The Foreign Ministers of the Atlantic Alliance countries will hold discussions for the first time by videoconference, with their newest member, North Macedonia (see EUROPE 12457/38), regarding their cooperation in the fight against Covid-19.
According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Ministers should review the actions taken by the Alliance and the Allies and consider ways to coordinate their response even more closely, provide more support to each other and to accelerate that support. "We will examine how to make even more effective use of NATO's military capabilities and structures to intensify and accelerate our support for national efforts against Covid-19", he explained, adding that if the Allies responded together, the response would be more effective.
The Secretary General said that the Alliance's objective was to help civilian authorities and health care systems deal with the virus.
According to Mr Stoltenberg, the ministers will also discuss the lessons learned from the crisis. "NATO has defined basic requirements for civil resilience, for the resilience of our societies, and we need to look at them to see if there is a need to update them, to further develop them in the light of the Covid-19 crisis", he explained.
In addition to discussions on coronavirus, Ministers will discuss NATO's role in the fight against terrorism, including its training mission in Iraq. "I think we will decide to further strengthen our training mission by taking over some of the training activities currently carried out by the Global Coalition", Mr Stoltenberg announced. In mid-February, the Defence Ministers had already agreed in principle to strengthen the mission (see EUROPE 12425/21). Diplomatic leaders should also discuss what more the Alliance can do across the region to support their partners.
They will also discuss the situation in Afghanistan, where attacks continue despite the agreement between the United States and the Taliban (see EUROPE 12456/22). And while the Alliance will have reduced its presence to about 12,000 troops by the summer, "no decision has been made on further reductions and all our actions will be based on the conditions", the Secretary General said. He said that 12,000 soldiers was a troop level sufficient to continue NATO's training, assistance and advisory mission in Afghanistan.
Finally, ministers will look at how to strengthen NATO's political dimension as a "platform for transatlantic discussion and coordination", as on 31 March the Secretary General appointed a group of experts to assist him in this process (see EUROPE 12458/20). The Secretary General will present his proposals to Allied leaders at their next summit in 2021. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)