Today concluded in Tunis, in the presence of the Tunisian Minister of Defense, the CHON Meeting, the meeting of the leaders of the Navies belonging to the "5 + 5 Defense Initiative".
During the event, now in its eleventh edition, issues of topicality and interest for collective security and prosperity were addressed, with particular reference to Maritime Domain Awareness as a basis for an effective action on the sea, confirming its validity as a qualified grant where to identify convergent solutions to face common challenges.
The 5 + 5 dialogue is an informal forum for collaboration between 5 countries on the northern shore (France, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain) and 5 countries on the southern shore (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia) of the Western Mediterranean.
Established in 1990 as an exercise at the level of foreign ministers, it subsequently gave rise to various forms of sectoral collaboration.
They concern the Parliamentary, Defense, Foreign, Interior, Transport, Labor and Tourism sectors, to which Education and Environment have also recently been added.
On 21 December 2004, the 10 ministers of Defense formalized the launch of the "5 + 5 Defense Initiative" in Paris, formalizing the "Declaration of Intent" which institutionalized the rotating presidency (annual rotation according to the English alphabetical order) and the steering committee, the latter responsible to the ministers for the direction and supervision of the actions agreed annually in the appropriate Action Plan.
The 5 + 5 Defense Initiative is aimed at promoting the debate on security issues, through concrete manifestations of cooperation and sharing of experiences and knowledge. The 5 + 5 Defense forum is based on cooperation in practical activities relating to problems common to the two shores of the Western Mediterranean, the solution of which involves working methods (seminars, exercises, etc.) proposed and verified within the exercise. The forum allowed not only a rapprochement between the two shores of the Western Mediterranean but also between the countries of the southern area themselves.
Since the start of the Initiative, there has been a convergence of will towards shared planning and full consent to the development, according to a structured approach, of the following 4 areas of cooperation:
1. Maritime Surveillance;
2. Air Safety;
3. Contribution of the Armed Forces to the Civil Protection;
4. Training.
Among the 4 cooperation areas of the “5 + 5 Defense Initiative”, the “maritime surveillance” has always catalysed the efforts of the Navy, sharing the aim of preserving the security of the Mediterranean and its western approaches. Among the most important projects of the Initiative, which see the pre-eminent role of the FA, are the SEABORDER air-naval exercise, the CHON meeting and the extensive use of the "V-RMTC 5 + 5 NET" network, capable of fully expressing the collaborative, inclusive and oriented spirit to develop concrete initiatives characterizing the forum.
