29 June 2004

NATO enhances operational capabilities Events NATO Istanbul Summit Background Improving NATO’s operational capabilities Official texts 28/06/2004 - NATO Istanbul Summit Communiqué Meeting in Istanbul on 28 June, NATO leaders endorsed measures to further improve the Alliance’s ability to take on operations when and where necessary. Heads of State and Government approved high-level political “usability” targets, committing themselves to be able at all times to deploy and sustain larger proportions of their forces on Alliance operations. These commitments will help to ensure that the Alliance has a permanently available pool of assets and forces that can deployed on missions. They also endorsed changes to NATO’s defence planning agreed by Defence Ministers in meetings on the eve of the Summit. Changes to the force generation process, the process by which member countries commit troops to operations, aim particularly to link the political agreement to launch an operation to the provision of the forces needed to carry out the mission. The Alliance’s long-term defence planning process will be made more flexible, with an aim to helping member countries generate forces that can reach further, faster and still take on the full range of missions. A number of Defence of Ministers also signed multinational capability commitments to provide NATO with key sealift and airlift capabilities.