EU and NATO Defence Ministers Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia signed a letter of intent (LOI) on Wednesday 13 February to establish a regional special operations component command (R-SOCC). They will soon be joined by Austria, which is not a member of the Alliance.
This R-SOCC will be led by Hungary and will be deployable for smaller joint operations. "This command will dramatically increase the ability of these five nations to effectively employ their Special Forces. The non-permanent structure of the R-SOCC enables each participant to use its own contributions separately, while benefiting from the integrated R-SOCC structure once activated for a deployment", NATO said in a statement.
Established in accordance with NATO standards, the command, if called upon to serve primarily on Alliance and EU operations, could also take part in other multilateral missions, exercises or training. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)