The Defence Planning
Committee and Nuclear Planning Group met in Ministerial Session
on 8 June 2006.
As we look forward to the Riga Summit, we re affirmed our determination
to employ the disciplines of defence planning to help ensure
that the Alliance and our national forces continue to pursue transformation
with the aim of further developing the capabilities needed to deal
with the challenges we will face in the future. Against this background,
and based on the agreed Comprehensive Political Guidance which
sets out the priorities for NATO’s continuing transformation, we
approved a new Ministerial Guidance to provide a framework for Alliance
and nations’ defence planning for the next decade.
This guidance examined the capabilities and forces needed to
support the full range of missions that Alliance forces are likely
to be called on to undertake and reaffirms our commitment to collective
defence. In the new security environment, taking particular account
of the risks arising from terrorism and the need to be able to deploy
forces over long distances and operate in austere conditions, we
recognise a need for a shift in emphasis towards an ability to conduct
a greater number of smaller, but demanding and different, operations
than we had planned for in the past. In doing so, we shall also retain
our ability to carry out larger operations, including high intensity
operations.
The new security environment also calls for the ability and
flexibility to conduct operations in circumstances where the efforts
of several authorities, institutions and nations need to be coordinated
to achieve the desired results and to carry out, among others, stabilisation
operations and provide military support to reconstruction efforts.
The Alliance and our nations need to improve their abilities in these
and other areas. We shall work to adapt our forces to make them increasingly
usable. Recognising that this will constitute a considerable challenge,
we shall also work to ensure that sufficient resources are provided
to meet the needs of transformation and that those resources are
used effectively.
We also adopted updates of the force goals that we approved
at Istanbul in 2004. We look forward to the development of a comprehensive
package of new force goals, based on our Ministerial Guidance,
in 2008.
At our Nuclear Planning Group meeting, we reviewed the status
of NATO’s nuclear forces and other related issues and activities.
We re-affirmed that the fundamental purpose of the nuclear forces
of the Allies is political: to preserve peace and prevent coercion
and any kind of war. In keeping with this goal, we continue to place
great value on the nuclear forces based in Europe and committed to
NATO, which provide an essential political and military link between
the European and North American members of the Alliance. We recalled
that NATO’s nuclear forces are maintained at the minimum level sufficient
to preserve peace and stability. We noted with appreciation the
continuing contribution made by the United Kingdom’s independent
nuclear forces to deterrence and the overall security of the Allies,
and reaffirmed the value of this capability. The dangers inherent
in the growing risk of nuclear proliferation underscore the importance
of NATO maintaining a credible and flexible deterrent posture.
In this regard, we note that deterrence and defence, along with
arms control and non-proliferation, will continue to play a major
role in the achievement of the Alliance’s security objectives. We
reaffirmed our full commitment to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
as the cornerstone of global nuclear non-proliferation efforts and
an essential basis for the pursuit of nuclear disarmament. In this
context, we expressed serious concern over the possible consequences
for security and stability, resulting from instances of non-compliance
with the Treaty. We call again on all countries to abide by their
commitments in this domain.
We noted the importance of NATO’s relationship with Russia on
nuclear weapons issues and look forward to further consultation
and cooperation under the auspices of the NATO-Russia Council.
