Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach. Photo: Mark Rawlings via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The head of the British Armed Forces, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, arrived in Israel Thursday for an official visit as the guest of IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot.

Peach was greeted with an honor guard ceremony upon his arrival at Tel Aviv’s Kirya Military Headquarters.

The IDF hailed Peach’s visit to the Jewish state as illustrating “the strength of strategic ties between the two armies and states.”

Peach and Eizenkot are scheduled to discuss joint security challenges and opportunities for increasing military cooperation between their countries.

In September, Peach was elected as the next chairman of the NATO Military Committee. His visit to Israel came after representatives from 12 NATO countries, including the UK, visited Israel in early November to take part in a first-of-its-kind conference on the challenges of urban warfare and combat in populated areas.

Peach’s Israel visit also came after rescue teams from the British Army’s naval and air forces concluded a three-day joint emergency drill with their Israeli counterparts in July. The drill was the largest such exercise conducted in a decade.

Additionally, in early June, Israeli representatives observed a four-day international maritime drill known as “Exercise Argonaut” in Cyprus, involving naval forces from the UK, Cyprus, US and four other countries.