18 December 2001
Text: NATO Defense Ministers' Statement on Fighting Terrorism
(NATO Defense Ministerial in Brussels, December 18, 2001) (1210)
The NATO defense ministers held their semi-annual meeting December 18
at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. They issued the following statement
on adapting the alliance's defense capabilities to the struggle
against terrorism:
(begin text)
18-Dec-2001
NATO Press Releases
STATEMENT ON COMBATING TERRORISM: ADAPTING THE ALLIANCE'S DEFENCE
CAPABILITIES
1. The atrocities committed against the United States on 18 Dec. 2001
11 September were an attack on all Allies. The invocation for the
first time of Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, within a day of
those tragic events, was a powerful testimony to this fact and
demonstrated that NATO's overall approach to security can include the
possibility of collective action in response to a terrorist attack
from abroad on an Ally. It also testified to our recognition that what
had been attacked, in addition to thousands of innocent people, were
the values on which our societies are based. These are values we will
defend. Individually and collectively, we must deal with a changed
security environment.
2. The Alliance must adapt its capabilities to these changes in the
conditions of security and stability. We fully endorse the recent
statement on terrorism by Alliance Foreign Ministers. As Defence
Ministers, we are especially concerned to ensure that the Alliance's
military concepts evolve in keeping with our clearer appreciation of
the menace posed by terrorism and that its defence capabilities are
adequate for the demands they will face, including military responses
to terrorism. Such action must of course make use of a wide range of
national and international means, of which military ones are only a
part. As complements to civilian instruments, however, defence and
military tools may be essential for a number of purposes including
gathering intelligence; acting against terrorists and those who
harbour them; protecting populations, infrastructure, and forces
against their attacks; and dealing with the consequences of attacks
that might nevertheless occur.
3. The Alliance is already in a position to contribute significantly
to the struggle against terrorism due to the ongoing transformation of
its forces, military structures, and defence planning procedures that
has been under way since the end of the Cold War. Indeed, following 11
September, both individually and collectively, the Allies are already
making such a contribution. In conjunction with the invocation of
Article 5, we have opened our airspace to aircraft involved in the
coalition operations, deployed Airborne Warning and Control Aircraft
to help patrol American airspace, sent a naval force to the eastern
Mediterranean, taken steps to strengthen the protection of sensitive
facilities, and increased exchanges of information and intelligence.
We are examining ways of improving the Alliance's air defence posture.
4. A more general re-assessment of the Alliance's defence posture and
plans in the light of the events of 11 September has already begun. A
new assessment of the threat posed by terrorism is being prepared;
proposals for improving the Alliance's preparedness against terrorism
involving chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons have
been advanced; and the Allies concerned are examining the implications
of terrorism for national defence plans in the context of NATO's force
planning system. We are vigorously pursuing our efforts to prevent the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery means
and intensifying our cooperation in the field of civil emergency
planning.
5. In addition, NATO's relationships with its Partners - with Russia,
Ukraine, and the other members of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership
Council - constitute a network of countries linked by habits of
cooperation and united in their condemnation of terrorism. These
relationships have already shown their operational importance in the
Balkans and are also valuable in the struggle against terrorism. The
value of our cooperation with our Partners has already been shown in
the consultations that are taking place on the ongoing crisis and the
fact that a number of them are contributing to the coalition
operations. We wish to deepen our relationships with our Central Asian
and Caucasian Partners, as well as with our partners in the
Mediterranean Dialogue, who have also unreservedly condemned the
attacks on the United States.
6. The struggle against terrorism will involve a wide range of
international organisations. We support the efforts of the United
Nations with its central role in this field, and those of the European
Union, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the
G-8, and international financial institutions.
7. There is much yet to do, however, on both a conceptual and a
practical level. This work should include:
- further consideration, as noted earlier, of the way in which the
Alliance can contribute in the defence field to the struggle against
terrorism;
- preparation by the NATO Military Authorities, on the basis of
guidance to be provided by the Council in Permanent Session, of a
military concept for defence against terrorism, following the
development of the new threat assessment, for approval by the Council
in Permanent Session;
- a review of the effectiveness of the Alliance's defence and military
policies, structures and capabilities for the full range of its
missions against the background of the threat posed by terrorism;
- further efforts by the Senior Defence Group on Proliferation, in
consultation with other relevant NATO bodies, to improve the
Alliance's capability to cope with the possible use by terrorists of
chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials;
- further efforts by nations and by the relevant Alliance bodies to
identify possible measures in all relevant DCI capability areas, in
both the short and long term, or additional efforts that would enhance
the Alliance's defensive posture against terrorist attacks;
- enhanced sharing of information among the Allies on threat warnings
and intelligence assessments, concepts, structures, equipment,
training, and exercising of military forces designed to combat
terrorist threats, and on other measures that could improve the
Alliance's defence posture against such threats.
8. Efforts to improve NATO's ability to respond to terrorism must be
an integral, albeit urgent, part of the more general ongoing work to
improve Alliance military capabilities. There has been some progress
in this wider regard since our last meeting, but a great deal more
needs to be done. We are especially concerned about persistent
long-standing deficiencies in areas such as survivability;
deployability; combat identification; and intelligence, surveillance,
and target acquisition. The full implementation of DCI is essential if
the Alliance is to be able to carry out its missions, taking into
account the threat posed by terrorism.
9. Against the background of this statement, we direct the Council in
Permanent Session to keep these matters under regular review and
report to us at our next meeting on progress made with respect to the
tasks listed in paragraph 7 and more generally on the Alliance's
ability, from a defence and military point of view, to accomplish the
full range of its tasks in the changed security environment,
especially in light of the threat posed by terrorism. The Council
should also make recommendations for any necessary further work. In
addition, the Summit Meeting next year in Prague of the Heads of State
and Government will be a particularly important opportunity to assess
the progress made in developing the capabilities that the struggle
against terrorism and the other challenges facing the Alliance demand,
and to give further direction as necessary.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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