Happy birthday on the occasion of the 70th anniversary, NATO!
BUCHAREST, ROU – On April 4, 2019
NATO, the strongest defensive alliance in history, celebrated 70 years since its establishment. On April 4, 1949, in Washington, 12 founding members signed the North Atlantic Treaty.
Today, NATO has 29 member states. At the anniversary hour, the Multinational Command of the South-East Division organized several events and festivities.
The first activities in which the HQ MND-SE soldiers participated were sports activities: volleyball, swimming, cross-country and table tennis. the best possible development of sports competitions. For a few days, HQ MND-SE soldiers gave up their camouflage clothes and wore sports equipment, demonstrating their sports skills.
The second event that marked the 70th anniversary of NATO’s founding was the planting of 7 trees. Under the slogan “7 trees for 7 decades”, the representatives of all departments of HQ MND-SE, Romanians and foreigners alike, planted 7 trees of peace in front of the main building of the Multinational Command of the South-East Division. We look forward to seeing them grow and give us their shadow, just as we offer them protection.
The third event was the NATO Challenge, a competition that recreated a North Atlantic Council meeting. The role of the 29 ambassadors was played by 11th grade students from the “Elena Cuza” National College and the “Gheorghe Lazăr” National College from Bucharest and the “Tudor Vladimirescu” National Military College from Craiova. The students had as military mentors from HQ MND-SE and the Multinational Brigade Command South-East from Craiova.
For three weeks, all the students and their mentors were intensely prepared, so at the end of the jury it was difficult to nominate the winners of this contest.
Two anniversary projects were carried out by the Public Relations Office. The first involved creating a video called “70 Seconds for 70 Years.” The 70-second clip contained messages from the international military at HQ MND-SE. For the second project, entitled “70 thoughts for 70 years”, the command staff wrote short messages, stories and wishes by hand.
70 of them have been collected in a book, which will be kept in the HQ MND-SE museum. The book was presented to the commander during the April 4 ceremony.
Happy birthday, NATO!
