Press
Communiqu
M-DPC/NPG-
2(93)75
Defence
Planning
Committee
and Nuclear
Planning
Group
Brussels
9 Dec. 1993
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Final Communiqu
- The Defence Planning Committee and Nuclear Planning
Group of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation met in
Ministerial sessions in Brussels on 8 and 9 December.
- We continue to adapt Alliance defence capabilities to
meet the new risks and challenges that face us.Our aim is to
achieve a force structure, capable of undertaking not only the
collective defence of the Alliance but also new tasks including
support to UN and CSCE peacekeeping.Against this background we
reviewed national defence plans for 1994-98 and beyond as part
of our annual defence review.As in previous years, the review
has served as a forum for collective consultation at a time when
both national and Alliance plans are undergoing unprecedented
changes and face sustained budgetary pressures.Our collective
defence planning arrangements continue to ensure the coherence
and consistency of national and Alliance force planning.
- The involvement in peacekeeping activities presents us
with new challenges.Last year the Alliance agreed to support
UN and CSCE peacekeeping activities by making available Alliance
resources and expertise on a case by case basis and recognising
that national participation will be subject to national
decisions.Members of the Alliance are already making
significant contributions to peacekeeping missions in Europe and
elsewhere, both individually and collectively.We have reviewed
the implications for defence planning of current and possible
future peacekeeping tasks and are determined to make the best
possible use of the Alliance's potential by developing further
our collective capacity to respond to requests for support from
the United Nations and CSCE.
- We value the contributions that could be made by all
Allies to this and we are committed to improving our ability to
participate in a range of peacekeeping operations and to
facilitate closer co-operation between NATO and the WEU in this
field, including the possibility of making Alliance assets
available for use in European-led operations following
consultations within the Alliance. An aim of the concept of
Combined Joint Task Forces is to give further impetus towards
achieving this.
- We express our full support for the emerging European
Security and Defence Identity and for the further development,
on the basis of transparency and complementarity, of close co-
operation between NATO and the WEU. This will help to strengthen
the European pillar of the Alliance and hence the Alliance
itself.It will result in a strengthened and a more equal
transatlantic partnership.
- We noted that with the onset of winter in the former
Yugoslavia the extent of suffering will grow and expressed our
full support for continuing efforts, including those based on the
action plan of the European Union, to find a negotiated
settlement.Both individually and collectively, Allies are
supporting the UN's humanitarian and other activities; and we
confirmed that we remained ready to consider positively any
further requests for assistance from the UN.
- Collective defence remains a core Alliance function,
but the changed strategic environment requires new responses. The
Alliance's Strategic Concept adopted in Rome therefore called for
more mobile, flexible and multinational forces able to be built
up when necessary. Substantial progress has been made to provide
these capabilities. As part of the process of transformation,
we continue to examine our force structures and force levels to
ensure that they reflect the significant changes in the political
and strategic environment. The Alliance's military authorities
are developing detailed force proposals based on political
guidance, the Major NATO Commanders' reviews of force structures
and levels, and on the need to develop the capabilities to fulfil
all the roles and missions of the Alliance.
- Since the end of the Cold War, we have been able to
make significant reductions in forces and readiness levels. In
general, greater reliance has been placed on mobilisable
reserves.Major savings in expenditure have consequently been
possible.However, the viability of NATO's new strategy depends
critically on equipment modernisation and continued improvements
in mobility, command and control and sustainability, in
particular for forces deployed outside national borders.With
our increased dependence on mobilizable forces, we must also
ensure that all our forces are properly trained and equipped for
the full range of missions and tasks they may be called upon to
fulfil.The new force structure therefore requires continued
investment in order to meet its future roles.
- Alliance commitments continue to diversify and most
Allies face pressure to make further reductions in defence
spending.If NATO is to continue to respond successfully to its
new challenges, defence plans must be given a firm and adequate
financial underpinning.The Allies must also make more effective
use of collective and national resources.We noted that the
Senior Resource Board, which we agreed earlier this year to
establish, has commenced work on the integrated resource
management of NATO's common-funded Infrastructure, Military
Budget and Manpower Programmes.We underlined the need to
provide adequate resources to NATO's common-funded programmes to
support NATO's collective defence arrangements and to ensure the
continued implementation of the Strategic Concept.We welcomed
an initiative by Spain to negotiate its participation in the NATO
Infrastructure Programme.
- Improvements in armaments co-operation remain an
important objective within NATO.We support the reform conducted
by the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD),
including a streamlining of its structure, to match the new
challenges.We welcome its activities in key areas such as on
armaments-related aspects of airborne ground surveillance,
extended air defence and computer-aided acquisition and logistics
support as well as information programmes under NACC auspices.
We also support the intention of expanding the dialogue between
the nations of the Western European Armaments Group and the North
American Allies.
- Dialogue and co-operation are integral elements of our
broad approach to security.We shall contribute to implementing
the NACC Work Plan for Dialogue, Partnership and Co-operation
1994 agreed last week by the North Atlantic Co-operation Council.
It contains an extensive list of topics and activities and
provides a sound basis for moving towards more effective co-
operation with our partners, including in the vital area of
peacekeeping.
- We are ready to play our part in further new
initiatives aimed at strengthening links between the Alliance and
partner countries in the defence-related area.We expressed our
strong support for the Partnership for Peace and noted with
satisfaction the discussions which have also taken place among
Foreign Ministers last week regarding this major initiative under
consideration by the Alliance.Partnership for Peace aims at
enhancing the mutual transparency of the military structures and
increasing interoperability between the forces of NATO and its
new partners.It will thus provide an opportunity to reach out
to the East and for the further evolution of the Alliance.
- Ministers considered the informal discussions held in
Travemnde last October to have been very useful.They welcomed
the offer to hold the next meetings of this kind in Autumn 1994
in Spain and in the United States in 1995.
- We received with appreciation briefings by the United
States and United Kingdom on the status of their nuclear forces,
as well as an update from the United States on its Nuclear
Posture Review.We also reviewed the process of adapting NATO's
nuclear posture to the new security environment.With the
reduction and restructuring of NATO's sub-strategic nuclear
forces in Europe and the updating and adjustment of consultation
and planning procedures, we are satisfied that the necessary
elements are in place to support the nuclear posture required by
the Alliance's Strategic Concept.
- We expressed our concern at the growing risks to
Alliance security interests posed by the proliferation of weapons
of mass destruction, their delivery means and related
technologies.Intensified efforts are essential to prevent such
proliferation and to address and counter if necessary the
associated risks to Alliance security.We underlined the
importance of the existing system of nuclear non-proliferation
based upon the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
(NPT).We shall strive to strengthen the regime of the NPT over
the coming years, to expand its membership, and to achieve, in
1995, the indefinite and unconditional extension of the Treaty.
We expressed serious concern at the actions taken by the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the possible
consequences for regional security and stability, as well as the
potential repercussions in other parts of the world.We call
again on that country to abide by the provisions of the NPT.
- We recognize that the nuclear arsenal of the former
Soviet Union is one potential source of proliferation.We
support efforts by Allies and other countries to assist in the
safe and secure dismantlement of the nuclear weapons of the
former Soviet Union and disposal of the resulting nuclear
materials.We welcome the accession of Belarus to the NPT as a
non-nuclear weapons state and the assurances of Kazakhstan that
it will do so before the end of 1993.We call onUkraine to
fulfil unconditionally the commitments it has undertaken in the
Lisbon Protocol, to ratify START I fully, and to accede to the
NPT as a non-nuclear weapons state in the shortest possible time.
Implementation of START I will also provide the basis to
implement START II which will create a more stable strategic
relationship and substantially reduce remaining U.S. and Russian
nuclear inventories.
- Our discussions took place with the expectation that
next month's NATO Summit will herald a further major evolution
of the Alliance.We shall ensure that the integrated defence
structure and our collective defence planning arrangements
continue to make a full contribution to the process of adapting
the Alliance to its future tasks.
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