NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday 11 June that the Allied leaders’ summit in Brussels on Monday 14 June would come at a “pivotal moment” for the Alliance and for the collective security of the Allies.
This summit, the first for US President Joe Biden, should be an opportunity to take many decisions.
“We are in an age of global competition and we must respond to many threats and challenges at the same time”, said Mr Stoltenberg at a press conference outlining his ambitions for the summit.
The first major expectation of the meeting was the approval of the NATO 2030 initiative, “an ambitious agenda for security and defence”, according to Mr Stoltenberg who has been working on it for a year (see EUROPE 12501/20).
Leaders are also expected to agree to more political consultation (see EUROPE 12735/22).
The security impact of climate change should become an important task for the Alliance. Mr Stoltenberg has been pushing for several months to get this issue on the NATO agenda (see EUROPE 12651/23), despite the reluctance of some leaders. “My ambition is a clear commitment from Allies to significantly reduce military emission and for NATO to contribute to the goal of Net Zero”, he explained.
The summit should be an opportunity to strengthen collective defence “with a strengthened military posture, increased readiness and a recommitment to the Defence Investment Pledge”, and resilience for critical infrastructure, supply chains and communications.
Mr Stoltenberg also hoped that leaders would agree to establish a Defence Innovation Accelerator (see EUROPE 12732/20) and agree on the creation of a NATO Innovation Fund to support defence and security-related start-ups.
“We will step up in safeguarding the international rules-based order”, the Secretary General added. He said NATO would deepen its cooperation with like-minded countries and organisations, including the EU (see EUROPE 12734/8), and boost its ability to train and develop the militaries of partners.
Leaders should also take decisions on the two newest operational domains, cyber and space (see EUROPE 12372/23). The Allies should therefore adopt a new cyber defence policy for NATO that will ensure that it has strong technical capabilities, political consultations, and military planning to ensure system security. Furthermore, “we will send a clear message at the Summit that NATO is determined to defend itself in space as effectively as we do in every other domain: land, sea, air, and cyber”, Mr Soltenberg promised.
Leaders will also approve NATO’s new policy on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence.
Finally, they should agree to develop the next NATO Strategic Concept, which will replace the 2010 Concept.
The security implications of the rise of China, NATO’s policy towards Russia’s aggressive behaviour, its support for Ukraine and Georgia and Afghanistan should also be on the Allies’ table.
Further increase in defence spending
To achieve the goals set, the Allies must continue to invest in defence, Mr Stoltenberg stressed. According to figures published on 11 June, in 2021, the European Allies and Canada will once again increase their spending. “By the end of the year, they will have added 260 billion US dollars to their defence budgets since 2014”, Mr Stoltenberg said. By 2021, defence spending by 10 Allies is expected to exceed 2% of GDP: Greece, United-States, Croatia, United-Kingdom, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Romania and France. In total, overall defence spending by the 30 allies is expected to reach 1,049 billion dollars by 2021 (726 billion dollars for the US alone).
And while the Secretary General has repeatedly called for the strengthening of the EU’s common budget, this was not part of his announcements. Asked about this, he expressed confidence that the Allies would agree on the importance of financing the Alliance’s ambitions also with a common budget.
See the latest figures on defence spending: https://bit.ly/3gu2BiP (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)