Final Communiqué
- English
- French
Continuing threats to security and international stability - Soviet strategic, theatre nuclear and conventional build-up - Prospects for continued peace and stable political relations between East and West - Consultations on situations affecting Alliance
- The Defence Planning Committee of NATO met in Ministerial Session in Brussels on 12th / 13th May, 1981.
- Defence Ministers reaffirmed what the member nations of the North Atlantic Alliance expressed at the meeting of the NATO Council in Rome on 4th and 5th May, 1981 . They shared the deep concern at the continuing threats to security and international stability. A strong and cohesive North Atlantic Alliance remains indispensable to guarantee the security of its members and foster stable international relations. Such stability requires all nations to act with restraint and responsibility, in the interests of promoting genuine détente and of developing East-West relations whenever Soviet behaviour makes this possible. Claims by the Soviet Union that it too subscribes to such policies are not borne out by Soviet deeds such as its invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. Efforts to achieve a more constructive East-West relationship are severely undermined by the use or threat of force for intervention in the affairs of other countries. Poland must be left free to solve its own problems. The more constructive East-West relationship which the Allies seek requires tangible signs that the Soviet Union is prepared to abandon the disturbing build-up of its military strength, to desist from resorting to force and intimidation and to cease creating or exploiting situations of crisis and instability in the Third World. The nations of the Alliance expressed their determination to counter the continuing threat to security and international stability by effective restraints including firmness in defence and persistence in the search for peaceful solutions.
- For their part, Defence Ministers agreed that the past decade has seen an unrelenting build-up of Soviet military strength across the complete spectrum of capabilities encompassing the strategic, theatre nuclear and conventional fields. This is in contrast to numerous Soviet statements advocating peace and disarmament. This disturbing growth in military strength allows the Soviet Union to exert pressure in many parts of the world, particularly through the increasing global mobility of its forces and the development of a major maritime capability. All this has been in parallel with continuing improvements in the forces confronting the Alliance in Europe and the Atlantic. These steady increases in Soviet military power over the past decade, despite unreciprocated Alliance restraint, have created for NATO a situation demanding intensified action to ensure an adequate future deterrence. The prospects for continued peace and stable political relations between East and West depend on the requisite strengthening of NATO's deterrent and defence forces and on the maintenance of an overall military balance, if possible at a lower level, between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
- In response to this continuing build-up in Soviet military strength, nations have achieved considerable improvements in the forces which they contribute to the Alliance. But the rate at which these have been achieved has not been commensurate with the sustained growth in the Soviet and other Warsaw Pact forces. Assessment of the military balance is a complex equation and cannot be determined simply by counting men, ships and aircraft. However, it is clear that there is a disturbingly adverse trend in the military balance between East and West, particularly in Europe.
- Although the policies which nations adopt outside the NATO area are a matter for national decision, the Allies have recognized that situations outside NATO's boundaries may, whenever peace, international equilibrium and the independence of sovereign nations are affected, threaten the vital interests of the West and therefore have implications for the security of members of the Alliance. Ministers recognized that when considering policies intended to protect such vital interests, nations should be prepared to participate fully in consultations within the Alliance to enable NATO governments to share, and as far as possible coordinate, their assessments of the threat and its implications and to identify common objectives. It is especially important that such consultations should be undertaken when nations in a position to do so are considering out-of-area deployment of forces, in order to deter aggression and to respond to requests from other nations for help in resisting threats to their security or independence. The effect of such deployment on Alliance security and defence capabilities should be examined collectively in the appropriate NATO bodies. Ministers also recognized that common objectives identified in such consultations may require members of the Alliance to facilitate out-of-area deployments in support of the vital interests of all.
- The United States and other nations have already responded to challenges arising from situations outside the NATO area. Future deployment of the United States Rapid Deployment Force to deter aggression and respond to requests by nations for help could involve possible changes in the availability of combat and support forces currently committed to NATO in a reinforcement role. At the same time as the United States carries out its efforts to strengthen defence capabilities elsewhere, Allied capabilities to deter aggression and to defend NATO Europe should also be maintained and strengthened. This situation only heightens the need for all Allies to maintain levels and standards of forces necessary for defence and deterrence in the NATO area.
- NATO will continue to seek to negotiate equitable, militarily significant, binding and fully verifiable arms control agreements in order to achieve a balance of forces at lower levels and provide better security. The Allies recognize that arms control negotiations can only lead to fruitful results in an international climate of confidence.
- It is against this broad political and strategic background that the new Ministerial Guidance, both for nations and the NATO Military Authorities, has been developed. This Guidance which has today been approved by Ministers addresses what needs to be done in the current political and economic situation, to ensure the continued viability of NATO's deterrent strategy in light of the Warsaw Pact military capabilities. In particular, it gives direction for the preparation of NATO force proposals for 1983-1988 including guidelines for the correction of the most important deficiencies in the conventional forces.
- The planning period covered by the Guidance will also see SACEUR's Reinforcement Plan take effect; this will facilitate the rapid and co-ordinated deployment to Europe of large numbers of United States, United Kingdom and Canadian reinforcements in times of tension or hostilities.
- Recognizing that nations not responding to situations outside NATO's boundaries may need to assume additional task within the NATO area, national defence planning should make provision towards compensating for changes in the availability of forces committed to NATO because of diversion or tasking on a national basis to carry out operations outside NATO's boundaries in support of the vital interests of Allied countries.
- The critical strategic importance of the Southern Region and the Mediterranean is recognized as is the need for continued support and assistance to Greece, Portugal and Turkey whose economic situation does not permit them to provide from their own resources all the defence capabilities necessary for the implementation of Alliance strategy.
- There is a continuing necessity for NATO to maintain strong, diverse and flexible nuclear forces as part of the NATO triad and thereby to ensure deterrence. NATO will move ahead with its planned schedule of long-range theatre nuclear force (LRTNF) modernization whilst at the same time making efforts to reach balanced, equitable and verifiable arms control agreements limiting such forces as was decided on 12th December 1979 . In this respect, Ministers welcomed the intention of the United States to begin negotiations with the Soviet Union by the end of the year on theatre nuclear force arms control within the SALT framework as declared in Rome , and endorsed plans for the High Level Group and the Special Consultative Group to undertake urgently the agreed studies.
- Ministers discussed the status of the Long-Term Defence Programme and approved recommendations designed to ensure continuing progress in a number of key areas.
- The Alliance is engaged in many longer term planning efforts. As reflected in the Guidance, these include the development of concepts and of long-term planning guidelines in certain specific areas. The Guidance underlines the need for further efforts in the area of armaments co-operation, including continued emphasis on NATO-wide planning procedures and the extension of the family of weapons concept. Special attention will be given to long-term armaments planning especially where there will be opportunities for taking advantage of advanced technologies and for energy conservation. Attention is drawn to the need for control over the transfer of advanced technology to Warsaw Pact countries, within the framework of existing international consultations.
- Other matters to which the Alliance is currently giving increased attention concern the provision of adequate infrastructure funds; Ministers approved financing for the programme for the current year.
- Confronted with all these tasks and notwithstanding economic and financial constraints the standing Allied commitment to the 3% formula guidance has been confirmed. In the light of the worsening military situation as well as the emerging need to cope with the implications of contingencies outside the NATO boundaries the Allies have also agreed to do their utmost to make available all the resources needed to provide the requisite strengthening of their deterrent and defence forces. This general guidance on resources is only one of a number of factors which are relevant to determining the defence efforts which nations should undertake. It therefore needs to be accompanied by more specific considerations for each nation taking account of the quality and quantity of its past and present defence efforts, the most critical deficiencies in its forces and the necessary improvements which should be achieved as soon as possible within the planning period. Greater emphasis should be placed on performance, such as reflected in the achievement of force improvements. In this regard Ministers welcomed the significant efforts made by the United States to strengthen its defence capability in the interests of the Alliance as a whole.