Press Communiqu
M-DPC/NPG-
1(96)88
Meeting
of the Defence
Planning
Committee
in Ministerial
Session
Brussels,
13 June 1996
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Final Communiqué
- The Defence Planning Committee and the Nuclear Planning
Group of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation met in
Ministerial session in Brussels on 13th June.
- We attach great importance to the first meeting of the
North Atlantic Council in Defence Ministers session later today
with all 16 NATO nations represented. We confirmed our
commitment to collective defence planning as an essential element
of the Alliance. We shall continue to develop Alliance defence
planning which contributes to the adaptation of our military
capabilities to undertake the full range of the Alliances
missions.
- The effectiveness with which Operation Joint Endeavour
has been conducted has underlined the benefits of long-standing
and close cooperation as a major contributory factor to the
cohesion and military effectiveness of the Alliance. We
applauded the speed and efficiency with which NATO forces were
assembled and deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina and to Croatia
following the UN mandate authorising the establishment of the
Implementation Force (IFOR). We noted also with satisfaction the
important part played by Partnership for Peace in facilitating
the integration of the many non-NATO forces from Partner
countries into IFOR.
- The events in the former Yugoslavia and elsewhere have
underlined the need for the Alliance to be prepared for the full
range of its missions. We are therefore determined to ensure
that our individual and collective military capabilities are
properly prepared to carry out these missions, drawing on lessons
learned from IFOR. In this context we pledged ourselves to
strengthen the transatlantic link, as an indispensable element
of European security, and reiterated our commitment to support
a more coherent and effective contribution by all European Allies
to the missions and activities of the Alliance.
- Alliance forces have been significantly reduced and re-
oriented since the end of the Cold War along the lines mapped out
in the Strategic Concept. The adaptation of NATOs force posture
will continue, in response to the changed strategic
circumstances. The Alliance's force planning system will have
an important role in this process. Against this background we
adopted a new set of Force Goals as planning targets for our
forces and capabilities. We agreed that nations should endeavour
to adjust their force plans and priorities to meet them.
- This years Force Goals have put greater emphasis than
in the past on capabilities needed for the full range of Alliance
tasks, including new missions. Particular attention was given
to enhancements to the Alliance's ability to move its forces
within and between theatres and to sustain them once they are
deployed. Such capabilities are essential both for the
Alliance's collective defence and for new missions which require
the capability for flexible deployments for defence, peacekeeping
and crisis management and the capability to counter the risks of
the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means
of delivery. Based on the work of the Senior Defence Group on
Proliferation, we have directed the preparation of new force
goals, for our approval in December, to deal more effectively
with those risks.
- Defence planning plays a central role in the adaptation
of Alliance military capabilities. We therefore had an initial
discussion on Ministerial Guidance 1997 which will guide
preparations of this next major element in our planning process.
We will review progress in this work at our next meeting.
- We reaffirm that the fundamental purpose of NATOs
nuclear forces is political: to preserve peace and prevent
coercion. In the light of the changing security environment in
Europe, NATOs nuclear forces have been substantially reduced,
they are no longer targeted against anyone and the readiness of
NATOs dual-capable aircraft has been recently adapted. We
reiterate our judgement that NATOs current nuclear posture will,
for the foreseeable future, continue to meet the requirements of
the Alliance. In that regard, we reaffirm that nuclear forces
continue to fulfill an indispensable and unique role in Alliance
strategy and that the presence of US nuclear forces based in
Europe and committed to NATO provides an essential and enduring
political and military link between the European and the North
American members of the Alliance.
- We welcomed the United States ratification of START II
as an important step towards a further equitable reduction in
strategic nuclear systems and urge the Russian Federation to
ratify the agreement at the earliest possible moment.
Implementation of START II will serve the interests of all
countries including Russia, enhance strategic stability by
removing vestiges of past nuclear confrontation, and pave the way
for possible further reductions. We reiterated our support for
the assistance that has been provided by several NATO countries
for the removal and dismantlement of weapons of mass destruction
in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. In this context, we
welcomed the recent announcement that all nuclear weapons have
been transferred from the territory of Ukraine for dismantlement,
in accordance with the US-Russia-Ukraine Trilateral Statement
signed in Moscow in January 1994.
- We expressed our full support to early agreement on a
universal and verifiable zero-yield Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
(CTBT). We welcomed presentations by the United States and the
United Kingdom on their plans for assuring the safety and
reliability of their nuclear weapons under a CTBT.
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