Press Release M-DPC/NPG- 1(2000)59 8 June 2000

Final Communiqué Ministerial Meeting of the Defence Planning Committee and the Nuclear Planning Group on 8 June 2000 The Defence Planning Committee and Nuclear Planning Group of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization met in Ministerial Session in Brussels on 8 June 2000. Defence planning underpins the Alliance's political cohesion and the transatlantic link. It is at the core of NATO's work to ensure that the Alliance collectively has the military capabilities it needs to prepare for and carry out its full range of missions from collective defence to crisis response and peace support operations. Our collective defence planning process makes a vital contribution to the achievement of the key capability improvements set out in the Defence Capabilities Initiative, which was launched by our Heads of State and Government at last year's Washington Summit. Today we adopted a new set of NATO Force Goals covering the period to 2006. We shall ensure that a high priority is given to them in our national force plans, and that resources are allocated as necessary. We welcomed the full participation of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland in this Force Goals cycle as members of the Alliance. Force Goals 2000 address the essential requirements needed to ensure that the Alliance's military forces are well manned, equipped and trained to deal with the security challenges that may confront them. They take account of lessons learned in NATO operations in the Balkans, particularly in relation to Kosovo. They also continue to address requirements for the support of possible WEU-led operations. We remain ready to define and adopt, as set out at the Washington Summit, necessary arrangements to adapt NATO's defence planning system further to incorporate in future the availability of forces for EU-led operations. Force Goals 2000 also take account of the key capability improvements sought in the DCI and, where appropriate, have been linked to these. For the nations that participate in Alliance collective defence planning, implementation of these Force Goals will be an essential step in putting DCI into practice. We welcome the increased attention that DCI has focussed on the collective defence planning process and the added momentum it has provided; we accept the challenge to show significant progress in this field in the Annual Defence Review. At our next meeting in December we will take stock of progress in implementing Force Goals; we will approve a new Ministerial Guidance, on which we exchanged views today; and we shall also take stock of progress in the NATO force structure review. At our Nuclear Planning Group meeting, we reviewed the status of NATO's nuclear forces and a number of related activities. We are satisfied that NATO's reduced nuclear force posture fully complies with the Alliance's Strategic Concept. NATO's nuclear forces are a credible and effective element of the Allies' strategy of preventing war, and they are maintained at the minimum level sufficient to preserve peace and stability. We are assured that the Allies' nuclear weapons and their storage continue to meet the highest standards of safety and security. We welcome the positive outcome of the recent Review Conference on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and affirm our commitments made at the Conference. NATO Allies are also committed to the immediate commencement and the rapid conclusion of negotiations on a non-discriminatory, multilateral and internationally and effectively verifiable and universal Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty. We welcome the ratification of the START II Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty by Russia. Both are important steps towards even deeper reductions and, ultimately, the elimination of nuclear weapons on a global scale. We look forward to the implementation of START II and assure the United States and the Russian Federation of our full support for their negotiations on the basis of an agreed START III framework which would cut the arsenals of deployed strategic nuclear warheads by 80 per cent from Cold War peaks. We renew our call upon Russia to bring to completion the reductions in its tactical nuclear weapons announced in 1991 and 1992, and to review further its much larger tactical nuclear weapons stockpile with a view towards making additional significant reductions. We received a report on ongoing activities in support of broader work in the Alliance regarding options for confidence and security building measures, verification, non-proliferation and arms control and disarmament. We welcome the prospects for renewed exchanges between NATO and the Russian Federation on a range of nuclear weapons issues, under the auspices of the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council.