This year's Annual National Reserve Forces Committee (NRFC) Summer Plenary Meeting was hosted in Athens, from 4 July to 6 July 2023. With representatives from NATO Allies and Partners, the NRFC promotes the sharing of best practices on Reserve Forces and advises the NATO Military Committee.
The three-day meeting of the NRFC included briefings, topical discussions, and syndicate work focused on Mobilization. The Chair of the NRFC, Brigadier General Charlotte Wetche, summarized the aim of the different sessions in her opening remarks, "the NRFC is a forum dedicated to fostering a strong cooperation and achieving synergies through the use and combination of NRFC expertise". She added that "together, we can continue the meaningful work of the NRFC, whilst respecting the different national approaches regarding Reserve Forces".
One of the main discussions centred on the complementarity of reserve forces and regular forces, particularly when it comes to the development or reinforcement of capabilities. In building these, nations are confronted with many challenges that are not solely economical and technical in nature but also concern human resources. In some Allied and Partner nations, private sector companies and state institutions are struggling to find sufficiently skilled personnel, especially as both sectors compete against each other to attract available personnel. Reservists, straddling both military and civilian life, seem particularly well-suited as a force multiplier for both sectors. "While armed forces are somewhat challenged on the labour market compared to the private sector, Reserves offer a unique opportunity for hiring qualified personnel, including women and men who may not have joined the military without this option. This solution also benefits reservists through the possibility of gaining experience and/or training that can also benefit their civilian careers", emphasised the Chair.
In the last decade, the role of reservists has become more important and central to national armed forces, they contribute to bridging the workforce gap, while developing closer ties between civil society and the armed forces and bringing essential knowledge and capabilities to the armed forces in areas, such as IT, Cyber, logistics, HR, Finance, and Medical. As the role of reservists has grown so too has the role of the NRFC. "The focus on the Reserves and the sharing of best practices forms an important building block within NATO's force generation ambitions going forward. This is the NRFC field of experience. During the first year of Denmark's Chairmanship, the NRFC has facilitated increasing the pace of solving the tasks assigned to the NRFC and proven its value in knowledge sharing between the nations", noted Brigadier General Wetche.
In late February 23, the committee briefed and received guidance from the NATO Military Committee. The NRFC adjusted to this guidance and put renewed focus on mobilisation, which has resulted in many national updates. The NRFC reviewed the content of its two courses at the NATO School Oberammergau, to centre on mobilisation and syndicate questions now address utilisation of the Reserves in crisis before mobilisation. "This week a fast-paced working group was established to extract the initial findings of the war in Ukraine. In addition, the work strands for the upcoming year on the topic of mobilisation have been outlined", concludes Brigadier General Wetche.
This Summer Plenary meeting was also a historical moment as for the first time, the NRFC welcomed Finland, in its capacity as newest NATO Ally.
