Whereas Nebraska has the highest percentage of citizens with Czech ancestry of any State in the United States; Whereas the State Partnership Program was created in 1993 to link a State’s National Guard with a partner nation’s military, security forces, and disaster response organizations in a cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship; Whereas, in July 1993, the partnership between the State of Nebraska and the Czech Republic under the State Partnership Program was established; Whereas the State Partnership Program has fostered military-to-military cooperation and enhanced interoperability between units of the Nebraska National Guard and the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic; Whereas that cooperation has included joint training exercises, exchanges of personnel, and sharing of military expertise and practices; Whereas, since 1993, the Nebraska National Guard has executed more than 300 engagements with the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic and has engaged with more than 2,500 members of those forces; Whereas the State Partnership Program has been mutually beneficial for the Nebraska National Guard and the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic, strengthening diplomatic, military, and cultural ties and contributing to regional and international security and cooperation; Whereas the State Partnership Program has better prepared the Armed Forces of the Czech Republic for North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) exercises, integration in NATO air mobility operations, cyber defense, and combined exercises with other State Partnership Program partners; Whereas the Czech Republic has been a trusted and valuable member of the NATO alliance since the Czech Republic joined the alliance in 1999; Whereas the Czech Republic has contributed to various NATO-led missions, including in Afghanistan, where 11,500 Czech soldiers were deployed and 14 were killed in action fighting the Taliban