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The 24th Steering Committee of the 5+5 Defense Initiative met in Paris on March 14th and 15th. Assessment and the future action plan were on the agenda of this meeting under the French presidency.

The meeting took place in Paris, where 10 countries of the Initiative (Algeria, France, Italy, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Mauritania, Portugal, Spain and Tunisia) were represented. Being the steering body of the Initiative, the steering committee is composed of representatives of the Ministries of Defense of the Member countries of the Initiative, as well as the General Secretary of the Euromaghreb Center for Research and Strategic Studies (CEMRES) and the Secretary of the 5+5 Defense College.

After an initial assessment of the actions already carried out since January 2017, the Steering Committee agreed on the 2018 action plan draft.

The exchanges focused in particular on the Seaborder exercise (France - Morocco - Portugal maritime security exercise), which should take place in Toulon from 2 to 6 October, and on the project of the Coordination and Operational Planning Center (CCPO) to deploy and implement an operational level center capable of planning and coordinating the contribution of military units engaged in civilian support in case of major disasters in one of the 5+5 Defense Member Countries.

Delegations also stressed that the current security context required addressing threats to the 5+5 space together, including terrorism and cross-border trafficking. Climate change defense issues and cyber defense were also presented as key areas to be addressed in the Initiative.