NATO (North Atlantic treaty organization)NATO is an Alliance that consists of 30 independent member countries. Country by country, this page offers an overview of the links to national information servers and to the website of national delegations to NATO.
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that the Western military alliance will increase the size of its rapid reaction forces nearly eightfold to 300,000 troops as part of its response to an “era of strategic competition”.
The NATO reaction force currently numbers around 40,000 soldiers, who can deploy quickly when needed.
Coupled with other measures including the deployment of forces to defend specific allies, Stoltenberg said on Monday that the move to expand NATO forces is part of the “biggest overhaul of collective defence and deterrence since the Cold War”.
He made the remarks at a news conference ahead of a NATO summit in Madrid, Spain on Tuesday, when the 30 military allies in the bloc are expected to also agree on further support to Ukraine after its invasion by Russia.
Stoltenberg said he expects allies to make clear they consider Russia “as the most significant and direct threat to our security”.
Another central theme at the NATO summit will be the possibility for Finland and Sweden to join the alliance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
NATO member Turkey has so far blocked their applications, citing what it considers to be the two countries’ soft approach to organisations Turkey considers to be “terrorist”, such as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.
Turkey is demanding that Sweden and Finland grant extradition requests for individuals who are wanted by Turkish authorities.
Ankara also wants assurances that arms restrictions imposed by the two countries over Turkey’s 2019 military incursion into northern Syria will be removed.
Stoltenberg said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson have agreed to meet on the sidelines of the Madrid summit.
- Indirect – or national – contributions are the largest and come, for instance, when a member commits capabilities and/or troops to a military operation and bears the costs of the decision to do so.
- Direct contributions are made to finance the NATO budgets and programmes for requirements that serve the interests of all 30 members – and cannot reasonably be borne by any single member – such as NATO-wide air defence or command and control systems.
- All 30 Allies contribute to the NATO budget on an agreed cost-share formula based on Gross National Income, which represents a small percentage of each member’s defence budget. This is the principle of common funding, and demonstrates burden-sharing in action.
- Common funding arrangements are used to finance NATO’s principal budgets: the civil budget (NATO HQ running costs), the military budget (costs of the integrated Command Structure) and the NATO Security Investment Programme (military infrastructure and certain capabilities).
- Projects can also be jointly funded, which means that the participating countries can identify the requirements, the priorities and the funding arrangements, while NATO provides political oversight.
- NATO’s budget has strong governance and oversight mechanisms, with Allies deciding together what is eligible for common funding, deciding how much is spent each year, and setting planning figures for the medium term.
- The funding process is overseen by the North Atlantic Council, managed by the Resource Policy and Planning Board, and implemented by the Budget Committee and the Investment Committee.