Download NATO Brussels Summit 2017: a preview

BRIEFING PAPER
Number CBP07956, 28 April 2017
NATO Brussels Summit
2017: a preview
By Louisa Brooke-Holland
The next NATO Summit will be held in Brussels on 25 May 2017. It will be the first summit
for Prime Minister Theresa May, US President Donald Trump and the new President of
France. The summit will be held at NATO’s new headquarters in Brussels.
This briefing paper looks at some of the expected areas of discussion. It will not be
updated before the UK general election (8 June 2017).
The last two summits have been dominated by discussion on how to
respond to Russia.1 The headline decision of the 2016 Warsaw summit was
to deploy four multinational battalions to Poland and the Baltic States. This
Enhanced Forward Presence (EFP) is designed to act both as a deterrent to
Russia and to reassure those states of NATO’s commitment to collective
defence. All four battalions are expected to be operational by June.
“NATO is in the
process of
implementing the
biggest
reinforcement of
our collective
The UK is leading the battlegroup in Estonia with 800 troops from 5th
defence since the
battalion The Rifles (5 Rifles) and the Queen’s Royal Hussars. An additional end of the Cold
150 troops from the Light Dragoons are in Poland with the US-led
War.”
battalion. Four RAF Typhoon aircraft have deployed to Romania to support NATO SecretaryNATO’s Southern Air Policing mission from May 2017. The Russian
General, 12 April
Ambassador to UK has accused the Government and NATO of increasing
2017
tensions in Europe.
Another major issue is defence spending. President Trump has made clear his displeasure
at the imbalance in spending among NATO allies.2 In 2006 NATO agreed a guideline for
allies to spend 2% of GDP on defence. Allies recommitted to that guideline at the 2014
Wales summit, pledging to: halt any decline in defence expenditure; to increase defence
expenditure in real terms as GDP grows; and to aim to move towards the 2% guideline
within a decade. NATO reaffirmed this commitment in Warsaw.
The US is pushing this issue further, demanding that Allies agree in Brussels to produce
national plans that will “clearly articulate how, with annual milestone progress
commitments, the (Defence Investment) Pledge will be fulfilled”.
1
2
For further information see House of Commons Library, NATO’s military response to Russia: November
2016 update, 4 November 2016
NATO estimates for 2016 suggest US spending on defence amounts to 3.61% of GDP compared to 1.47%
for NATO Europe.
www.parliament.uk/commons-library | intranet.parliament.uk/commons-library | [email protected] | @commonslibrary
2
NATO Brussels Summit 2017: a preview
Jens Stoltenberg has confirmed NATO is looking at developing national plans as a way of
“strengthening the transatlantic bond” through “fair burden sharing.” Stoltenberg has also
said he welcomes the US stance as “it helps me in pushing all allies to deliver on what
they promised in 2014 on defence investments”.
However Stoltenberg has also cautioned against focusing solely on defence spending:
“burden sharing is not only about spending, burden sharing is also about contributing
with forces, with capabilities, with troops to different NATO missions and operations”. The
German Chancellor made a similar point to the US President when they met in
Washington and the German Foreign Minister has described spending 2% of GDP on
defence as neither reachable nor desirable for Germany.3
Currently only five allies (the US, UK, Estonia, Greece and Poland) meet the 2% target,
although NATO’s Secretary-General says Romania, Latvia and Lithuania are expected to
reach the 2% target either this year or next.
How to respond to the myriad challenges emanating from the Middle East and North
Africa, in particular countering the threat of terrorism, will also be discussed in Brussels.
The Warsaw summit communiqué said terrorism “represents an immediate and direct
threat” and the US Secretary of State has explicitly called on NATO to do more to fight
terrorism.
NATO is not formally part of the US-led coalition against Daesh/ISIS in Iraq and Syria,
although it is providing NATO AWACS (advanced Airborne Warning and Control System)
aircraft to provide surveillance and situational awareness. NATO runs a training
programme for Iraqi security forces and foreign ministers agreed in February to provide
additional training for paramedics armoured vehicles/tanks maintenance.
NATO is to create a new regional hub in the south, based at NATO’s Joint Force
Command in Naples, to collect information and improve situational awareness on
developments in the Middle East and North Africa. This was agreed by NATO defence
ministers in February.
As the UK plans to leave the European Union, so NATO and the EU pursue closer ties. A
joint NATO-EU declaration was agreed in Warsaw and Jens Stoltenberg attended the
recent EU defence ministers meeting in Malta. Particular areas of cooperation are cyber
defence, hybrid challenges, exercises and maritime security. Further decisions on potential
areas of joint working are likely to be agreed at the summit.
NATO declared Cyberspace a separate operational domain along the same lines of land,
sea and air domains in Warsaw. In February NATO defence ministers approved an
updated Cyber Defence Plan and a roadmap to implement cyberspace as an operational
domain. NATO held its largest cyber defence exercise in Estonia in April, exercising the
defence of a military airbase against cyber-attacks. NATO’s Ballistic Missile Defence
capability may also be discussed.
The Libyan Government of National Accord formally requested NATO assistance in
February for building security and defence institutions. The Summit may also discuss the
latest on NATO’s ballistic missile defence capabilities.
Montenegro is set to become the 29th member of the Alliance this year.
3
The EU Commission President has also said European countries should not feel pushed into spending
more on their armed forces by the United States.
3
Commons Library Briefing, 28 April 2017
Box 1: About NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was formed in 1949 as an Alliance of 12 nations dedicated to
ensuring their collective security and preservation and intended to counter the perceived threat from
the Soviet Union and later the countries of the Warsaw Pact. The main tenet of the Alliance is Article 5
of the Washington Treaty which states unequivocally that an armed attack against one shall be
considered an attack against all.
From its inception through the Cold War, NATO looked eastwards to the Soviet Union. That focus
shifted in the 1990s and relations with Russia improved - NATO and Russia signed a Founding Act in
1997 and established a Council in 2002. However events in Ukraine in 2014, coupled with what NATO
perceives to be aggressive military action by Russia - violations of NATO allied airspace, provocative
military activity near NATO borders - has prompted a significant re-evaluation of that relationship.
Russia suggests it is NATO, not Russia, which is the aggressor. Moscow judges NATO to be a significant
external threat to Russia, pointing to the deployment of military forces near the border of the Russian
Federation and further expansion of the Alliance. President Putin argues NATO requires an 'enemy' to
justify its ongoing existence.
NATO currently has 28 members. This will increase to 29 when the formal ratification process for
Montenegro is complete.
Key people:

Secretary-General: Jens Stoltenberg

Deputy Secretary-General: Rose Gottemoeller

Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR): General Curtis M. Scaparrotti

Deputy Supreme Allied Command, Europe (DSACEUR): General Sir James Everard (UK)
Further library material

House of Lords Library, NATO Alliance: Recent Developments, 16 March 2017

House of Commons Library, NATO’s military response to Russia: November 2016
update, 4 November 2016

Warsaw Summit Communiqué, 9 July 2016

Wales Summit Declaration, 5 September 2014
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