The Chair of NATO’s Military Committee, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, attended the 2026 Indo-Pacific Chiefs of Defence Conference in Victoria, Canada, from 31 August to 2 September.
The meeting was co-hosted by Canada’s Chief of the Defence Staff, General Jennie Carignan, and the Commander of U.S. Pacific Command, Admiral Samuel Paparo, NATO announced on Thursday.
Admiral Cavo Dragone met General Carignan and Admiral Paparo on the margins of the conference to discuss what NATO described as shared security environments across the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions.
“The Indo-Pacific region is important to NATO, given that developments there can directly affect Euro-Atlantic security, and vice versa,” he said.
He also referred to “growing cooperation” with NATO’s Indo-Pacific Four Partners, a term used by NATO for its partner countries in the region, in the same remarks.
Meetings and topics discussed
Admiral Cavo Dragone held exchanges with defence leaders from Sri Lanka, India, Singapore, Japan, Australia and the United States during the conference, as well as General Yang Zhibin, identified by NATO as Commander of the Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army.
NATO said the discussions in Victoria included technology and AI-informed decision-making, cross-domain deterrence, defence industrial bases and public-private investment, and multilateral cooperation such as command and control, information-sharing, exercises and other activities.
Participants also discussed leadership, human capital, defence force professionalisation, and enlisted development.
