North Atlantic Treaty Organization
November 13, 2014
Opening remarks
by NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow at the 2014 NATO Industry Forum, Croatia
[Edited]
The key objective of this forum is to discuss long-term, strategic issues in relation to the development of NATO capabilities. It is a unique opportunity to discuss the security challenges our nations face, and how we can meet those challenges. And we in NATO view industry as a key partner in that endeavor.
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In the face of these complex challenges, our NATO Summit in Wales two months ago sent a strong signal: that we will keep NATO strong, ready and capable to meet any threat to any Ally; that we will work more closely with our partners to keep both our Eastern and our Southern neighborhoods stable; and that we will make sure that the vital bond between Europe and North America stays rock solid.
The Readiness Action Plan that we agreed at Wales is the biggest reinforcement of our collective defence since the end of the Cold War. We are making our forces more agile, and able to deploy quickly, whenever and wherever threats emerge. We are maintaining a continuous NATO presence in the Eastern part of our Alliance, on a rotational basis, to reassure our Allies and to deter anyone who might wish to challenge us.
We are also setting up a rapid reaction “Spearhead Force,” the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force. We are putting in place elements of a robust command and control structure on the territory of our Eastern Allies. And we are looking at how we might pre-position equipment and supplies so that we can send reinforcements there rapidly, if we need to.
As part of the Readiness Action Plan, we will also ensure that NATO is able to address effectively the challenges posed by the kind of hybrid warfare that we have seen in Ukraine – “little green men” without national insignia, regular troops allegedly “on vacation,” overt and covert support for separatists trained and equipped across the border…
Implementing our Readiness Action Plan, and keeping NATO strong for the future, will require effort and commitment. But of course there will be a price to pay as well. At Wales, NATO leaders made a solemn pledge to halt the decline that we have seen in defence budgets across the Alliance for several years. And they agreed that they would aim to increase defence spending in real terms over the coming decade, moving towards the NATO benchmark of two percent of GDP.
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Since the launch of the Smart Defence initiative at our previous summit in Chicago two years ago, a growing number of multinational projects have helped Allies to achieve tangible benefits, both in terms of operational effectiveness and cost efficiency. It is vital now that we build on that progress and make multinational cooperation the preferred choice of more of our member nations. This applies, in particular, to capabilities that will increase NATO’s readiness and adaptability.
The Wales Summit highlighted a number of these capabilities, including joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance – or JISR. Work is on track to deliver an initial JISR capability from 2016 onwards. Our Alliance Ground Surveillance system will become available for operational deployment in 2017. NATO’s Airborne Early Warning and Control Force will continue to be modernized to maintain its full operational capability. And the North Atlantic Council has already directed work – including with contributions from industry – to ensure the longer-term future of this vital asset for our Alliance.
At Wales we also endorsed the Framework Nations Concept, which encourages groups of Allies to work together to develop and deploy mutually reinforcing, complementary capabilities guided by a framework nation. For example, facilitated by the United Kingdom, seven Allies are contributing to the Joint Expeditionary Force, which is a rapidly deployable force capable of conducting the full spectrum of operations, including high-intensity operations.
Work in all these areas will help to provide NATO with more coherent sets of forces and capabilities. It should also lead to a fairer sharing of the defence burden between the United States and its Allies, as well as among the European Allies.pledge to halt the decline that we have seen in defence budgets across the Alliance for several years. And they agreed that they would aim to increase defence spending in real terms over the coming decade, moving towards the NATO benchmark of two percent of GDP.
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One initiative seeks to build on our experience in joint missions and operations and further develop the ability of NATO forces to operate together with those of our partners. At Wales, our Defence Ministers met with 24 especially interoperable partners to launch an Interoperability Platform. And we are keen to take forward our dialogue and cooperation with these partners on interoperability issues, including increased participation in NATO training and exercises.
The Wales Summit also launched a Defence Capacity Building Initiative. This is aimed at streamlining our efforts to assist partners with the development of their own defence capacity, so that they can better cope with security challenges in their own regions. By building our partners’ capacity, we can project stability without having to deploy large forces of our own.
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