Solbiate Olona, September 17, 2024. Today, at the NRDC-ITA Headquarters, the visit of the Commander of the Finnish Army, Lieutenant General Pasi Välimäki, took place. He was welcomed by the Commander of NRDC-ITA, Lieutenant General Lorenzo D’Addario.
The visit was carried out in a spirit of sharing experiences and seeking for potential areas of convergence, with a special attention also to the common, future challenges of NATO, because of the new role of NRDC-ITA as Allied Reaction Force (ARF) in support of the Alliance in its three main tasks: deterrence and defense, crisis prevention and management, and cooperative security.
Lieutenant General Valimaki, in the meetings with the Commander and the staff of NRDC-ITA, presented an interesting insight on the Finnish Army and provided the audience with food for thought about the international cooperation and the new commitment of the Milan Headquarters, which will be engaged in several and important exercises in the coming months.
ARF is a completely new concept, resulting from a political decision made at the 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius to provide SACEUR with readily deployable forces (in all domains), to achieve results more quickly than in the past, and to ensure an effective response to any crisis in all types of operations.
The designation of NRDC-ITA as ARF leading HQ with multi-domain capabilities and multinational components is a further proof of Italy's commitment to supporting the Alliance and its objectives of "Deterrence" and "Defense" of the Euro-Atlantic area.