Today, the 22nd of July, 2015, a delegation of the Macedonian Ministry of Defense and ARM led by the Deputy Chief of GS of ARM, Lieutenant General Naser Sejdini visited “Joint Reaction-15” exercise in Tirana in Albania on the VIP guest day. The participants of the exercise with the host Albania include Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Montenegro, Croatia, the United States of America and as observer countries Romania and Slovenia.
The scenario of the exercise is a strong earthquake which hits the city of Elbasan (central Albania), and all countries from the region need to take a comprehensive action to help. All participant countries sent Signals officers and operators in the Simulation Center in Tirana. Concurrent efforts are made in the participant countries’ Crisis Management Centers in their capital cities, where they establish work groups after getting an international aid request. In the Macedonian Crisis Management Center an interdepartmental work group was established to react after getting an international aid request. The Macedonian work group was comprised of representatives of the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Health, the Army of Republic of Macedonia, the Crisis Management Center, the Directorate for Protection and Rescue, the Red Cross of Macedonia, Customs and etc.
“Joint Rescue -15” exercise is a computer assisted exercise for managing regional aid in emergency situations. It is an excellent way to improve the cooperation among the member countries of the Adriatic Charter (A5) under the auspices of the USA including regional partners in order to practice timely and efficient deployment of rescue forces in case of natural disasters which require comprehensive regional action.
