 NATO gets its strength through the unity of its member countries, but the Alliance also cooperates with many non-NATO countries through specific partnership programs and initiatives, and also on a more ad hoc basis. The Partnership for Peace was launched in 1994 and involves bilateral cooperation between individual Euro-Atlantic partner countries and NATO. Under Partnership for Peace, some countries opt to deepen their cooperation with NATO by developing individual partnership action plans. And many countries that have participated in Partnership for Peace have subsequently become full members of the Alliance. There are currently 21 PFP program members. Established in 1994, the Mediterranean Dialogue involves political dialogue and cooperation between NATO and states of North Africa and the Levant with the aim of contributing to regional security and stability, facilitating mutual understanding and to dispel misconceptions about NATO amongst dialogue countries. Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia are currently members of the Dialogue. The Istanbul Cooperation Initiative was launched in June 2004 to contribute to long-term global and regional security by offering countries of the Arab Gulf region practical bilateral security cooperation with NATO. Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE are currently members of this initiative. NATO also cooperates with many other countries on an ad hoc and tailored basis, for example by taking part in NATO missions. Various far-flung countries have collaborated with NATO, including Afghanistan, Australia, Colombia, Iraq, Japan, and the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, and Pakistan. Collaboration with the European Union has been addressed through various agreements since 2001. The 2016 Joint Declaration has been the most significant, which resulted in a cooperative agreement comprising both military, mobility, cyber defence, countering hybrid warfare and counter-terrorism. The ultimate form of cooperation with NATO would obviously entail formally joining the Alliance. Joining the Alliance, however, is in the gift of the existing members which have to reach a consensus on the admission of new countries to the Alliance. NATO's Open Door Policy is a policy to welcome applications from countries across the Euro-Atlantic area who may wish to join the Alliance since the end of the Cold War. The Alliance has grown now to 29 members and shortly we look forward to welcoming North Macedonia as the 30th member, and I think this is a significant indication of the value that these countries apply to the provision of the security umbrella that comes with membership of the Alliance. While Georgia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Ukraine have all sought to join NATO, they all remain outside the Alliance. NATO has a wide range of partners. NATO is also a particularly important category of what are called enhanced opportunity partners. That includes countries such as Georgia and Jordan and Finland and Sweden. Those are countries that have the highest level of interoperability with NATO allies which makes it easiest for their forces to serve together, for example, in Afghanistan. But overall NATO has over 40 partners including institutions such as the EU, the UN and the OSCE. And all of these partners have different levels of relationship and engagement with the Alliance as a whole. The position of Georgia and Ukraine in particular is complicated by Russia's vehement opposition to their accession to NATO. Beyond cooperating with non-NATO countries, the Alliance also runs several internal programs and activities to address specific issues and challenges affecting NATO. One major initiative relates to ballistic missile defence. NATO has two principal missile defence programmes. Theatre ballistic missile defence is designed to protect deployed NATO forces against short and medium-range ballistic missile threats. NATO BMD is for the protection of NATO European territory, populations and forces. It has been in development since 2010 and was declared initially operational in 2016. Another major initiative is the Readiness Action Plan launched in 2014 to reinforce NATO's collective defence posture following Russia's seizure of Crimea. The plan includes assurance measures for NATO allies in Central and Eastern Europe to reassure their populations, reinforce their defence and deter potential aggression. Assurance measures include a series of land, sea and air activities in, on and around the eastern part of the Alliance territory, reinforced by exercises focused on collective defence and crisis management. The plan also includes adaptation measures, which are longer-term changes to NATO's force and command structure so that the Alliance will be better able to react swiftly and decisively to sudden crises. The Alliance has deployed military forces on missions in different contexts several times since the end of the Cold War. There are several current missions NATO is involved in. NATO intervened in Kosovo in 1999 to end widespread violence and halt a major humanitarian disaster. NATO's Kosovo force, or K-4, remains deployed and since Kosovo's declaration of independence in February 2008, the Alliance agreed to maintain a presence and has subsequently helped to establish a professional and multi-ethnic Kosovo security force. Operation Seaguarding in the Mediterranean focuses on maritime situational awareness, counterterrorism at sea, and support to capacity-building. NATO continues to cooperate in natural disaster relief and assistance operations. NATO assists in the African Union mission in Somalia by providing airlift support for the African Union peacekeepers, capacity-building support and expert training support to the African standby force. Since 2014, NATO has deployed aircraft to reinforce missions over Albania and Slovenia as well as the Baltic region where NATO F-16s have intercepted Russian aircraft repeatedly violating Allied airspace. Under resolute support, NATO has been involved since January 2015 in a non-combat mission which provides training, advice, and assistance to Afghan security forces and institutions. NATO has also provided assistance for the refugee crisis in the Aegean Sea and has since February 2016 following a request from Germany, Greece, and Turkey. To prepare for various contingencies, NATO also engages in a constant program of exercises and training designed to test operational readiness and to maintain interoperability amongst both Allies and NATO partners. These can be live exercises, command post exercises, or exercise studies. Individual NATO countries also organize multinational exercises called Allied National Exercises which reinforce NATO objectives. Since Russia's intervention in Crimea, NATO and national exercises have had a clearer focus on Article 5, that is collective defense contingencies. NATO's biggest exercise since 2002 was held in October 2018. Exercise Trident Juncture was hosted by Norway and evolved approximately 40,000 personnel, 250 aircraft, 65 maritime vessels, and 10,000 land vehicles drawn from 30 NATO Allies and partners. It was designed to test the deployment of NATO's very high readiness Joint Task Force and focused on major land, amphibious, and maritime combat scenarios in and around Norway. The maritime component also embraced Poland, Denmark, Germany, and NATO partner Sweden.