The Defense Department has inked a five-year memorandum of understanding with its Italian counterpart on joint education and training activities for peacekeeping missions, the agency reported Monday.
Maj. Gen. Ilio Ciceri, Carabinieri general headquarters chief of staff, pointed to intervention operations with U.S. and coalition forces going back to the Balkans, Kosovo and Iraq, Terri Moon Cronk writes.
Ciceri also highlighted the role of the International Security Assistance Force in training the local police force in Afghanistan.
“I believe this is the first, formal agreement on education and training that the undersecretary of defense of personnel and readiness has ever signed with [Italy’s] Carabinieri,†said Frank DiGiovanni, DOD’s director of force readiness and training.
The MOU with the Carabinieri, Italy’s military police force, also has a five-year contract extension option.
