Policy Brief NATO MOD's Meeting 15.-16. juni 2022

NATO DEFENCE MINISTERS’
MEETING
15-16 June 2022
Policy Brief
128 SPE 22 E | Original: English | June 2022
This Policy Brief is presented for information only and does not
represent the official view of the Assembly.
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NPA Alm.del - Bilag 27
NATO's Parlamentariske Forsamling 2021-22
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I. PREPARING FOR THE SUMMIT OF HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT IN
MADRID
• Allied Heads of State and Government will meet in Madrid on 28-30 June. “I am
confident that the Madrid Summit will be a transformative summit”, the Secretary
General stated. He highlighted five key items on the Summit’s agenda:
o a significant strengthening of deterrence and defence;
o sustained support for Ukraine and other partners at risk;
o a new NATO Strategic Concept;
o better burden-sharing and resourcing of the Alliance;
o Finland and Sweden’s applications for membership.
• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is invited to the Summit.
• Other invited partners include Georgia, Finland, Sweden and, for the first time at a
NATO Summit, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
II. FURTHER SUPPORT FOR UKRAINE
• Allies met with Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov to discuss Ukraine’s
urgent needs and continued support by Allies and partners to help Ukraine defend
against Moscow’s aggression. The Ministers also discussed how to speed up delivery
of weapons to Ukraine.
NATO DEFENCE MINISTERS MEETING,
15-16 JUNE 2022:
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Agenda
• Preparations for the upcoming NATO Summit in Madrid.
• Continued and strengthened support for Ukraine
• Support for other partners at risk
• Sweden and Finland’s applications
• Strengthened deterrence and defence
• Defence spending and resourcing the Alliance
Key decisions:
• Further individual offers of support for Ukraine
• Preparations of a new NATO Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine
• Outline of a new force model for strengthened deterrence and defence for the
longer term
Additional development
• Five NATO Allies signed the concept stage for the Next Generation Rotorcraft
Capability (NGRC)
Background
• Georgia, Finland, Sweden, and the European Union also joined the meeting of
NATO Defence Ministers.
• The US-led Ukraine Support Contact Group also met at the fringes of the Ministerial
and discussed Ukraine’s urgent needs for military equipment.
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• NATO Allies have provided support to Ukraine since 2014, training tens of thousands
of Ukrainian soldiers, and helped to equip and strengthen the Ukrainian armed forces.
Since the beginning of Russia’s war, NATO Allies and partners have been providing
Ukraine unprecedented support to help it defend against Moscow’s aggression.
• Allies have begun delivering more long-range, more advanced air defence systems,
more advanced artillery, and more heavy weapons to Ukraine. They have also started
the transition from delivering Soviet era weapons to more modern NATO weapons.
• The Madrid Summit is expected to endorse a new Comprehensive Assistance
Package for Ukraine. The package will scale up Allies’ assistance to the country and
will help Ukraine with the long-term adaptation of its armed forces. The package will be
designed to help Ukraine improve interoperability with NATO; transition from
Soviet-era to modern NATO equipment; and further strengthening security
institutions.
• The Ukraine Support Contact Group, led by the United States, also met on 15 June
to coordinate the efforts of NATO Allies and partners in providing support to Ukraine.
The Group includes over 40 nations. The United States announced a further USD 1bn
package of military aid to Ukraine.
III. SUPPORT TO OTHER NATO PARTNERS AT RISK
• Defence Ministers also discussed how to step up both political and practical support
for other partners at risk, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Georgia.
• In particular, NATO Allies are expected to agree further measures to support Georgia
with training, capacity building, and reforms to increase Georgia's ability to stand up
against Russian intervention and efforts to undermine the stability and territorial
integrity of Georgia.
• “Allies are unwavering in their support for the sovereignty and territorial
integrity of our close partners in Europe and for the right of each nation to choose
its own path, free from outside interference”, Mr Stoltenberg said.
IV. SWEDEN AND FINLAND’S MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS
• “Many Allies [...] expressed their support for this historic decision by Finland
and Sweden [to seek NATO membership]” according to Secretary General
Stoltenberg. “But at the same time, of course, I and Allies take seriously when
Türkiye, an important Ally, expressed concerns on specific issues, not least
related to terrorism. And therefore we address those concerns, we look into how
we can address them in a way that enables Türkiye to say yes, and to accept
Finland and Sweden as new members of our Alliance”.
• The Secretary General has sought to facilitate discussions between Türkiye, Sweden
and Finland. He met with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish
President Sauli Niinistö over the preceding weekend and welcomed the fact “that
Finland and Sweden are ready to address some of the concerns that Türkiye has put
forward on terrorism”.
• The timeline for resolving Türkiye’s concerns remained unclear but the Secretary
General expressed his confidence that “Finland and Sweden will become Members of
NATO also because Türkiye has declared/has made clear that they are in favour of
NATO's open door policy”.
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V. STRENGTHENED NATO DETERRENCE AND DEFENCE FOR THE LONGER TERM
• Ministers addressed the scale and design of NATO’s posture for the longer term.
“To ensure that we can defend every inch of Allied territory. From the first
moment, at all times, and against any threat”, Mr Stoltenberg stressed.
• “Russia’s war against Ukraine poses the biggest threat to our security in
decades”, the Secretary General said.
• In response, NATO has already doubled the number of battlegroups deployed on the
eastern flank to eight, and extended them from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Allies have
placed over 40,000 troops under direct NATO command, mainly on the eastern flank,
backed by major air and naval power. This has been supplemented by additional
national deployments, notably by the United States. Allies have also increased
readiness and the number of exercises.
• Additional measures to further strengthen deterrence and defence were a main point
of the discussions during the meeting. Defence Ministers “made significant progress”
in outlining the concept and modalities for a substantial strengthening of Allied
presence, capabilities, and readiness. The new force model and further decisions
on how to fulfil related requirements are expected to be agreed at the Madrid
Summit.
• The three pillars of the strengthened posture would consist of:
o More forward deployed combat formations and command and control
headquarters to strengthen the NATO battlegroups in the East, as well as
more air, sea and cyber defences;
o More prepositioned equipment and weapons stockpiles;
o A new force model with more forces at high readiness and specific
forces pre-assigned to the defence of specific territory to allow for much
faster reinforcements. This is the first time such a geographically-based
model is implemented since the Cold War. These forces “will be earmarked
pre-assigned for that specific territory, meaning that they will train, they will
rotate in and out, they will know the country the territory they have worked
together on interoperability working with the home defence forces and they
have pre-designed tasks”, the Secretary General explained.
• “Not all of the troops or forces will be deployed forward but parts of them will be
forward deployed and parts of them will be in the home country but ready to
move quickly if needed”, the Secretary General clarified. He also noted his
expectation that the size of these mixed forces – partly forward deployed and partly
pre-assigned for reinforcement – would be the size of a brigade. But the exact
breakdown and arrangement could differ from one eastern Ally to another.
• The Secretary General noted that Germany and some other Allies had already
announced plans for stepping up their presence along the eastern flank, but also noted
that “we still have some work to do as we look to the Summit” to implement the new
concept.
VI. DEFENCE SPENDING AND RESOURCING THE ALLIANCE
• Defence Ministers also discussed common funding and the importance of resourcing
NATO’s strengthened defence posture. „The substantial strengthening of our
deterrence and defence is necessary for our security. But it does not come for
free”, the NATO Secretary General said.
• European Allies and Canada have increased defence spending over seven
consecutive years. “Allies are also contributing to NATO deployments and
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exercises. And investing in more high-end capabilities, including
fifth-generation aircraft and emerging technologies. Now is the time to keep up
the momentum”, according to Mr Stoltenberg.
VII. ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENT: NEXT GENERATION ROTORCRAFT CAPABILITY
• On the margins of the Ministerial, the Defence Ministers of France, Germany, Greece,
Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom signed an agreement on the concept
stage for the Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC). The United Kingdom is
the lead nation for this project which will be executed by the NATO Support and
Procurement Agency (NSPA). The five nations will invest EUR 26.7 million during the
three years concept stage of the NGRC, which aims to develop and field the next
generation of medium-lift helicopters.
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