Final Communiqué
Chairman: Lord Carrington
- English
- French
Support for agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union for the global elimination of land-based INF missiles - Flexible response and forward defence - INF agreement: a major accomplishment for the Alliance - Imbalances in conventional force
- The Defence Planning Committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization met in Ministerial Session in Brussels on 1st and 2nd December 1987.
- We reaffirmed that the objective of the Alliance is to preserve the security of its members through adequate defensive strength and to enhance stability through the development of a more constructive relationship between East and West. We welcomed the forthcoming meeting between President Reagan and Mr. Gorbachev as an important stage in this process. We welcomed and fully support the agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union for the global elimination of land-based INF missiles with a range between 500 and 5,500 kms. This has been made possible by the determination and solidarity of the Allied governments over the years. We look forward to the prospect of the INF treaty being signed and ratified in the near future.
- We will continue to explore all possibilities to improve security and stability. The reality with which we must contend is the scale of Soviet military power and its continuing improvement and modernisation. In this respect our strategy of flexible response and forward defence remains the most effective and appropriate means to safeguard our security. We are determined to continue to provide the level, quality and mix of systems, nuclear and conventional, necessary to ensure the credibility of this strategy.
- Referring to our recent discussions on nuclear matters at Monterey, we reaffirmed that the INF agreement is a major accomplishment for the Alliance. At this meeting we focussed our attention on conventional forces where imbalances between NATO and the Warsaw Pact continue to concern us. We are determined to improve our conventional forces through the implementation of the Conventional Defence Improvements (CDI) action plan. CDI concentrates attention on the key deficiencies in our defence posture and identifies those areas where extra effort will provide the greatest return. We welcome progress made thus far in addressing these key deficiencies; we shall continue to place special emphasis on these areas in our national planning.
- It is with the objective of improving our forces firmly in mind that we discussed the result of the 1987 Annual Defence Review and adopted the NATO Force Plan for 1988-1992. The Defence Review has demonstrated the further consolidation of CDI through the greater alignment of national plans with collectively agreed objectives. The provision of adequate resources and improving value for money, in accordance with the 1987 Ministerial Guidance, will continue to be a serious challenge for all nations.
- The difficulty of reconciling resources with force requirements encourages us to pursue CDI more vigorously and to redouble our efforts to optimise our collective return through closer co-operation and co-ordination. We stressed the need for initiatives designed to offer co-operative solutions to potential problems which can be better dealt with collectively than by nations individually. We agreed that changes and adjustments to national plans should continue to be made within the overall framework of Alliance planning.
- We stressed the need for broader participation by Alliance members in providing increased assistance to Greece, Portugal and Turkey to strengthen their conventional defences, in order that they may more effectively fulfil their proper roles in the collective defence of the Alliance. We also expressed particular interest in the continuing work of the Independent European Programme Group on assistance to these countries which aims at permitting them to participate more fully as partners in armaments co-operation programmes with their NATO Allies.
- We strongly supported proposals for the establishment of a NATO Conventional Armaments Planning System (NATO CAPS) on a trial basis starting early next year. Such a system will improve NATO defence planning by enabling each member nation to get the best value out of its resources devoted to the research, development, production and procurement of conventional defence equipment, and thereby to meet better the needs of the Alliance.
- We noted the progress made by the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD) in co-operative projects, including those launched as a result of United States legislation. We reaffirmed the importance we continue to attach to the sharing of technology between the members of the Alliance, and to the protection of militarily relevant technology.
- The Harmel Report , published 20 years ago, recognised that the Alliance has two main functions. First, to maintain adequate military strength and political solidarity to deter aggression and other forms of pressure and to defend the territory of member countries if aggression should occur. Secondly, in the resulting climate of stability, security and confidence, to pursue the search for progress towards a more stable relationship in which the underlying political issues can be solved. Recent progress illustrates the validity of this approach. As we move ahead we must take care to sustain this balance between the military and political components of our strategy, and to ensure a comprehensive, integrated and coherent approach to all elements of arms control and security, nuclear and non-nuclear.
- In this respect, noting the potential offered by negotiations to establish a stable and secure balance of conventional forces at lower levels in Europe, we welcomed progress made in Vienna to convene conventional stability negotiations covering the whole of Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals. The achievement of our priority objective of eliminating the Warsaw Pact capability for launching surprise attack and initiating large-scale offensive action would be a significant step towards greater security and stability. It will be important that defence plans and arms control policy objectives remain in harmony in order to ensure their complementary contribution to Alliance security policy.