Press
Release
(2003)64
12 June 2003 |
Final
Communiqué
Ministerial Meeting
of the Defence Planning
Committee and the Nuclear Planning Group
held in Brussels on Thursday, 12 June 2003
- The Defence Planning Committee and Nuclear Planning
Group of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation met in Ministerial
Session in Brussels on 12 June 2003. Our colleagues from
the seven countries invited
to join the Alliance took part in our discussions in the
Defence Planning Committee.
- Effective military forces, able to deploy to wherever
the Alliance decides, are essential to the Alliance’s ability to achieve its
wider security objectives as well as its core function of collective defence.
Our forces must have the advanced capabilities necessary to conduct the
full range of Alliance missions, including the ability to move quickly
to a crisis area and sustain operations over time. Ensuring these capabilities
is the central focus of NATO’s collective defence planning
process, and of the transformation of the Alliance, on which
we exchanged views
today.
- We approved new Ministerial Guidance to provide a framework
for NATO and nations' defence planning until 2010 and beyond.
This guidance addresses
the need to overcome the shortcomings identified in our
review of national plans. We emphasised the need to pursue
quality rather than quantity in
adapting our force structures, and to focus resources on
deployable forces and capabilities. We also emphasised the
need to provide sufficient resources
for these capabilities by aiming to increase defence spending
in real terms and to spend available funds more effectively,
bearing in mind that
NATO's requirement for non-deployable forces is very limited.
- We reviewed progress made in the development of the
NATO Response Force. We approved the comprehensive concept
for the Force and look forward
to successful completion of the further work required.
Establishment of this force will be a significant step in
providing NATO with a capability
for rapid action and a catalyst for the development of
advanced capabilities. Because nations have only a single
set of forces, work on the NATO Response
Force should be mutually reinforcing with related work
in the EU.
- We have also agreed NATO’s new streamlined command arrangements.
They will provide robust capabilities to plan and execute operations,
promote the further modernisation and interoperability of Alliance forces,
and enhance the transatlantic link. There will be two commands at the
strategic level, one to conduct all Alliance operations and one to guide
and encourage the transformation of forces and other capabilities. The
second, operational, level will consist of two standing Joint Force Commands
that can provide one land-based Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) headquarters,
and a robust but more limited standing Joint Headquarters from which one
sea-based CJTF headquarters capability can be drawn. At the third, component
or tactical, level, a limited number of Joint Force Component Commands
and Combined Air Operations Centres (some of them deployable) will provide
service-specific expertise to the second level. These new command arrangements
build on and take full account of the command capabilities within NATO’s
new Force Structure, within which all of the envisaged high
readiness
corps and maritime headquarters have now been certified as
having reached full operational capability. In the new Alliance
Command Transformation
structure, there will, in addition, be a NATO Joint Warfare
Centre, with a subordinate Joint Force Training Centre and
a Joint Analysis and Lessons
Learned Centre, and a number of nationally- or multi-nationally
sponsored Centres of Excellence, which will provide opportunities
to enhance training,
improve interoperability, test and develop doctrines, and
conduct experiments to assess new concepts. The streamlined
structure will be more effective,
and is expected to yield cost and manpower savings which
can be channelled to addressing existing Alliance shortfalls.
Achieving rapid implementation
of the new command structure is essential to ensure continuity
of the command arrangements and momentum in the transformation
process. We therefore
direct that the new structure be implemented as rapidly as
possible, and request the NATO Military Authorities to report
to us on progress made
at our meeting in December.
- In discharging our responsibilities for collective defence
planning in the Alliance, we reviewed the force plans of
Allies and of invited
countries.
- We noted with satisfaction that most Allies are continuing
to restructure their forces to make them smaller, more flexible,
more modern and more
effective for the full range of Alliance missions. The
implementation of current plans, including the commitments
undertaken as part of the
Prague Capabilities Commitment, will bring about important
improvements. Shortfalls in a number of critical capability
areas will nevertheless
continue to exist, particularly in the number of fully
deployable units and formations with the necessary support
units able to operate where
little or no host nation support exists. Further efforts
are therefore needed to overcome these deficiencies, especially
correcting the balance
between combat and support units.
- We applaud the steps taken so far by the invited nations
to adapt their forces to participate in Alliance structures
and look forward to
welcoming these countries as members next year. We and
our counterparts from these countries recognise, however,
that much more remains to be
done, including through recently-launched defence reviews,
to re-orient force structures for the full range of Alliance
missions. This will be
a long-term process and will require sustained efforts.
- At Prague, our Heads of State and Government noted
the importance of transforming our military capabilities.
Since
the defence planning process
will play a major role in this effort and remains the cornerstone
of NATO’s
ability to provide for the defence and security of its members,
we tasked the Defence Review Committee, taking account
of the advice of NATO’s
Military Authorities, to review and further adapt where appropriate
the
process so that it is better able to assist the transformation
of our military capabilities. It must be flexible, responsive
and more focussed
on capabilities for the full range of Alliance missions.
It should take into account national planning cycles and
also consider the evolving NATO-EU
relationship. The Allied Command Transformation will play
a major role in this review and the subsequent work to develop
capabilities. We look
forward to reviewing progress in this work at our meeting
in December 2003 where we will, if necessary, issue additional
guidance, and to receiving
a final report, with recommendations, at our Spring meeting
in 2004.
- At this, our first meeting as Nuclear Planning Group
after the Prague Summit, we reviewed the status of NATO’s nuclear forces and addressed
related issues and activities. We reaffirmed the principles underpinning
NATO’s nuclear forces as set out in the Alliance’s
Strategic Concept. We continue to place great value on the
nuclear forces based
in Europe and committed to NATO, which provide an essential
political and military linkage between the European and the
North American members
of the Alliance.
- We welcomed the recent entry into force of the May
2002 Moscow Treaty between the United States and Russia on
Strategic Offensive Reductions.
We agreed that this Treaty represents an important step
in establishing more favourable conditions for actively promoting
security and cooperation,
and enhancing international stability.
- The Alliance’s goal to enhance global security will continue
to be strengthened through our support for arms control and non-proliferation.
In this regard, we expressed concern over violations of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty regime and, in particular, over recent pronouncements by the Democratic
Peoples’ Republic of Korea that it had withdrawn from
the Treaty and that it was in possession of nuclear weapons.
We strongly urged it
to dismantle immediately any nuclear weapons programme in
a verifiable, transparent and irreversible manner. We urge
all nations to continue to
work together to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
We reaffirmed our determination to contribute to the implementation
of the conclusions
of the 2000 NPT Review Conference and welcomed the accession
of Cuba and East Timor to the Treaty.
- We welcome the invitation extended to Bulgaria, Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia and look
forward to meeting
them in this forum as full Alliance members. We endorsed
a time-phased programme to inform them about Alliance nuclear
issues, designed specifically
to prepare them to participate effectively in discussions
of Alliance nuclear policy when they are members. Given their
full support of NATO’s
Strategic Concept, including the essential role that nuclear forces play
in the Alliance’s strategy of preservation of peace
and prevention of war or any kind of coercion, the new members
will strengthen security
for all in the Euro-Atlantic area.
- We noted with satisfaction that, based on our guidance
issued in June last year, NATO’s dual-capable aircraft
posture has been further adapted and readiness requirements
for these aircraft have been further
relaxed. We welcome the ongoing work of the High Level
Group as it continues to discuss deterrence requirements
in the new security environment and
to provide advice to Ministers as appropriate.
- We welcomed the agreement with the Russian Federation
on a Work Plan for nuclear experts’ consultations under
the auspices of the NATO-Russia Council. We agree with the
plan to focus in the near term on nuclear weapons
safety and security, but we also expressed our strong view
that the nuclear Confidence and Security Building Measures
proposed by NATO in December
2000 should be addressed in these consultations. We look
forward to the next practical steps to further implement
this important Work Plan.
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