NORFOLK, VA - Against the backdrop of an increasingly complex and challenging European security landscape, NATO’s Allied Command Transformation recently hosted 25 Allied Defense Councilors to discuss future security and closer cooperation between NATO and the European Union.
The preliminary military-level discussions, the first of their kind following NATO’s Warsaw Summit and the Joint declaration by the President of the European Council, the President of the European Commission, and the Secretary General of NATO, are part of a broader NATO approach to identify practical steps to enhance the relationship with the European Union and other international organizations.
This enhanced partnership will, with urgency:
•Boost our ability to counter hybrid threats, including by bolstering resilience, working together on analysis, prevention, and early detection, through timely information sharing and, to the extent possible, intelligence sharing between staffs; and cooperating on strategic communication and response. The development of coordinated procedures through our respective playbooks will substantially contribute to implementing our efforts.
•Broaden and adapt our operational cooperation including at sea, and on migration, through increased sharing of maritime situational awareness as well as better coordination and mutual reinforcement of our activities in the Mediterranean and elsewhere.
•Expand our coordination on cybersecurity and defense including in the context of our missions and operations, exercises and on education and training.
•Develop coherent, complementary and interoperable defense capabilities of EU Member States and NATO Allies, as well as multilateral projects.
•Facilitate a stronger defense industry and greater defense research and industrial cooperation within Europe and across the Atlantic.
•Step up our coordination on exercises, including on hybrid, by developing as the first step parallel and coordinated exercises for 2017 and 2018.
•Build the defense and security capacity and foster the resilience of our partners in the East and South in a complementary way through specific projects in a variety of areas for individual recipient countries, including by strengthening maritime capacity.
NATO also proposes to establish dialogue with emerging globally influential countries to mitigate the potential for future conflict.
French Air Force General Denis Mercier, the Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, said, “NATO’s Allied Command Transformation must adopt a tailored approach with our current partners to efficiently generate the security network required to project stability. Furthermore, an expanded partnership community, consisting of both traditional and non-traditional partners will provide NATO’s decision makers with the widest range of choice, while also providing critical enablers to persistent strategic awareness, aiding closer coordination and building resilience to future threats to the Alliance.”
In a continually changing environment, NATO’s Allied Command Transformation will significantly contribute to the development and implementation of NATO’s strategic vision by bridging the gap between near-term activities and longer-term perspectives.
Situated in Norfolk, Virginia since 1952, NATO’s Allied Command Transformation (previously Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic) is the only NATO command in the United States and contributed $100 million annually to the U.S. economy. The headquarters comprises 750 military and civilian personnel, representing 26 of NATO’s 28 nations, along with eight partner nations.