BRUSSELS — The leader of NATO said Tuesday that the first day of meetings at this week’s defense ministerial showed that the alliance had made “significant progress” in its ability to reinforce the security of its members, especially in eastern Europe.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance has fully implemented the readiness action plan adopted at the last summit in Wales two years ago, tripling the size of the NATO Response Force, which is ready to respond to all parts of the alliance for a quick response to emerging crises.
As evidence of that success, he said the land component of this force recently conducted an exercise in Poland and performed well.
Stoltenberg also said that defense ministers decided Tuesday to increase prepositioned equipment and supplies to better defend the Black Sea.
“This sends a clear message,” he said during a press conference at NATO headquarters. “If any of our allies is attacked, the whole alliance will respond as one.”
The defense ministerial that began at NATO on Tuesday is the last chance for countries to voice their input on new initiatives ahead of next month’s Warsaw Summit, where officials said they expect defense leaders to take stock of what more NATO can do to prevent Russian aggression.
A senior defense official said that the last NATO summit in Wales occurred shortly after Russia’s invasion of Crimea. While defense leaders were able to put some programs in place quickly to respond, the summit in July will allow officials to look more at whether those programs have become fully operational and successful as well as carry out new plans to adapt to a changing security situation.
“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,” a senior defense official said during the first day of meetings at NATO headquarters. “But also there’s a real feeling that what happened at Wales and what was decided at Wales is probably not enough.”
The summit will also provide details of what commitments countries have made to carry out decisions, Stoltenberg said.
Another official said NATO is looking at possible “deeper structural changes” to better respond to aggression by Russia while maintaining diplomatic and political channels.
“We can preserve ways to work with Russia. Nonetheless, the alliance has to adapt in order to put some teeth behind the dialogue with Moscow that goes up and down,” the official said.
On Wednesday, the final day of the ministerial, the NATO Ukraine Council will meet. In addition, Defense Secretary Ash Carter will also hold a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian Minister of Defense Stepan Poltorak.
Ukraine is preparing to present its Strategic Defense Bulletin, which contains its comprehensive plan for defense reform, in Warsaw early next month. The bulletin will lay out how Ukraine can increase civilian democratic control of the military, change how its troops are integrated with the minister of defense, increase transparency and decrease corruption.
To prepare, Poltorak will present the bulletin to the council on Wednesday, which the U.S. will endorse, the official said.
