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NATO Leaders gathered in Madrid, Spain to discuss important issues facing the Alliance. The Madrid Summit has set NATO’s strategic direction for the future, ensuring that the Alliance will continue to adapt to a changing world and keep its one billion people safe.
Heads of State and Government from NATO's member countries and key partners
Madrid, Spain
29-30 June 2022
To make sure that NATO continues to fulfil its key purpose and greatest responsibility: ensuring collective defence for its member countries and keeping our one billion people safe
Alongside the Madrid Summit, a Public Forum brought together stakeholders beyond the traditional security and defence community in a discussion about the future of the Alliance.
Hosted by four leading civil society organisations – the Elcano Royal Institute, the German Marshall Fund, the Munich Security Conference and the Atlantic Council – the Public Forum featured experts and decision-makers from around the world to add further perspectives to the Summit.
The full livestream from the event is available to view on NATO YouTube:
At the Madrid Summit, NATO adopted its new Strategic Concept.
This key document reaffirms NATO's values, purpose and tasks. It provides a collective assessment of the security challenges facing the Alliance and outlines the political and military tasks NATO will carry out to address them.
Learn more about the Strategic Concept.
How has Russia's brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the new security reality in Europe affected NATO's approach to deterrence and defence?
What is the Alliance doing to address other challenges, like China's growing influence and assertiveness or the security consequences of climate change?
What will be included in NATO's next Strategic Concept, the blueprint for the Alliance's future adaptation to a more competitive world where authoritarian powers try to push back against the rules-based international order?
These are just some of the important questions that NATO Leaders discussed during the Madrid Summit.
TOPICS: View a full rundown and read background information about the key topics on the agenda.
PROGRAMME: To follow the summit's key moments, explore the detailed programme, which includes news, transcripts, photos, audio and video as they happened.
Hispania, the national personification of Spain, holds aloft a laurel wreath in front of the Spanish flag. The statue sits atop the National Library of Spain in Madrid. (Photo credit: Jesus G. Feria/La Razon)
Spain is hosted the 2022 NATO Summit in an auspicious year – the 40th anniversary of its accession to NATO.
Spain became the 16th country to join NATO on 30 May 1982. The new member brought a lot to the table as it joined the 33-year-old Alliance – not only its military capabilities and its vital geostrategic location for Western European defence (positioned between the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean), but also its diplomatic skill and political relations with Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa.
Eventually, a Spanish diplomat would serve as NATO Secretary General, guiding the Alliance through its first major peacekeeping operation and its transition from a Cold War organisation to a fully flexible security organisation engaged with new partners and prepared for new threats and challenges.
Read more about Spain's history in the Alliance on NATO Declassified.
Did you know?
Madrid hosted a NATO summit 25 years ago, on 8-9 July 1997.
One of the notable decisions taken by NATO Leaders at this summit was to invite the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland - the 1st post-Cold War member countries – to begin accession talks with NATO.
Check out this blast from the past website for photos and information.
Click through the gallery below to see how Madrid painted the town NATO blue!
