The 36th IST ops meeting was held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 26-27 February 2019.
With 19 MCCE Members Nations (MNs) and NSPA represented through 46 delegates, it was one of the largest attended ops meeting ever.
The symposium focused the MNs attention predominantly on:
- strengthening IST offer list (railway, road and IWW);
- updating on M&T topics, transport procedures either generic IST or railway options;
- pursuing Inland Water Ways expertise to be enlarged and amalgamated amongst the MNs.
36th IST meeting at PRT Joint Command for Military Operations premises in Lisbon
MCCE staff put emphasis on the importance of using the power of inland navigation in the future of freight transport in Europe.
The concept was reinforced based upon the barges operation carried out by DNK to support the recent US 1/1D ABCTs rotation to “Atlantic Resolve”.
The conference was also the occasion to assess the sensitive importance of the necessity for preliminary coordination for exercises/operations amongst the MNs, with particular reference to the DEFENDER 2020 next year which is indeed announced to be the largest multinational joint/combined exercise in Europe ever.