Individual Partnership Action Plans
Individual Partnership Action Plans (IPAPs) provide NATO partner countries with focused, country-specific advice on defence and security-related domestic reform and, when appropriate, on larger policy and institutional reform: IPAPS are gradually replaced by Individually Tailored Partnership Programmes (ITPPs) – a new, overarching framework for bilateral cooperation between NATO and individual partner countries. The transition from IPAP to ITPP is ongoing.
What is the purpose of IPAPs?
IPAPs are designed to ensure a comprehensive, tailored approach to partnerships. They facilitate the coordination of bilateral assistance provided by individual Allies, as well as the coordination of efforts with other relevant international institutions. IPAPs also enable partners to support or contribute to another partner’s IPAP.
IPAPs were launched at the Prague Summit in November 2002. On 29 October 2004, Georgia became the first country to agree an IPAP with NATO. Azerbaijan agreed its first IPAP on 27 May 2005 and Armenia on 16 December 2005. On 31 January 2006, Kazakhstan also agreed an IPAP with NATO, followed by the Republic of Moldova on 19 May 2006, Bosnia and Herzegovina in February 2008, Montenegro in June 2008 (now a NATO member country) and, finally, Serbia on 15 January 2015.
How do they work?
IPAPs set out the cooperation objectives and priorities between individual partner countries and NATO, ensuring that the various mechanisms in use correspond directly to these priorities. These objectives cover a number of general categories, including: political and security issues; defence and military issues; public diplomacy; science and environment; civil preparedness; and administrative, protective security and resource issues. Intensified political dialogue on relevant issues is often an integral part of an IPAP process. Partners periodically review their IPAPs with NATO.
From IPAP to ITPP
The Individual Partnership Action Plan and the Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme (IPCP) are the standard documents for initiating and deepening a partner’s engagement with NATO, adaptable to the interests and objectives of the partner and NATO.
To improve NATO’s approach to organising its cooperation with partner countries, a new, overarching framework has been developed. In March 2021, the North Atlantic Council agreed on the “One Partner, One Plan” concept, establishing the Individually Tailored Partnership Programme (ITPP) . The ITPP gradually replaces the IPAP and IPCP as the document that frames NATO’s cooperation with individual partners willing to deepen their relationship with the Alliance. The transition from IPAP to ITPP is ongoing.