The NATO Nuclear Planning Group held its twenty-eighth Ministerial meeting at NATO Headquarters, Brussels, on 13th and 14th November, 1980. Ministers of Defence participating were Mr. Frank Swaelen, Belgium; Mr. Poul Sögaard, Denmark; Dr. Hans Apel, Federal Republic of Germany; Mr. Evangelos Averoff Tositsas, Greece; Mr. Lelio Lagorio, Italy; Mr. Emile Krieps, Luxembourg; Mr. Pieter de Geus, The Netherlands; Mr. Thorvald Stoltenberg, Norway; Mr. Adelino Amaro da Costa, Portugal; Mr. U Haluk Bayulken, Turkey; Mr. Francis Pym, the United Kingdom; and Dr. Harold Brown, the United States. Canada was represented by the Permanent Representative to NATO, Mr. John Halstead. The meeting was chaired by Dr. Joseph M.A.H. Luns, Secretary General of NATO. Also present were the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee and the Major NATO Commanders. A special welcome was extended to Luxembourg, attending the Nuclear Planning Group at the Ministerial level for the first time. Following a briefing by the United States on the status of nuclear forces, Ministers again voiced their concern with the continuing developments and deployments of new Soviet nuclear systems. Against this background, Ministers noted the continuing importance of improving the effectiveness of the full spectrum of Alliance forces, i.e., conventional, theatre nuclear and strategic, and of maintaining the essential linkage between these elements of the NATO Triad. Ministers emphasized their concern that the Soviet Union, in addition to its SS-4 and SS-5 ballistic missiles, has continued to deploy SS-20 ballistic missiles and Backfire bombers, thus increasing the already existing Long-Range Theatre Nuclear Force (LRTNF) disparity in favour of the Soviet Union. Ministers discussed strategic policy and the planning for strategic and theatre nuclear forces in support of the Alliance. Recent force modernization programmes and evolutionary refinements in the United States employment policy, referred to as the countervailing strategy, enhance NATO's strategy of deterrence by adding to the credibility and flexibility of its forces. Ministers reaffirmed that United States strategic policy in the context of NATO's strategy, remains the centre of an adequate deterrent to the threat posed by Soviet nuclear forces against the background of their nuclear doctrine and policy. Ministers reiterated the importance of strategic arms limitations for improving NATO's security and expressed support for further negotiations covering both strategic as well as long-range theatre nuclear forces. Ministers received a briefing by the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Defence on United Kingdom nuclear forces and on the decision to replace, in close co-operation with the United States, the existing Polaris nuclear-force with the Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile system in the early 1990s. The Trident system will make a significant contribution to enhancing the effectiveness of the NATO Triad. Recalling the Ottawa Declaration by Heads of Government in 1974, which recognized the contribution which United Kingdom nuclear forces capable of playing a deterrent role of their own make to overall strengthening of deterrence, Ministers welcomed the United Kingdom Government's intention to assign the new Trident force to NATO, as the Polaris force is now. With respect to theatre nuclear forces, Ministers emphasized the importance of the 12th December, 1979 decision to pursue the two parallel and complementary efforts towards long-range TNF modernization and arms control involving theatre nuclear forces. They noted that the implementation of this integrated decision is moving ahead. They took stock of progress in Pershing II and Ground-Launched Cruise Missile development programmes. Against the background of continuing Alliance resolve on LRTNF modernization, Ministers welcomed the fact that business-like talks with the Soviet Union on arms control involving theatre nuclear forces had started in Geneva. They stressed their continuing interest in the talks. Following a summary by the United States of these talks concerning limitations of certain United States and Soviet theatre nuclear forces, Ministers expressed their support for the United States' position in the exchanges which has been elaborated in intensive consultations in the Alliance through the Special Consultative Group. They also expressed the hope that the talks would lead to agreement on equitable, balanced and verifiable limitations in accordance with the principles incorporated in the 12th December, 1979 decision. They noted that the withdrawal of 1,000 United States nuclear warheads from Europe, as an integral part of the LRTNF modernization and arms control decision, was well underway. Ministers reviewed ongoing work of the High Level Group which was charged by the Nuclear Planning Group with the nuclear aspects of the Long Term Defence Programme. In endorsing the first substantial report of the High Level Group's present work on theatre nuclear systems, they noted its contribution to the overall examination of the precise nature, scope and basis of the adjustments which would result from the LRTNF deployment and their possible implications for the balance of roles and systems in NATO's nuclear armoury as a whole. Ministers emphasized the importance of periodic NATO crisis management exercises and discussed various aspects of consultation in future exercises. Ministers also considered the future work programme of the Nuclear Planning Group. They accepted with pleasure an invitation by the German Minister of Defence to hold their next meeting in the Federal Republic of Germany in Spring 1981.