BRUSSELS — NATO wrapped up it’s two-day defense ministerial on Wednesday and set up some final decisions on future operations to be made at next month’s Warsaw Summit.
Topics discussed at the meetings in Brussels ranged from how to better prepare Ukraine to counter Russian aggression, to increasing defense spending by NATO members, to making good on the promise of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product, to how cyberoperations would be handled by the alliance going forward.
While ministers made some progress on initiatives this week, the alliance will try to agree on final proposals, and decide how specific NATO members can implement those plans, when members meet again at the Warsaw Summit in Poland in early July.
Much of what was discussed at the meetings, as well as further steps expected to be announced at the summit, fell into three main areas:
Islamic State
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said as the ministerial closed that members decided to develop a recommendation to boost the number of NATO trainers helping Iraqi forces, and hoped that all nations would be ready to approve the plan by the summit.
A senior NATO diplomat said the trainers would likely teach specific skills like counter-IED tactics, and would also allow Iraqi troops to remain in Iraq during their training, two changes requested by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi.
The diplomat said ministers are also looking at whether NATO airborne warning and control systems, or AWACS, could be used to conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance flights to fill in gaps left by coalition aircraft.
“The counter-ISIL campaign was, of course, a topic that my fellow ministers and discussed over the last day and a half, as ISIL’s parent tumor in Iraq and Syria, and its metastases, are among the leading sources of instability emanating out from NATO’s southern flank,” Defense Secretary Ash Carter said at a press conference at the close of the ministerial. “We need to do more — not only as individual nations, but as an alliance.”
Russia
NATO found that the plans it put in place in Wales to better protect its eastern European allies have had success, but also agreed at the meeting to take more steps forward to counter Russian aggression, including increasing the equipment and supplies that are prepositioned near the Black Sea.
“This sends a clear message,” Stoltenberg said. “If any of our allies is attacked, the whole alliance will respond as one.”
One senior defense official said that he expects NATO to take further steps in Warsaw.
“Some of what I think you’ll see here in the ministerial and off into the summit is really bringing together what the alliance decided to do and making sure it’s clear that we’ve accomplished what we set out to do,” the official said. “But also there’s a real feeling that what happened at Wales and what was decided at Wales is probably not enough.”
The Ukrainian defense minister presented his country’s Strategic Defense Bulletin to the NATO-Ukraine Caucus on Wednesday, which lays out plans to improve civilian control of the military, change how troops are integrated with the minister of defense, increase transparency and cut corruption.
“Bilaterally, the United States has also provided over $600 million in security assistance to Ukraine since the conflict began in 2014 — to strengthen Ukraine’s internal defenses, support the operational needs of its forces, and promote key defense reforms. After my meeting today with [Ukraine Defense] Minister [Stepan] Poltorak, I’m confident these reforms are moving forward,” Carter said.
The bulletin will be presented to all members in Warsaw.
Afghanistan
The senior NATO diplomat said the alliance will likely announce a future force structure in Afghanistan that continues to include a “hub” in Kabul and Bagram, as well as four spokes in the north, south, east and west.
“What I’m forecasting is that three weeks from now, that process will result, and we will still be in the hub and four spokes. I believe we’ll have sufficient resources,” the diplomat said. “Now, how much we do and how we do it, we’ll have to adjust to the troops available.”
The U.S. is still expected to drawdown to 5,500 troops in the country by the end of this year, though 3,400 will participate in the NATO training mission. The remainder are tasked with counterterrorism operations.
Carter said he shared with his colleagues the President Obama’s latest change to increase the air campaign in Afghanistan and allow U.S. troops to advise and accompany conventional Afghan forces, instead of just special operators.
“I’m sure that the success NATO has had in Afghanistan, the new authorities provided to U.S. forces by the president for this fighting season, as well as planning for future years will all be discussed more at the Warsaw Summit next month,” the secretary said.
Carter said he was “pleased to hear” at the ministerial that other NATO allies had committed to funding the Afghan National Security Forces through 2020, providing stability and predictability to the Afghan government.
