The NATO Summit in Wales this week was to have marked the end of combat in Afghanistan and preparation for a quieter period focused on partnerships and training, but Russian aggression has moved the focus to defense spending and readiness, a top alliance official said yesterday.
“Indeed, over the past five years, total defense spending by NATO nations has fallen by 20 percent,” said NATO Deputy secretary General Alexander Vershbow at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in London. “However, over this same period, Russia’s defense spending has increased by 50 percent, and this trend is slated to continue.”
NATO Deputy Secretary General
Photo: NATO
A summer report by the U.K. Parliamentary Defense Committee said NATO was not as ready as it needs to be—underfunded and inadequately equipped, among other findings. Vershbow said he doesn’t entirely “disagree” with that.
Leaders at the Summit must disabuse the Kremlin of the idea of NATO weakness and show NATO is committed to collective defense, said Vershbow, who took up his position in 2012 after spending three years as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs.
“This means a pledge to increase our spending on defense in real terms as our economies improve and to start spending our defense budgets on the right things–modern, deployable capabilities that fill the gaps in NATO’s arsenal,” he said.
The summit must also agree to a NATO Readiness Action Plan (RAP) to respond to Russia’s challenge and areas of instability and crisis around the alliance’s borders.
“It will put in place on the territory of Allies on NATO’s eastern flank the necessary infrastructure, equipment, and command and control to ensure rapid reaction and reinforcement, backed up by the necessary plans, training and exercises,” he said.
Part of the RAP is to significantly upgrade the NATO Response Force, including creating a new Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, that can respond in days, not weeks, to any challenge.
“Importantly, we will increase the number and scale of NATO exercises in order to ensure that our forces are combat ready and able to operate together at all times,” he said. “And we will enhance our Standing Naval Forces to support the full range of conventional naval operations.”
The RAP also is to ensure NATO is ready and able to respond to hybrid warfare such as economic blackmail, cyber attacks, disinformation and propaganda.
“At the Summit, we will make sure we will have all the right tools for the job,” he said. “We will emphasize that we have the political will to use those tools–to defend our allies; to stand up to the bullying tactics of others; and to continue shaping the security environment during one of the most turbulent periods in history.”
As for the United States’ goals for the summit, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel – who along with Secretary of State John Kerry will attend the summit with President Barack Obama – will hold informal meetings throughout the summit to thank allies for their contributions in Iraq, Afghanistan and other ongoing conflicts around the world and to request any and all additional contributions that NATO members can make, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
“We want partner nations to contribute what they are able and willing to contribute in whatever fashion they’re willing to contribute it, understanding, of course, that they have domestic concerns as well, and their own legislative bodies to work through on this, and populations who have different views on assisting against the [Islamic State] threat. We respect that,” Kirby said. “So it’s not about going there with demands or a laundry list. It’s about going there to thank them for what they’ve been doing, encourage them to continue to assist in whatever way they deem fit.”
Kirby said that recent Russian aggression has “galvanized the alliance and brought into sharp relief the need for all NATO partners and allies to continue sufficient and adequate defense spending for their own needs and the needs of their allies and to look for new ways to combat threats on the continent.” But he said the discussions about defense spending are bigger than that one issue.
“This is a defining moment for the alliance, and this summit provides the alliance a great opportunity to look not only at what has been happening in the last few months in Russia and Ukraine but the future of the alliance itself, from defense spending to operations to exercise to interoperability and capabilities across the spectrum,” he said.