The Fourth Croatian Workshop and Exercise of the Proliferation Security Initiative will take place in Split from 10 to 12 April 2018.
The Republic of Croatia and the United States are hosting the Fourth Croatian Workshop and Marine Exercise of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI).
The first such exercise took place in Split in 2006, the second one in Rijeka in May 2008, and the third in Zagreb from 20 to 21 November 2013.
Participating countries are Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, and United Kingdom.
The purpose of the workshop is to serve as a forum to proactively link together and build the relationships between the stakeholders who are involved in combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction on a daily basis.
The aim of the exercise is to raise awareness of the threat of weapons of mass destruction, to identify existing gaps and to improve the treatment of state administration bodies in order to effectively prevent the proliferation of materials, components and technologies at crossing borders to Southeast Europe.
The workshop will consist of presentations, panel discussions and a tabletop exercise that will also include a half-day exercise at sea in the port of Split. The focus of the presentations and the panel discussion will be on committing each of the states to determine the procedures for inspections and identification of shipments of materials, components and technology on crossing borders at sea. The aim is to consider a possible scenario of proliferation and to establish procedures for action by state bodies. The port exercise (PORTEX) will demonstrate the capacities in terms of monitoring and collecting suspicious loads (use and presentation of detection technology, decontamination technology...). The focus of the workshop is on identifying risks and threats relevant to the Adriatic Sea, and on action in case of the breach of UN sanctions.
The participants will include civilian and military leaders and operatives whose expertise is relevant to the prevention of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and who come from the areas of diplomacy, defense, interior affairs, customs, finance and intelligence.