Final Communiqué
Chairman: Lord Carrington
- English
- French
Current arms control negotiations - Alliance security objectives - Support for global elimination of land-based INF - Prospect of a verifiable INF treaty - START: support for 50% reduction in the arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union - Strat
- The NATO Nuclear Planning Group (NPG) met in Ministerial session in Monterey, California, on 3rd and 4th November,1987. Iceland attended as an observer. We discussed a variety of security matters pertaining to NATO's nuclear forces, such as current arms control negotiations, the status of implementation of the December 1979 Dual-Track and 1983 Montebello Decisions, the work of several study groups and future NPG work.
- The fundamental security objectives of the Alliance are to deter aggression and to provide an environment for peaceful and stable relationships between East and West on the basis of balanced forces at the lowest possible level. The maintenance of effective military forces and the pursuit of arms control are complementary elements of this security policy.
- We welcome and fully support the agreement in principle 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 a verifiable INF treaty being signed and ratified in the near future.
- With the prospect of Soviet agreement to long standing Alliance INF arms control objectives, we now look forward to rapid progress in the START negotiations and re-affirm our support for the 50% reduction in the strategic nuclear arsenals of the United States and the Soviet Union as proposed by the United States. In this connection, we emphasize the importance of a comprehensive, integrated and coherent approach to all elements of arms control and security, nuclear and non-nuclear.
- Our strategy of flexible response will continue to be vital to the security of the Alliance. We remain concerned about the offensive capabilities of the Warsaw Pact arrayed against us. We are therefore determined, consistent with the framework of the Montebello Decision and with our arms control obligations, to continue to implement those measures required to maintain the effectiveness, responsiveness and survivability of our nuclear forces. In doing so, it is and will remain Alliance policy to possess only the minimum number of nuclear weapons necessary for a credible deterrent. In accordance with this policy, and in spite of the fact that Soviet nuclear forces have continued to increase during that period, the Alliance has already unilaterally reduced its nuclear stockpile in Europe to the lowest level in over twenty years.
- We accepted with pleasure the invitation of the Danish Government to hold our next Nuclear Planning Group Ministerial meeting in Denmark in the Spring of 1988.
- Greece has expressed its views in a statement included in the Minutes.