West Virginia Guard maintains vital international partnerships

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - Certain major WV National Guard Leaders returned recently from trips to three nations through the National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program (SPP).

The Adjutant General, Maj. Gen. Bill Crane, and other West Virginia National Guard leaders recently returned from trips to Peru and Qatar as the Guard continues to build and expand important international partnerships through the National Guard Bureau’s State Partnership Program (SPP).

The SPP supports the security cooperation objectives of the United States and the Geographic Combatant Commands by developing enduring relationships with partner countries and carrying out activities to build partner capacity, improve interoperability, and enhance U.S. access and influence while increasing the readiness of U.S. and partner forces to meet emerging challenges.

According to their website, the SSP originated from a European Command Decision in 1991 to set up the Joint Contact Team Program in the Baltic Region with Reserve component Soldiers and Airmen. A subsequent National Guard Bureau proposal paired U.S. states with three nations emerging from the former Soviet Bloc and the SPP was born, becoming a key U.S. security cooperation tool, facilitating cooperation across all aspects of international civil-military affairs and encouraging people-to-people ties at the state level.

Peru and West Virginia have partnered together through the SPP since 1996. During that time, the partnership has held more than 200 high-level and subject matter expert engagements providing insight into regional challenges facing the Andean Ridge, and assisting Peruvian forces in the areas of counterinsurgency, anti-terrorism, emergency preparedness, risk mitigation, and disaster response and recovery.

In late March, a delegation from the WVNG including Major General Crane met with various officials in Peru mainly for discussions including upcoming partnership efforts on Humanitarian/Disaster Relief (HA/DR), Cyber, and Enlisted Leader Professional Development, as well as West Virginia Air National Guard Wings and West Virginia Army National Guard aviation units supporting a major multilateral disaster response exercise, Resolute Sentinel ‘24, in Peru later this summer.

In 2018, Qatar was added as a second SPP partner for West Virginia. Engagements with Qatar have centered on emergency response, land forces interoperability, the intelligence enterprise, and professional development, including multilateral security planning and execution for the 2022 FIFA World Cup hosted by Qatar.

During a multi-day visit to Qatar in late February, a delegation including Major General Crane met with US Ambassador to Qatar, Timmy T. Davis, as well as many other officials. Topics discussed in those meetings included increased intelligence cooperation, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) interoperability with Qatari forces, potential cooperative academic partnerships with higher education colleges and universities in West Virginia, joint-level exercise Desert Leopard involving the WVNG, Qatar and Kuwait, Special Forces interoperability and joint-training opportunities such as the WVNG Ridge Runner program, direct support for an all-female unit stood up by the Qatari forces, and future training and engagement opportunities in both Qatar and West Virginia.

The trips to Peru and Qatar come on the heels of the official announcement by the U.S. State Department that the WVNG has officially paired with a third SPP nation, Gabon. West Virginia became only the seventh state to have a third SPP partner nation.

Initial engagements with Gabon will begin this summer, laying the groundwork for a full formal visit and key leader engagement with the African nation later in 2024. The West Virginia - Gabon partnership will focus on key leader engagements, noncommissioned officer professional development, basic Soldier skills instruction, aviation maintenance training, disaster preparedness and response, and military civil engineering.

At the national level, SPP is in its 31st year of successfully building relationships that today include 100 unique security partnerships around the globe.

“Our SPP partnerships form a core strength of our organization, and our team’s efforts are a testament to our Guard’s influence and ability to contribute to global security,” Crane added. “Every West Virginian can be proud of the work we do both here and abroad supporting defense and security cooperation objectives around the world.”