On Friday 18 October, NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte, announced that the defence ministers of the allied countries had agreed a new initiative on normalisation.
“Under this initiative, we will accelerate the development of NATO standards, improve their implementation rate and extend their scope to include new innovative military capabilities”, he explained at the end of a two-day meeting in Brussels. According to Mr Rutte, it is necessary to make the most of the Allies’ “unique ability” to act together, “because that is what gives our Alliance its strength beyond the sum of its parts”. The ministers will discuss the subject again at their next meeting in February.
More broadly, the Secretary General reiterated that strengthening the Allies’ deterrence and defence was NATO’s “absolute priority”. “With supply chains being increasingly vulnerable to compromise, we need to become more autonomous so that we remain ready and able to respond to threats in all areas, at any time”, he stressed.
According to Mr Rutte, the Allies also agreed that air and missile defence remained a priority. “This is all the more important in view of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has resulted in multiple violations of NATO airspace”, he explained, pointing out that the most recent violation was the previous day over Romania. “We will continue to increase surveillance, exchange information and coordinate individual and collective responses”, he promised, adding that the Allies planned to acquire thousands of air defence and artillery systems and several hundred modern fighter aircraft, mainly 5th generation F-35s.
“In a more uncertain world, it is essential that we continue to modernise our capabilities and train together to maintain the strength of our conventional and nuclear forces”, stressed Mr Rutte, as the Allies began NATO’s annual nuclear exercise ‘Steadfast Noon’ on 14 October, with more than 60 aircraft taking part in training flights.
On Thursday, the Alliance launched five initiatives relating to the most critical areas of deterrence and defence, which will involve a total of 26 Allies. The aim is to accelerate the delivery of next-generation unmanned aircraft systems, increase the interchangeability and interoperability of key allied artillery munitions and establish a network of advanced and immersive multinational training opportunities for the military (Distributed Synthetic Training Environment).
The last two projects concern the provision of space technologies by the Allies: one will explore the development of a “secure, resilient and reliable” multinational satellite communications capability in the Arctic ((NORTHLINK), and the other will look at ways to enhance NATO’s access to and use of space to meet a range of challenges associated with conducting operations from space (STARLIFT).
Support for Ukraine. The Secretary General also discussed the Alliance’s support for Ukraine, after meeting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, the previous day at a NATO-Ukraine Council (see EUROPE 13506/3).
Asked about the reactions of the Allies to Mr Zelesnky’s victory plan, the first component of which is an invitation to his country to join NATO, Mr Rutte explained that the Allies had taken “respectful note” of it. In his view, the fact that the Ukrainian government and president have aligned themselves with this victory plan is “an important signal”.
“The main objective of the (Council) discussion was to provide massive military aid to Ukraine”, explained the Secretary General. He also stated: “Obviously, we all know that Ukraine will become a member of NATO, so the question is exactly when and when the invitation will come”.
Cooperation with the Indo-Pacific region. The day before, the Allies had also held talks with their partners in the Indo-Pacific region (Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan), to discuss their joint efforts in support of Ukraine, defence industrial production and innovation, cyber defence, the fight against disinformation and new technologies, notably artificial intelligence.
“Our world is closely linked, as is our security. (...) We need to work with like-minded partners to meet our common challenges and defend our common values”, said Mr Rutte on Thursday. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)