NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

Partnerships: a cooperative approach to security

NATO’s Strategic Concept identifies “cooperative security” as one of NATO’s three essential core tasks. It states that the promotion of Euro-Atlantic security is best assured through a wide network of partner relationships with countries and organisations around the globe. These partnerships make a concrete and valued contribution to the success of NATO’s fundamental tasks.

• A network of partnerships with non-member countries

  NATO pursues dialogue and practical cooperation with non-member countries on a wide range of political and security-related issues. Dialogue and cooperation with partners can make a concrete contribution to enhancing international security, to defending the values on which the Alliance is based, to NATO’s operations, and to preparing interested nations for membership.

  In both regional frameworks and on a bilateral level, NATO develops relations based on common values, reciprocity, mutual benefit and mutual respect.

  In the Euro-Atlantic area, the 28 Allies engage in relations with 22 partner countries through the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and the Partnership for Peace (PfP) – a major programme of bilateral cooperation with individual Euro-Atlantic partners. Among these partners, NATO has developed specific structures for its relationships with Russia, Ukraine and Georgia.

  NATO is developing relations with the seven countries on the southern Mediterranean-rim through the Mediterranean Dialogue, as well as with four countries from the Gulf region through the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative.

  NATO also cooperates with a range of countries which are not part of these partnership frameworks. Referred to as “partners across the globe,” they include Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Mongolia.

• Active engagement with other international organizations

  Since the 1990s, NATO has developed close working relations with the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). This is an integral part of the Alliance’s ongoing transformation to address effectively the complex challenges of crisis management, as well as terrorism and emerging security challenges.

  The Alliance is also developing cooperation in specific areas with a number of other international and non-governmental organisations, including the African Union, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the International Organization for Migration, the World Bank, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

  The Alliance seeks to enhance its relations with other relevant international organisations. Key objectives guiding this cooperation, as appropriate, are to:

  • play complementary and mutually reinforcing roles in supporting international peace and security;
  • engage actively before, during and after crises to encourage collaborative analysis, planning and conduct of activities on the ground, in order to maximise the coherence and effectiveness of the overall international effort;
  • increase support for training and regional capacity building.

• Towards a more efficient and flexible partnership

  NATO’s new partnership policy aims to reinforce existing partnerships by strengthening consultation mechanisms and by facilitating more substance-driven cooperation. In addition, the new policy outlines a “toolbox” of mechanisms and activities, simplifying the way that NATO develops cooperation offers to partners.

  In line with the new Strategic Concept, NATO is offering its partners “more political engagement with the Alliance, and a substantial role in shaping strategy and decisions on NATO-led operations to which they contribute.” The Political-Military Framework, which governs the way NATO involves partners in political consultation and the decision process for operations and missions to which they contribute, was reviewed in 2011. At their meeting in Berlin, NATO foreign ministers endorsed proposals for the establishment of a more structured role for NATO's operational partners in shaping the strategy of NATO-led operations to which they contribute.

  Existing partnership frameworks will preserve their specificity and be further developed. However, the new partnership policy offers all partners more cooperation and more dialogue. All partners which have an Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme or other programme agreed with NATO have access to the same Partnership Cooperation Menu, comprising more than a thousand activities.

  NATO is also seeking to develop political dialogue and practical cooperation with key global actors and other new interlocutors across the globe which share the Allies’ interest in peaceful international relations but have no individual programme of cooperation with NATO. Contacts will be developed based on a decision of the North Atlantic Council and in a flexible and pragmatic manner.

  NATO will further develop more flexible formats for meetings and, as appropriate, activities which will bring NATO and partners together, across and beyond existing frameworks, using the so-called “28 Allies + n” formula. Such meetings are thematic or event-driven and are used, on a case-by-case basis, to enhance consultation on security issues of common concern and cooperation in priority policy areas, such as counter-piracy, counternarcotics in Afghanistan, and cyber defence.

• Strategic objectives for partnership

  Under the new partnership policy, the strategic objectives of NATO’s partner relations are to:

  • Enhance Euro-Atlantic and international security, peace and stability;
  • Promote regional security and cooperation;
  • Facilitate mutually beneficial cooperation on issues of common interest, including international efforts to meet emerging security challenges;
  • Prepare interested eligible nations for NATO membership;
  • Promote democratic values and reforms;
  • Enhance support for NATO-led operations and missions;
  • Enhance awareness of security developments including through early warning, with a view to preventing crises;
  • Build confidence and achieve better mutual understanding, including about NATO’s role and activities, in particular though enhanced public diplomacy.

• Priority areas for dialogue, consultation and cooperation

  Within these strategic objectives for partnership, dialogue, consultation and cooperation will be prioritized in the following areas, as appropriate:

  • Political consultations on security developments, as appropriate, including regional issues, in particular with a view to preventing crises and contributing to their management;
  • Cooperation in NATO-led operations and missions;
  • Defence reform, capability and capacity building, education and training;
  • Interoperability;
  • Counter-terrorism;
  • Counter proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery;
  • Emerging security challenges, including related to cyber defence, energy security and maritime security, including counter-piracy;
  • Civil emergency planning.