Unfortunately the Finnish minister of defense had to cancel his plans to speak at the Atlantic Council. In his stead, Lieutenant General Arto Tuomas Räty, permanent secretary of the Finnish Ministry of Defense, has agreed to participate in a small roundtable. We saw that you registered for the previous event, and wish to extend this invitation to you to attend the roundtable. The event will take place on Tuesday, October 29, 2013 from 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Building on the successes of Nordic Defense Cooperation (NORDEFCO), Secretary Räty will make a case for NATO member and partner countries to follow a similar framework to sustain present-day interoperability levels and military readiness. NORDEFCO’s five members states—Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden—use regional networking to increase their interoperability via borderless cooperation, build-up and maintain necessary military capabilities, and provide cost-effective contributions to international efforts. Then, we will open up the conversation for experts to weigh in on this topic.

Secretary Räty has been in his position since the beginning of 2011. In 2009, he was appointed deputy chief of staff operations in the Defense Command Finland. Before that, he was the chief of staff of the Army Command. Finally, in 2007, he was named the director of the National Defense Policy Unit.

We hope that you will be able to join us on Monday, October 28, for this discussion.