Last August 15 was held at the NATO-KFOR Command in Pristina, in the presence of the mission commander in Kosovo, division general Lorenzo D'Addario and civil and military authorities, the ceremony that sanctioned the change of name of the Multinational West Battle Group (MNBG-W) in Regional Command West (RC-W), an Italian-led unit deployed in the western sector of Kosovo.
The ceremony sealed the remodeling of the chain of command and control of the units deployed in Kosovo. The RC-W has in fact incorporated, in addition to the kinetic units, destined to the control of the territory in terms of safety, the non-kinetic ones, units destined for cooperation and connection with the local population, the latter up to now depending on a parallel command named Joint Regional Detachment West (JRD - W). With the transformation, the commander of the RC-W, Colonel Daniele Pisani, assumed full responsibility for the western sector of Kosovo.
The transformation did not involve a change in numerical terms, the units of the RC-W, currently deployed in Kosovo, will continue to carry out activities to support the security and stability of the area of responsibility, by means of maneuvering units at the battalion level. The connection with local authorities and non-governmental organizations at regional level for the monitoring of the territory will be carried out by multinational teams, called Liaison Monitoring Team (LMT), or liaison and monitoring teams, operating in the 15 municipalities that fall within the area of competence of the RC-W.
Another significant aspect of the transformation concerns the increase in the multinationality of the RC-W which sees the addition of the assets from Turkey, Poland and Switzerland to the four nations operating in the pre-existing MNBG-W, namely Italy, Austria, Slovenia and Moldova.
The uniqueness of the command, under which both the kinetic and non-kinetic structures fall, has made it possible to improve the coordination of the activities, guaranteeing an even more effective support for the fulfillment of the mission in Kosovo.
