BRUSSELS, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- NATO on Monday kicked off a project to improve civil emergency management in response to emergencies in the Western Balkans, the security organization said in a press release.
The project, supported by NATO and the United States, will develop a system in the Western Balkans to enhance situation awareness and help coordinate a response to various emergencies.
Experts and government officials from the U.S., Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Macedonia will participate in this project.
The new technology used in this project, namely Next-Generation Incident Command System (NICS), will allow responders to share all kinds of information about an incident, including the GPS location or images, via mobile devices.
NICS has been used in U.S. in over 400 incidents, including natural disasters, search and rescue operations and large public events, according to the press release.
"It is an excellent example of practical cooperation with tangible results and resonates well with NATO's political agenda," said Sorin Ducaru, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges.
"This project directly supports NATO's strategic objectives and is in line with its efforts to project stability beyond its territory," Ivan Mutavdzic, Deputy Permanent Representative of Croatia to NATO said.
