Premium
The Romanian Navy is taking over the chairmanship of the forum of the Chiefs of European Navies, and the next meeting of this body will take place in 2022 in Bucharest.
Chief of the Romanian Navy Mihai Panait participated on Wednesday and Thursday in a meeting of Chiefs of European Navies (CHENS - CHiefs of European NavieS) that comprises 24 European maritime states, whether they are NATO members or members of the European Union (Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey).
CHENS is an informal, independent and apolitical forum that seeks to promote understanding between navies of the member countries, to examine issues of common and mutual interest and to increase awareness of the maritime domain in member countries. This year's meeting was hosted by Malta and took place virtually amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, agerpres.ro confirms.
In his speech, Panait brought up the recent maritime challenges facing Europe that increase the complexity of the missions that European navies have to conduct, such as illegal migration at sea and the effects of globalisation on maritime activities.
"The development of naval doctrines, the adaptation of training and the integration of new technologies in the act of command and control at sea can be solutions that lead to the successful accomplishment of missions. The use of drones and sensors on board naval platforms, independent of human resources, contributes to achieving an overview of the maritime situation, as well as to the optimal planning of missions to deter illegal acts and aggressions in the maritime space," Panait is quoted as saying in his remarks.
At the end of his speech, Panait invited all the heads of the European navies to participate in the next meeting of CHENS, which the Romanian Navy will host for the first time, May 11-12, 2022, in Bucharest. The topic proposed for the CHENS 2022 meeting will optimising command and control in the maritime field and will include three panels.
