The National Guard of Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with California Colleagues
Today, November 4, the National Guard of Ukraine signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the California National Guard.
On the Ukrainian side, the Memorandum was signed by the commander of the National Guard of Ukraine Nikolai Balan, on the American side - the commander of the California National Guard David Baldwin.
The Minister of Internal Affairs Denis Monastyrsky noted that he appreciates the horizontal links between units of different countries and the cooperation of the guards of Ukraine and California is a vivid example of this.
“It is this kind of work that is the most durable. We had a lot of plans in common before the pandemic. I think we can go back to implementing them after we overcome the disease. Because NGU is an advanced unit of public safety and security of Ukraine as a whole. The California Guard has somewhat broader powers. Therefore, further steps of cooperation can be the expansion of cooperation in these areas - joint training, the issue of using aviation for rescue purposes. Because we are significantly strengthening our aviation capabilities,” the head of the law enforcement agency said.
NGU commander Mykola Balan stressed that the Memorandum spelled out the main directions of further cooperation.
“As part of the signed document, we plan to send our unit to study in California, and we are also waiting for American colleagues in Ukraine. The next issue noted in the document is personnel management. We plan to study the personnel policy of the California Guardsmen. A separate item will consider the program of support for the families of servicemen”, - said Mykola Balan.
In turn, California National Guard commander David Baldwin said that such cooperation allows establishing service and personal ties.
“We plan to expand the format of our events aimed at training personnel. I welcome the new concept - to expand cooperation within larger units. We are also ready to expand the events that take place online,” he said.
Recall that as part of the participation of the NGU in the Multinational Joint Committee (BOCC) together with the National Guard of the State of California, the NGU received international technical assistance in the amount of about 78 million US dollars. In particular, means of radio and satellite communications, medical property and equipment, optical devices, engineering equipment, target reconnaissance systems, unmanned aerial vehicles.
During the period of cooperation under the State Partnership Program (SPP) since 2014, the California National Guard conducted 23 joint activities with the National Guard of Ukraine, of which 14 were educational.
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
