This week, the participants of the Senior Leaders’ Course (SLC) and the Command Senior Enlisted Leaders Course (CSELC) attended a joint graduation ceremony for their respective programmes. The joint graduation took place at the Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania in Vilnius.

The SLC course is a week-long programme designed to foster a common perspective on security challenges in the Baltic Sea area. This year, it welcomed 36 attendees from 20 countries, all holding top-level military or comparable civilian roles.

The CLSEC lasted nearly three months and was conducted in a blended format, with online sessions, self-study, research during the mid-term break, and residential studies in Tartu, Estonia. It included 28 participants from 18 countries, including its first attendee from Spain.
The CSELC aims to provide Command Senior Enlisted Leaders with knowledge that enables them to advise, support, and enhance operational and strategic-level decision-making by senior Alliance leaders.

The graduation day included a concluding panel, “Way Ahead: Reinforcement of Defence and Regional Military Cooperation” with the participation of RADM Giedrus Premeneckas, Vice Chief of Defence of the Lithuanian Armed Forces, and MG Georgs Kerlins, Deputy Chief of Staff, Latvian Armed Forces.

Both courses are flagship programmes of advanced education offered by the Baltic Defence College.

Every year, the courses’ programmes are conducted in one of the capitals of the Baltic states and supported by the respective host nation. We are very grateful to our Lithuanian hosts for their excellent support to this year's iteration.