On September 30, in the presence of Defence Minister M. Błaszczak and Minister of Defence of Slovakia P. Gajdoš, the transfer of duties as Director of the Counterintelligence Center of Excellence took place. Col. R. Bala is replaced by M. Achmović. During the ceremony, the decision of the United States to join the Center was read.

In his speech, Minister Blaszczak drew attention to the tasks carried out by the Center and its role in today's security system of Poland, Europe and NATO.

- Strategies will be forged in NATO's CI CoE and there will be an opportunity to exchange experiences between NATO services. (...) These experiences will affect the doctrine regarding counterintelligence of Alliance countries - emphasized Minister Błaszczak.

The head of the Ministry of National Defence thanked the outgoing CI CoE director for his work on building and developing the institution. He also thanked all allies who are involved in this project.

GALLERY - >> Ceremony of transfer of command in CI CoE

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The Counterintelligence Center of Excellence was established on the initiative of Poland and Slovakia, with the participation of Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Romania and Slovenia.

In October 2016, the Allied Transformation Command from Norfolk in the USA conducted an audit that confirmed the Centre's ability to accomplish its tasks. On February 22, 2017, the CI CoE was accredited by the North Atlantic Council.

The mission of the NATO Counterintelligence Center of Excellence is to increase the ability of the North Atlantic Alliance to counteract the activities of foreign intelligence services of various nature.