Press Communiqué M-DPC/NPG- 1(95)57 8 June 1995

Final Communiqué The Defence Planning Committee and Nuclear Planning Group of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation met in Ministerial session in Brussels on 8th June. As the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War is commemorated, we recalled the critical role the Atlantic Alliance has played in preventing any further such conflicts and in creating the conditions for unparalleled peace, stability and prosperity for our countries. The characteristics of the Alliance that permitted it to make these contributions are as important now as when the continent was divided. Preeminent among them are the transatlantic link and our collective defence arrangements, including the integrated military structure. They must be preserved to enable the Alliance to continue to fulfil its core functions and the full range of its missions. NATO remains indispensable for the security of our countries as well as the whole Euro-Atlantic area. We paid tribute to the courage and steadfastness of UN personnel deployed in the former Yugoslavia. We condemned the recent escalation of violence in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the shelling by Bosnian Serbs of safe areas and the totally unjustifiable seizure by Bosnian Serbs of UN peacekeepers. We continue to demand their unconditional release and underline that the Bosnian Serb leaders will be held fully accountable for their safe return. We condemned attacks directed at NATO forces, including last week's shooting down of a NATO aircraft. We agreed that a solution to the conflict can only be found by negotiation among all parties to the conflict and reaffirmed the resolve of the Alliance to continue fully to support the UN in its task. To this end we reaffirmed our commitment to provide air power, in accordance with existing arrangements, to help protect UN Peace Forces and the safe areas and to enforce the No-Fly Zone. We shall also continue maritime embargo operations in the Adriatic with the WEU.

While we took stock of contingency planning to conduct a NATO-led withdrawal of UN forces if requested by the UN, we reiterated our strong support for the continued presence of UN forces in the former Yugoslavia, strengthened to carry out a clear mission and with their safety assured. We discussed the initiative, which we welcomed, announced on 3rd June, to provide UNPROFOR with a rapid reaction capability. Since the London Summit in June 1990, the Alliance has been engaged in a comprehensive process of transformation to take account of the radically altered European security environment. This process has produced a new strategy, revised force and command structures, and the assumption of new missions, including peacekeeping. We took stock of recent progress in this continuing transformation, particularly with respect to the initiatives launched at last year's Brussels Summit. An especially important part of the Alliance's adaptation is the further development of co-operative ties with NACC and PfP Partners on an Alliance-wide and on a regional or bilateral basis. These increasingly close relationships are a testimony to the marked improvements in European security since the end of the Cold War. We are pleased with the continued progress and development of PfP since our last meeting, including the welcome decisions of Austria, Belarus and Malta to join the Partnership. We agreed on the importance of sustaining the momentum of progress in the Partnership and, to this end, on the need to provide adequate support for it. We noted the preparations for the extensive set of NATO/PfP exercises that will take place this year, expanding on the success of last year's exercise programme. We also noted with satisfaction the launching of a regular process for information exchange on activities which support the Partnership. We are working to increase the effectiveness of co-operative efforts among Allies and Partners, and noted as an example the successful co-operation to establish a Baltic Peacekeeping Battalion. While recognising PfP's success to date, we reaffirmed the need to enhance the Partnership further. We expressed our support for intensifying the dialogue between Partners and the Allies, including consideration of more frequent meetings with NATO committees involved in PfP to discuss general policy matters and common problems.

We expressed strong support for the work under way in the Partnership Planning and Review Process. The first cycle, which we shall discuss in more detail tomorrow together with our Partners, has already been formally completed. Partners have agreed to specific goals for improving the interoperability with Alliance forces of units identified for PfP missions and activities. Partners' progress in the implementation of interoperability objectives will be brought to the attention of Ministers next Spring. We recalled the Alliance's offer of expert visits and staff talks aimed at helping Partners implement interoperability objectives. We are confident that the process will, as intended, increase transparency regarding defence plans and budgets among the participants, and provide a means for identifying and evaluating the forces that the participating Partners are making available for PfP purposes. We noted that this promising start is due in large part to the energy and commitment of those Partners that have chosen to take part. We look forward to the broadening and deepening of the process so as better to achieve the objectives of the Partnership; and to increasing Partners' involvement in the development of the Partnership Planning and Review Process and other PfP activities. The prospect of the admission of new members into NATO is a further manifestation of the Alliance's intention to contribute to the establishment of a co-operative European security architecture. We recalled the agreement at the 1994 Brussels Summit that admitting new members will be part of an evolutionary process, taking into account political and security developments in the whole of Europe. We noted in this respect the progress of the internal study initiated by NATO Foreign Ministers at their meeting in December. We exchanged views on the implications of enlargement for our collective defence arrangements, particularly for the defence planning process and the integrated military structure. Implications of this kind have been and will continue to be carefully considered in the course of the study. We expressed our conviction that in an enlarged Alliance, strong collective defence arrangements are vital to ensure that, without creating dividing lines, enlargement will contribute to stability and security throughout the Euro-Atlantic area while strengthening the effectiveness of the Alliance.

We remain convinced that Russia should play a central role in contributing to stability and security in the Euro-Atlantic area. We therefore noted with particular satisfaction the acceptance of Russia's Individual Partnership Programme as well as the programme for broad and enhanced dialogue and co-operation beyond PfP. This welcome step should open the way to the development of a relationship between the Alliance and Russia that is consistent with the principles of the Partnership and with Russia's weight and importance in European security affairs. We hope that this decision also presages more frequent and more intensive exchanges with the Russian defence and military authorities. At the same time we noted that Russia's relations with the Alliance can only flourish if rooted in strict compliance with international commitments and obligations. We call for an immediate ceasefire in Chechnya and urge the parties to pursue a political settlement of the conflict. We attach great importance to the full implementation of the CFE Treaty as a cornerstone of security in Europe. Noting the desire to develop further the relationship with all newly independent states, we reiterated the importance we attach to the further development of practical defence-related co-operation with Ukraine. We look forward to the early agreement of Ukraine's Individual Partnership Programme. We were also very pleased to note that Ukraine is one of the countries taking part in the Planning and Review Process of the PfP. Another key aspect of the Alliance's adaptation to the new security environment is the continuing effort to develop the Combined Joint Task Force concept. This initiative should, when fully developed, enable the Alliance to undertake more effectively its full range of missions, including operations under the authority of the United Nations or the responsibility of the OSCE; allow non-NATO partners to participate as appropriate in contingency operations; and assist in the development of a viable European Security and Defence Identity compatible with the Alliance. We welcome the progress achieved in co-operation with the Western European Union and reiterate the importance of developing separable but not separate capabilities which will enhance our effectiveness while avoiding unnecessary and wasteful duplication. Permanent Representatives have already been tasked to complete the development of the CJTF concept as a matter of urgency to the full satisfaction of all Allies.

We reiterated our support for the development of the emerging European Security and Defence Identity and the role of the Western European Union. We attach great importance to the strengthening of the relations between NATO and the WEU based on the agreed principles of transparency and complementarity, and are pleased at the way our organisations work together in the conduct of the joint NATO-WEU Operation SHARP GUARD. We welcome the decisions of the WEU Council of Ministers, which met in Lisbon in May 1995, on the improvement of the WEU's operational capabilities through the creation of new decision-making and planning mechanisms and structures, the refinement of procedures for the identification of Forces Answerable to WEU, and the progress achieved in the work concerning a WEU Humanitarian Task Force. We support all initiatives that strengthen the European pillar of the Alliance while enabling the European Allies to take greater responsibility for our common security and defence. We therefore took note of the initiative taken by France, Italy and Spain to organise a land force (EUROFOR) and a maritime force (EUROMARFOR). We also noted that these forces would be open to WEU member states, that they would be declared "forces answerable to WEU", and employed as a priority in this framework, and could likewise be employed in the framework of NATO. This initiative was announced on the occasion of the Lisbon WEU Ministerial Meeting, where an agreement was also reached on the participation of Portugal in those forces. We look forward to a detailed high-level briefing being provided on this nitiative and to the expeditious definition of the relationship of these forces with the WEU and NATO. We attach the utmost importance to preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and, where this has occurred, to reversing it through diplomatic means. As directed by NATO leaders at the January 1994 Summit, the Alliance is continuing to intensify and expand its political and defence efforts against proliferation as part of its adaptation to the new security environment. As a defensive alliance, NATO is addressing the range of capabilities needed to discourage WMD proliferation and use. It must also be prepared, if necessary, to counter this risk and thereby protect NATO's populations, territory, and forces. We noted with approval the report of the Joint Committee on Proliferation on the progress made in the activities of the two senior NATO groups on proliferation in the political and defence areas.

We reaffirmed that collective defence planning is essential to the Alliance's cohesion and military effectiveness, and we approved the 1995 Ministerial Guidance, which analyses the implications of the developing strategic environment, reviews political, military, and economic trends and their effects on the Allies' military capabilities, and provides political guidance to NATO's Military Authorities and nations in the development of the next set of NATO force goals. Ministerial Guidance takes account of the continuing changes in many aspects of the security environment, and reflects the increased complexity of defence planning. We have directed that NATO defence planning should be adapted as necessary to address the whole spectrum of Alliance roles and missions including a range of crisis management tasks under the authority of the UN or the responsibility of the OSCE. We are taking further steps to ensure that the Alliance's military structures and capabilities are properly adapted to the new, more complex strategic circumstances and to the many diverse tasks they may be asked to perform. Particular importance is attached to the development of strategic capabilities in the fields of surveillance and intelligence, strategic mobility and logistics, which are necessary to underpin the military credibility of the Alliance's strategy and force posture. As part of Ministerial Guidance, we issued guidance on resources to facilitate the task of our Military Authorities in drawing up their force plans in a realistic financial framework, and to provide advice to nations on the financial effort necessary to undertake the Alliance's roles and missions. Bearing in mind the full range of the Alliance's new missions, we agreed that it is important to end the decline in most Allies' defence spending in order to ensure that the Alliance maintains the necessary military capabilities and that the burdens of sustaining collective security are shared equitably. Our resource guidance aims at stabilising defence expenditure and ensuring that the resources required to enable the Alliance to undertake its agreed missions are made available. Particular emphasis is placed on equipment investment.

We received the annual report on armaments co-operation within the Alliance. We noted with satisfaction the progress made by the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD) in addressing Alliance needs and in pursuing co-operative opportunities in such areas as airborne ground surveillance, extended air defence, combat identification, submarine rescue systems and anti-torpedo defence, and in assessing the defence equipment implications of peacekeeping operations. We also noted the important contribution CNAD is making to expanding practical defence-related co-operation within the Partnership for Peace. CNAD's activities are an essential part of the Alliance's efforts to develop balanced military capabilities for collective defence, crisis management and peacekeeping. We noted with approval the Military Budget and Security Investment Programme budgetary ceilings which have been agreed for 1996 and the planning ceilings for the years 1997 to 2000. We again underlined the need for sufficient common funded resources to maintain our collective defence arrangements and the effectiveness of our integrated military structure, and to support the 1994 Brussels Summit initiatives. We also agreed the necessity of ensuring that such resources were focussed on those programmes having the highest priority. We noted the work currently in hand on the examination of Alliance budgetary management, structures and procedures, including the Fundamental Review of the Military Budget. We look forward to seeing the results of this work at our Autumn meeting. We noted also the proposals, currently under discussion, to broaden the use of the Security Investment Programme to include Partnership for Peace requirements. We reviewed the status of NATO's nuclear forces and received with appreciation a briefing by the United States on the results of the recent U.S.-Russian Summit and on the status of ongoing threat reduction programmes within Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. We took note of the current status of U.S.-Russian efforts to reach agreement on the demarcation between ABM defences against strategic ballistic missiles and defences against theatre ballistic missiles, and expressed our support for such an agreement.

The United Kingdom briefed us on the implementation of its decision to utilize the flexibility of its submarine-launched Trident ballistic missiles to undertake sub-strategic as well as strategic roles and thereby progressively to replace the capability now provided by its air-delivered nuclear weapons. We welcome the contribution that sub-strategic Trident will make to NATO's nuclear posture. We reaffirmed the essential role of dual-capable aircraft (DCA) as NATO's only land-based sub-strategic force and provided guidance to adapt our DCA force posture to the current security environment while preserving its flexibility, effectiveness and widespread basing. We judge that NATO's sub-strategic force posture will, for the foreseeable future, continue to meet the Alliance's requirements. We reviewed the substantial progress made by the parties to the START I Treaty and the Lisbon Protocol of May 1992 towards completing the required reductions in strategic offensive arms. We applauded the accomplishments of all parties in achieving key START I milestones well ahead of schedule as well as the complete withdrawal of nuclear warheads from Kazakhstan. We reaffirmed our support for the START II Treaty, and welcomed the efforts that the United States and the Russian Federation are dedicating towards its early ratification and entry into force. We welcomed the historic decision taken at the recent Review and Extension Conference by the parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), to extend the treaty indefinitely. The NPT remains the cornerstone for global nuclear non-proliferation efforts in the years to come, and we are firmly committed to working towards universal adherence to the treaty and a further strengthening of the International Atomic Energy Agency's safeguards regime with the aim of achieving the treaty's goals. We also attach great importance to the negotiations on a universal and verifiable Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and a universal ban on the production of fissile material for weapon purposes. We continue to attach great importance to the cooperative efforts of a number of NATO nations to provide assistance to partner countries concerned in the area of nuclear safety and security, including dismantlement and destruction of nuclear arms and the safe and secure transport and storage of nuclear materials related to dismantlement. We look forward to continued progress in this crucial area. NATO's commitment to partnership and co-operation, in conjunction with its continued preparedness for collective defence and for new missions, plays a pivotal role in the task of bringing about a fundamental improvement in European security. Against this background we are determined to ensure that the Alliance can continue to meet the challenges of this new era. Today we have reaffirmed our commitment to maintaining the strength and cohesion of the Alliance as the bedrock of our security.