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On April 16-22, Lithuania will take part in the annual NATO Crisis Management Exercise 2008 (CMX-08). During the exercise, all institutions of the Lithuanian crisis management system will co-act with the corresponding institutions of other NATO members.

NATO Crisis Management Exercise is a technical decision making exercise based on tackling a designed situation in search of solutions acceptable to all members.

“The exercise will give Lithuania the opportunity to test national decision making mechanisms and to try collective NATO’s crisis response measures, as well as improve the inter-institutional cooperation in crisis response actions,” said National Defence Minister Juozas Olekas.

The exercise is aimed at testing in practise NATO-designed procedures of responding to crisis and methods, and means of decision making in the spirit of the main principles of the Alliance – consultations and collective decision-making in emergency situation.

The exercise scenario involves an assumed threat trouble-spot outside the Euro-Atlantic area gradually forming into potential danger to NATO countries and international community.  The scenario simulates international peacekeeping operation, humanitarian crisis, actions against terrorism and hostilities of a fictitious country against one of the allies. Real armed forces will not be employed in the exercise.

All the 26 NATO members, NATO partners and, for the first time in the history of the exercise, countries of the Mediterranean Dialogue, Israel and Morocco, contributed to composing the scenario and planning of the Crisis Management Exercise 2008.

On behalf of Lithuania the exercise will be attended by representatives of the Ministry of National Defence, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Health and Interior Ministries, State Security Department, Crisis Management Centre under the National Defence Ministry, Health Emergency Situations Centre, Fire and Rescue Department under the Interior Ministry, and Office of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. 

“Each year Lithuania participates in the exercise more actively and sends more experts as its representatives.  We contribute to the exercise scenario by bringing forward the problems we wish to solve together with the allies”, said Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deividas Matulionis. “The exercise helps to deepen our NATO integration and enhances our readiness for joint actions in case of crisis.” 

NATO Crisis Management Exercise, which will be held for the fifteenth time, is traditionally attended by diplomats, military and civilian representatives from all the NATO members’ capitals and delegations to NATO, and two strategic NATO Headquarters: Allied Command Operations (ACO) and Allied Command Transformations (ACT). The NATO liaison officer at the UN delegation in New York will participate in the exercise for the first time.  The exercise is supervised by the North Atlantic Council and headed by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

As a NATO member, Lithuania will participate in the exercise for the third time.  In 2004, our country took part in the exercise on observer’s right.