Canada participates in NATO’s first Military Terminology Conference

May 16, 2022 - Defence Stories

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Some 65 people represented 17 countries at the Ljubljana Military Terminology Conference.

From April 5-7, 2022, the Slovenian Armed Forces hosted the first North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Military Terminology Conference in the capital of Ljubljana. The goal of the conference was to exchange best practices and envision the future of terminology development. Canada was among the thirteen NATO member States and four partner States who participated.

According to Branka Petek, the chair of the Bureau for International Language Coordination (BILC), and the Head of the Slovenian Armed Forces’ School of Foreign Languages, member States of the BILC had been asking for a conference for several years now. “We are so happy that we were able to organize this conference and that many countries participated,” said Petek.

As a NATO consultative and advisory body, the Bureau for International Language Coordination (BILC)’s mission is to promote and foster interoperability among NATO member and partner nations through the standardization of language training, testing, and policy.

Under the theme “Giving Meaning to Military Language,” the participants discussed three important aspects of military terminology; standardization, management and application.

Serge Pelletier, lead of the DND/CAF Defence Terminology Team within ADM(IM) was a guest speaker at the conference. With over 12 years of experience in terminology management, Pelletier discussed the processing of terminology, from proposal to entry in a terminology bank. “Canada is well known for having well-developed and very efficient terminology standardization and management processes,” said Pelletier, “and we are always happy to help NATO and Partner nations in the development of their own.”

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Serge Pelletier, Head of the Defence Terminology Team was a guest speaker at the Military Terminology Conference held in Ljubljana.

In her closing remarks, Branka Petek said, “one thing we have learnt over this past week is, while this may have been the first conference on the subject, it should definitely not be the last.”

Canada’s participation in the NATO Military Terminology Conference highlights the Canadian Defence Policy’s statement of continuing to be a responsible, value-adding partner within NATO.

If you are interested in learning more, visit the Bureau for International Language Coordination (you are now leaving the Government of Canada website) and NATO (you are now leaving the Government of Canada website) websites.