Partnerships and Cooperative Security Committee

  • Last updated: 07 Mar. 2024 13:00

The Partnerships and Cooperative Security Committee (PCSC) is the single politico-military committee responsible for all NATO’s outreach programmes with non-member countries. It also handles NATO’s relations with other international organisations.

The PCSC provides the North Atlantic Council with comprehensive and integrated advice across the entire spectrum of NATO’s outreach policy.

The committee meets in various formats: “at 32” among Allies; with partners in NATO’s regionally specific partnership frameworks, namely the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, the Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative; with individual non-member countries in “32+1” formats; as well as in “32+n” formats on particular subjects, if agreed by Allies.

The PCSC was initially called the Political and Partnerships Committee (PPC). During the April 2010 committee reform, the PPC succeeded the Political Committee, absorbing all of its responsibilities. However, in September 2014, when the Political Committee was re-established, the PPC was renamed and its role redefined.