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Partnership for Peace

NATO's Partnership for Peace program is the first step toward membership in the alliance. Partnership for Peace (PfP) aims to enhance cooperation and stability in central and eastern European countries while increasing interoperability between partner nations and NATO.

VAZIANI TRAINING AREA, Georgia — Troops from Georgia, the United States, Armenia, Azerbaijan and the Ukraine stood together, here, for the last time on July 30, at the closing ceremony of this year's Immediate Response exercise. During the exercise troops conducted hundreds of live-fire and situational training exercises; combat lifesaver classes; and Improvised Explosive Device training. Immediate Response is an annual bilateral security cooperation exercise conducted between the U.S. and NATO and coalition partners. The purpose of this year's exercise was to increase the cooperation and partnership between U.S. and Georgian forces while preparing the Georgian Military for operations in Iraq.

Partnership for Peace (PfP) is a major NATO initiative introduced in January 1994. The program aims to enhance cooperation and stability in central and eastern European countries while increasing interoperability between partner nations and NATO.

The core objectives PfP nations pursue are creating transparency in national defense planning and budgeting processes; ensuring democratic control of defense forces; developing interoperable forces and command and control structures; and preparing partner nations to contribute to NATO operations. There are currently 22 PfP member-states located in Europe and central Asia.

PfP plays a crucial role in contributing to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area and is integral for aspirant countries to gain NATO interoperability and membership. PfP has helped improve participating nations militarily capability in NATO-led peacekeeping operations. Funding for eligible partner nations is provided through Warsaw Initiative Funds.

A “toolbox” of PfP tools and mechanisms supports cooperation through a mix of policies, programs, action plans and arrangements. At the Lisbon Summit in November 2010, as part of a focused reform effort to develop a more efficient and flexible partnership policy, allied leaders decided to take steps to streamline NATO’s partnership tools and open all cooperative activities and exercises to harmonize partnership programs – whether partners are Euro-Atlantic partners, countries participating in the Mediterranean Dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative, or global partners.

What once seemed wildly improbable is now taken for granted. NATO continues to move east into parts of the former Soviet Union. The three Baltic states, Slovakia and Slovenia in central Europe, and Romania and Bulgaria on the Black Sea, appear likely to join the alliance at its November summit in Prague. Farther east still, by 2009 Georgia and Azerbaijan in the Caucasus were seeking admission. It was one thing for Russia to go along with the Caucasus participation in NATO's Partnership for Peace program, since Russia now has a similar association with NATO.

Serbia, which claims military neutrality, is a member of NATO's outreach Partnership for Peace program and has held military exercises with both the Russians and the Western military alliance. Serbia had been on the path to join the European Union, but under pressure from Moscow slid toward the Kremlin and its goal of keeping the countries in the Balkan region out of NATO and other Western bodies.