Ambassador Delawie’s Remarks at the DIILS Regional E-IMET Training Event, 17 September 2018
Good morning everybody. I’m really pleased to be here today to welcome you all to an important training event. I’m happy to see such a diverse group of people in the room. Not only do I recognize people from multiple Kosovo governmental ministries, I’ve been told that we also have attendees from six countries. So that is very impressive and a great symbol of regional cooperation. Thank you all for coming.
I think we all know it’s an understatement to say that organizing something like this took a lot of work. This particular event required months of planning to secure funding, coordinate instructors, and translate materials. Most of that work fell on the shoulders of Ms. Ardiana Bejta from our Office of Defense Cooperation. Ardiana, you’ve done a terrific job putting this all together. Thank you so much for your hard work.
Defense Support to Civil Authorities is a serious topic, one that every country in the region, not to mention the United States, struggles with regularly. The complex issues of how and when to support democratic governments with uniformed security forces must be studied and constantly evaluated.
In the United States we have strict rules that govern how our military can be used within our borders. I hope that as this course proceeds, you will share how your own nations confront these issues. I also hope that you bring home lessons learned and discuss them with policy makers.
These regional events offer a unique opportunity to foster relationships among like-minded people. Please use this opportunity to share business cards and contact info. Connections made in a forum like this are invaluable, so please take advantage of it.
I want to thank a few more people for making this happen. To the Kosovo Security Force, thank you for doing such a great job in co-hosting this event. To our international participants, which includes those from Iowa and MNBG-East, thank you for coming such a long way and bringing your experience and your expertise. And finally, a very big thank you to the instructors from the Defense Institute for International Legal Studies, you’ve put together a very thorough program and we’re really glad to have you here.
With that I’ll stop—it’s time to get the course started. Once again, welcome! I know you’ll enjoy working together and will learn a great deal. Thank you all very much for being here today.
