The United States is hosting the 2024 NATO Summit, July 9-11, 2024, in Washington, D.C., marking the historic 75th Anniversary of the Alliance. The Washington Summit will convene all 32 Allies to demonstrate the continued strength and unity of the Transatlantic Alliance. Today, NATO is as united as it has ever been and it is larger, stronger, and better resourced than ever. President Biden will reaffirm the United States’ unwavering commitment to the transatlantic bond and Article 5 of the Washington Treaty – that an attack on one is an attack on all. Allies are further strengthening their collective support to Ukraine at this critical moment for transatlantic security and reiterating their commitment that Ukraine’s future is in NATO. Building on the historic decisions at the 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius to adapt NATO to today’s security challenges, Allied leaders in Washington will advance the implementation of NATO’s new defense plans, ensuring Allies are prepared to deter threats and defend every inch of NATO territory. NATO partner leaders including Ukraine, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, and the European Union are joining Allies during the summit to advance collective efforts to strengthen international peace and security. NATO Allies will also welcome the selection of Mark Rutte as the next NATO Secretary General and express their respect and appreciation for Jens Stoltenberg’s decade of commitment and service to the Alliance. Key Summit Outcomes include:
A Stronger, Reinvigorated and More Robust Alliance:
Allied leaders will meet for the first time at 32, welcoming their newest member, Sweden, into the Alliance. Under President Biden’s leadership, Finland and Sweden have joined NATO. Both countries are highly capable Allies with strong militaries who share the Alliance’s democratic values and will strengthen its defense capabilities. The United States looks forward to their further integration into NATO’s command structures.
Support for Ukraine:
The Washington Summit will strengthen NATO’s relationship with Ukraine, as Allies convene for the second meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council at the Leaders level. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy will sit with Allied leaders to discuss further Alliance support for Ukraine in its ongoing fight to defend its freedom, sovereignty and territorial integrity against Russian aggression. Allies are announcing significant new measures of support for Ukraine that will bring Ukraine closer to NATO while laying the foundation to strengthen Ukraine’s ability to defend against Russian aggression, now and in the future. Allies will also take tangible steps at the Summit to increase NATO’s role in building a resilient Ukrainian force with a credible defense and deterrence capability while also supporting ongoing reforms that further align Ukraine with NATO standards and values. At the Summit Allies will announce new steps to advance military, political, and financial support to Ukraine. These elements taken together with Allies’ bilateral support for Ukraine, form the bridge to Ukraine’s future NATO membership.
- NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU) – NSATU will coordinate equipment, training and force development work to support Ukraine on its path to full interoperability with NATO. A three-star general based in Germany will lead the effort, which will be carried out in Allied countries. Through its work, NSATU will help Ukraine to defend against Russian aggression today and deter aggression in the future.
- NATO Senior Representative in Kyiv – To further deepen Ukraine’s institutional relationship with NATO, the Secretary General has decided to appoint a senior civilian representative in Kyiv to act as a focal point for NATO’s engagement with senior Ukrainian officials.
- Financial Support – Allies will announce their intention to provide a minimum baseline funding of €40 billion within the next year, and to provide sustainable levels of security assistance for Ukraine to prevail. The United States is proud to support that effort. Our contributions to Ukraine for this pledge will come from the funds already appropriated by Congress in the national security supplemental, which President Biden signed into law in April.
Increased Defense Spending and Strengthened Defense Industrial Base:
The Alliance is spending more than ever on critical new defense procurement as well as research and development. When the Biden-Harris Administration took office, only nine Allies met the Vilnius defense investment commitments to spend at least two percent of GDP on defense. Twenty-three Allies now meet or exceed their defense spending commitment. This is important progress since 2014 when only three Allies were spending two percent of GDP on defense. We celebrate this increase while noting every Ally should have a plan to meet the two percent benchmark as soon as possible.
Increased defense spending must be coupled with a strengthened transatlantic defense industrial base to ensure Allies are able to produce and sustain the necessary battle-decisive munitions. In Vilnius, Allies adopted a Defense Production Action Plan to better connect our defense industries with defense planning, facilitate more joint procurement, and make it easier for Allies to acquire the equipment they need to meet NATO’s capability targets and standards. As a result of these efforts, NATO has agreed to contracts worth $10 billion for the production of arms and ammunition to replenish Allied stocks, a significant commitment that will create jobs in the United States. At the Washington Summit, Allies will take further steps to strengthen our cooperation and increase defense industrial production, including a pledge to coordinate on national plans to improve industrial capacity, enhance standardization to promote interoperability and interchangeability, and strengthen demand signals to industry that these increased investments will persist over time.
Modernized Deterrence and Defense:
NATO is a defensive alliance. Its main purpose is to prevent war, not to wage it. Allies do this by keeping our defenses strong. Leaders at the Washington Summit will take additional steps to advance NATO’s modernized command structure and put NATO’s new generation of defense plans into practice, strengthening the Alliance’s deterrence and defense capabilities to meet the threats of today and the future. These plans, which cover NATO territory and span all domains, from air, land, and sea, to cyber and space, are the first set of comprehensive defense plans the Alliance has developed since the end of the Cold War. The Alliance has now completed the full blueprint for modernizing its system of collective defense. This includes an updated force structure to strengthen the Alliance’s readiness and ability to respond to any scenario, and an objective, conditions-based driver for Allies’ defense planning and procurement. NATO is now able to tie the Alliance’s forces to specific geography and tasks, giving even better focus to the Alliance’s operations, activities, and investments. The modernized command structure that leaders will advance in Washington will transform headquarters once fit for peacetime and out-of-area operations into headquarters ready to deter any threat and defend Allied territory.
Strengthening Global Partnerships:
For the third consecutive year, NATO leaders invited Indo-Pacific Partners Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea to participate in the NATO Summit at the highest levels. NATO and Indo-Pacific Partners will meet, along with the European Union and European Commission, to discuss the increasing connectivity between Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific security, including the increasingly concerning military and economic relationship between Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the People’s Republic of China’s support for Russia’s defense industrial base. NATO Allies and these partners will also discuss their shared support for Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific Partners’ growing contributions to global security, transnational challenges including on cyber and disinformation that transcend geographic boundaries, and continued cooperation to build collective resilience in the face of global challenges. NATO Allies and the Indo-Pacific partners will deepen practical cooperation and launch four new Flagship Projects. The projects will focus on 1) support for Ukraine; 2) enhancing cooperation on cyber defense; 3) exchanging information on the challenges posed by disinformation; and 4) engaging on Artificial Intelligence through an expert group.
Strengthened Resilience:
Allies at the Vilnius Summit endorsed resilience objectives to ensure our Alliance will be better prepared against any threat or hazard. In May, 2024, the United States hosted Senior National Officials for Resilience from across the Alliance to advance our mutual cooperation and information sharing. Allies, including the United States, are also preparing first-ever National Resilience Plans. The U.S. plan builds off the historic work we’ve already undertaken to strengthen our national resilience. NATO leaders in Washington will set forth new efforts by the Alliance to further enhance national and collective resilience, including support for NATO’s new defense plans, a commitment to build awareness and collective resilience among Allies and with partners, and an increased level of ambition for collaboration.
Cyber Defense:
Allies are leveraging NATO more than ever as a platform to share information about cyber threats in real time, which helps identify those responsible, mitigate the threat, and lead to appropriate responses. To deter attacks from adversaries, Allies have committed to secure classified NATO information by only using trusted vendors. For the first time, select NATO Partners participated in this year’s NATO Cyber Defense Pledge Conference. Partners shared best practices and lessons learned in protecting national infrastructure from cyber threats. Together as Allies, we are strengthening our ability to detect, prevent, and respond to malicious cyber activities both on NATO systems and across the Alliance. At Vilnius, Allies revamped the NATO Cyber Defense Pledge to establish new minimum cybersecurity practices. In Washington, Allies will announce the creation of a new integrated cyber defense center that enhances our integrated situational awareness and better positions the Alliance to identify and address vulnerabilities anywhere in the Alliance.
Advancing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda Across NATO’s Core Tasks:
To further the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda across NATO’s core tasks and missions, Allies undertook a revision of NATO’s 2018 policy to address and build on NATO’s long-standing commitment to WPS that will be announced at the Washington Summit. The updated policy integrates new security threats, including technology-facilitated gender-based violence and the misuse of new and emerging technologies, climate security, and conflict-related sexual violence, and also notes Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and the threats it poses specifically to women on the frontlines of the conflict. At the Washington Summit, Allies will also announce historic contributions through the Comprehensive Assistance Package (CAP) to provide women’s body armor, boots, and uniforms to the Ukrainian armed services to further NATO’s non-lethal support to Ukraine and commitment to supporting women’s full and equal participation in defense and security. This will mark the first time Allies have directed resources through CAP to advance Women, Peace, and Security objectives.
Combatting Terrorism and Addressing Challenges Beyond NATO’s Southern Flank:
NATO’s 2022 Strategic Concept identifies terrorism as NATO’s most direct asymmetric threat. Allies in Vilnius updated NATO’s Counterterrorism guidelines to ensure NATO is addressing today’s terrorism threats. To better understand the threats and challenges emanating from NATO’s southern neighborhood, particularly the Middle East, North Africa and Sahel regions, Allies will continue to review of existing and emerging threats and challenges. Additionally, NATO’s new family of plans ensures deterrence, defense, and readiness for the Alliance to respond to this wide range of evolving threats.
White House Washington DC July 10 2024
Sources: Midtown Tribune, White House WH.gov