Brussels, Belgium - CCCPA participated in NATO’s Partnership Training and Education Centers (PTEC) 2016 Marketplace on 19 October 2016.
Inaugurating the event was Vice Admiral Ignacio Horcada, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT) Representative of Europe, who stressed the importance of the PTEC community in exchanging information and best practices on training for peace. He also highlighted the expanding membership in the community. Following the inauguration, Horcada visited CCCPA's booth where he expressed his appreciation of the wide range of training and research conducted by the Center.
On his part, CCCPA Deputy Director and Director of Projects Counselor Hatem Elatawy highlighted the center’s new programs, including preventing radicalization and extremism leading to terrorism (PRELT) and combating human trafficking and smuggling of migrants. These programs fall within CCCPA’s role of assisting African countries to build capacities that can deal with the continent’s most crucial issues by providing ‘African Solutions to African Problems’.
The aim of the 2016 NATO-PTEC event was to present the work of the training and education centers of NATO members and partner countries in the field of peace and security. 19 centers from 16 NATO members and partner countries took part in the event. It was also widely attended by the diplomatic and military community present at the NATO HQ.
Initially launched in 1998, PTECs were formally established in 1999 under the Partnership for Peace program to develop training and education activities with Euro-Atlantic partners, and was extended to the Mediterranean Dialogue (MD) and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI) countries in 2008.