During the visit CSM Saliste met with Academy leadership including Colonel Fredrik Zetterberg, Commander of the Military Academy, CSM Thomas Grevholm, the CSM of the Academy and CSM Johan Lindgren, CSEL of the Swedish Defence Forces.

"Our partnerships around the globe are one of the major contributing factors that make us continue to be the world's strongest Alliance," said CSM Saliste. "Sweden has consistently been one of our valued partners for more than 25 years, and this is a great opportunity we've been missing, getting out and visiting these troops and seeing the great strides that Sweden is taking to build strong and lethal service member that are ready to meet the dynamic challenges we face in today's security environment."

Annually, the Academy holds two Specialist Officers, or Non-commissioned Officers, programs. The first is a Basic Specialist Officer course geared towards junior service members and preparing them to reach the rank of OR-6 in their respective service branch. The other Advanced course prepares senior enlisted troops for the rank of OR-8 through various trainings covering topics such as: political science, planning, leadership, military theory and strategic guidance.

"We need to learn from others and get different perspectives to be better in our training and to learn from the international community's military experiences," said CSM Grevholm.

"It's also good for the ACO CSEL to have the knowledge about how we work in Sweden, and to see the development of our senior NCO systems and education programs."

The Swedish Armed Forces currently consists of approximately 24,000 active personnel alongside more than 21,000 reservists across three branches of service including the Army, Air Force and Navy with additional military reserve forces as the Home Guard.

The Alliance's cooperation with Sweden began back in 1994 when the Nordic nation joined the Partnership for Peace. Sweden has continued to become one of NATO's most active partners contributing to missions in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan as well various exercises and peace-support operations.