23 January 2009 - NATO PARLIAMENTARIANS VISIT THE USA TO DISCUSS MISSILE DEFENCE, RUSSIA, AND AFGHANISTAN

Julio Miranda Calha, a Portuguese Member of Parliament and the Committee chairman, will lead a delegation of 35 parliamentarians from 18 Alliance  member states to Washington, D.C. next week. They will meet with their counterparts in the United States Congress, senior officials in the Departments of Defense and State, and independent experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). A variety of subjects will be discussed during the visit, including U.S. defense policy, operations in Afghanistan and ongoing relations with the Russian Federation.

Missile defense will feature prominently on the Committee’s agenda. The delegation will visit the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) headquarters in Washington  D.C., before traveling to the Combined Air and Space Operations Center (CAOC) at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado. On Friday, 30 January, the week of meetings will end with a visit to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, where the group will view the ground-based interceptor system.

For further information on this visit, pleased contact the NATO PA press service at: press@nato‑pa.int