Iceland will play host in October to some 340 members of parliament from Europe and North America as the 53rd Annual Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly meets in Reykjavik.
During sessions on the 6th and 7th of October, five committees will meet. The Political, Defense and Security, Science and Technology, Civil Dimension of Security and the Economics and Security Committees will listen to high ranking guest speakers for the first two days of the event.
The plenary session of the Assembly will wrap up the event on October 9th with an address by the President of the NATO PA, the President of Iceland and the Speaker of the Icelandic parliament. Albania’s Prime Minister Sali Berisha and the Secretary General of NATO, Jaap De Hoop Scheffer, are also expected to be in attendance.
On the agenda will be the plans for a US ballistic missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland. The group is also expected to discuss Kosovo and NATO’s relationship with Russia. Operations in Afghanistan will likely be a major issue of discussion, and with it related issues such as democratic government in the region, cooperation with the EU and NATO burden-sharing.
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly has been meeting yearly for over half a century, helping to bridge the gap between NATO and the governments of NATO nations. The group tries to build public consensus on NATO policies as well as inform parliamentary members about key security issues.