In the period from the 25th to 27th of November 2021, our Secretary General and YATA President, Mr. Ilija Djugumanov was part of the 25th Anniversary of YATA.

The event was organized by Youth Atlantic Treaty Association (YATA) with the support of NATO PDD and Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA) in a hybrid format - 2 days conference at NATO HQ in Brussels.

YATA and ATA during all these years managed to promote NATO and transatlantic values to the next generation. YATA by organizing this conference gave to interested people and especially young people, the opportunity to discuss and understand NATO’s values and core principles. NATO, as an Alliance and military-political organization, will continue to play a key role as an effective crisis manager and as a framework for security cooperation across the Euro-Atlantic area; public opinion should help reshape the alliance to meet future challenges.

During the first day of the event, the YATA delegates had the opportunity to be briefed and discuss with high officials of NATO such as the NATO Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Mircea Geoana, Deputy Assistant Secretary General, Ms. Carmen Romero, Mr. Nicola de Santis, Head of the Engagement section of NATO PDD, Mr. Gabriele Cascone, Head of Counter-terrorism Section, Ms. Chelsey Slack, Deputy Head of the Cyber Security Section, Mr. Daniel Black, Senior cyber threat analyst and many others.

The second day, YATA had internal meetings among its national chapters with distinguished speakers such as the Secretary General at NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and the Head, Policy Planning, Office of the Secretary General at NATO and organized a real platform for new programs and developments.

The mission of this event was to set the table for discussion and to bridge the gap between those active chapters and the one that are struggling with existing. The mission of the young representatives during this event was to communicate messages with youth, to talk about the importance of NATO, taking into account opinion of youth and their vision of NATO’s future mission, and the future of YATA.

With the organisation of these two days conference YATA aimed to encourage the participants to actively supply their ideas on what should be done to ensure that our vision of ‘NATO 2030’ becomes reality. For YATA was also a unique opportunity to take a few days to assess and debate the status of their association and its outlook. The number of participants was 24 young representatives, one from each YATA national chapter and the EB.