The Diplomat
Yesterday, King Felipe VI visited the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) in Mons (Belgium), where the headquarters of the Allied Command Operations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) is located.
The King was accompanied by the Minister of Defence, Margarita Robles; the Spanish Ambassador to Belgium, Alberto Antón Cortés; the Ambassador Permanent Representative to NATO, Federico Torres Muro; the Chief of Defence Staff, Teodoro Esteban López Calderón; the Spanish military representative to the NATO and EU Military Committees, Francisco Javier Fernández Sánchez; the head of the Chièvres Base, Colonel Lindsay R. Matthews; and the members of the Spanish delegation.
The King held a meeting with the Commander of the Supreme Allied Command Europe (SACEUR), General Christopher Cavolli, who gave him a presentation on the concept of Deterrence and Defence (DDA) in the Euro-Atlantic area and to whom he presented the decoration of the Grand Cross of Naval Merit.
Don Felipe also spoke with the multinational staff of the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Powers in Europe and met with Spanish personnel stationed in Brussels. The base employs 85 military personnel from the Spanish Ministry of Defence and some 150 Spanish civilians under NATO contract, most of whom have families in or near the base. The civilians include Spanish trainees, young people starting their careers in the field.
In 1950, a year after NATO was founded, the Allies agreed to create a military command structure to ensure greater integration of Alliance forces. In 1951, the first strategic command, Allied Command Europe (ACE), was created and its first commander, General Dwight Eisenhower (future US President), was given the title of Commander, Supreme Allied Command Europe (SACEUR).
Its headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), was located in the Paris suburb of Rocquencourt.A year later, NATO’s second major strategic command, Allied Command Atlantic (ACLANT), was activated in Norfolk. In 1967 SHAPE moved to Casteau, Belgium, as a result of France’s decision to withdraw from NATO’s integrated military command structure.
At the 2002 Prague Summit, the Allies agreed to a major reorganisation of NATO’s command structure, leaving a single strategic-level command in charge of all Alliance operations, Allied Command Operations (ACO), while establishing a second strategic-level headquarters, Allied Command Transformation (ACT), to promote the continuing transformation of Alliance forces and capabilities.
The ACO and ACT headquarters were located at the sites of the two previous strategic commands (ACE and ACLANT). For financial and legal reasons, ACO HQ retained its SHAPE title and its commander retained the SACEUR designation.
