater combatant commander and the U.S. ambassadors' country teams, and other agencies as appropriate, to ensure that National Guard support is tailored to meet both US and country objectives.

The value of the SPP is its ability to focus the attention of a small part of the Department of Defense, a state National Guard, with a single country or region in support of U.S. government policies, Guard officials said.

This concentrated focus allows for the development of long term personal relationships and a mechanism to catalyze support from outside the DoD which otherwise would not occur but nevertheless complements U.S. policy.

The optimum SPP partnership is one in which the host nation professes genuine interest in partnership, U.S. and theater engagement objectives are satisfied, the force protection risk is acceptable; a minimum of additional resources is required to execute engagement, and National Guard core engagement competencies, particularly military support to civil authority (MSCA), and national defense are heavily incorporated, Guard officials said.

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