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NATO Defence Ministers met in Brussels on 12-13 June, in their first meeting at ministerial level after the Bucharest Summit. They reviewed the implementation of decisions taken by Heads of State and Government on operations, particularly Afghanistan and Kosovo, and the Alliance’s defence transformation efforts.
Operations
After the meeting of Defence Ministers with non-NATO KFOR contributing nations, the NATO Secretary General reaffirmed the Alliance’s commitment in providing a secure and safe environment in Kosovo. He stated that “KFOR’s presence and mandate in Kosovo …. have not changed. KFOR will remain in Kosovo on the basis of UN Security Council resolution 1244, unless the Security Council decides otherwise.”
The Secretary General also announced that Allies “agreed today to implement NATO’s new tasks in Kosovo. With this decision, NATO will be able to assist Kosovo in building necessary, democratic security institutions”.
With regard to Afghanistan, the Defence Ministers reviewed decisions taken in Bucharest, particularly the implementation of the Comprehensive Strategic Political-Military Plan.
NATO Secretary General described the situation on the ground as “encouraging but not entirely satisfactory”. He pointed out to the successes of the operation, the increasing number of forces on the ground and the good cooperation between international organizations, but also identified areas for improvement, such as the need for more training teams; better regional relationships, in particular with Pakistan; and more support to the counter-narcotics efforts.
Defence transformation
The meetings on Friday 13 June opened with a session on defence transformation where Defence Ministers assessed efforts aimed at improving capabilities needed to confront current and future security challenges. In a wide-ranging exchange of views Allies discussed such topics as NATO Response Force (NRF), strategic airlift initiative, mission-capable helicopters, defence spending, cyber defence and Alliance Ground Surveillance programme, “where we are moving closer to a decision on the cost shares and basing,” underlined Mr. De Hoop Scheffer.
The NATO Secretary General noted that a “host of issues” on transformation will be taken up further during the next informal Ministers of Defence meetings towards the end of the year.
Increased practical cooperation with Russia
Later on Allied Ministers were joined by the Russian Minister of Defence Anatoly Serdyukov for the NATO-Russia Council session. The 27 addressed defence and military cooperation, and reaffirmed their commitment to the further development of practical cooperation such as the Russian contribution to Operation Active Endeavour and transit assistance for the ISAF operation in Afghanistan. Moreover, as announced in the Chairman’s statement: “Ministers reaffirmed the NRC’s commitment to greater operational cooperation and endorsed the NRC Long Term Vision for Defence and Military Cooperation”. There was also an exchange of views on other international security issues, such as missile defence or the CFE Treaty .
NATO–Ukraine: intensive engagement
The day ended with a session of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, in which Minister of Defence Yurii Yekhanurov participated. Discussions focused on the further development of NATO-Ukraine defence and security cooperation against the background of the intensive engagement process launched at Bucharest.
Allies welcomed Ukraine’s active support to all NATO-led operations and missions, as well as her accession to the Air Situation Data Exchange Programme. They stressed the strategic importance of defence and security sector reform in Ukraine and encouraged enhancing efforts in this domain.