The leaders of the NATO have signed this Wednesday a new Strategic Concept that will guide the decisions of the Alliance in the next decade and that replaces that of Lisbon in 2010. The declaration includes the determination of the allies to transform their deterrence and defense in the face of new challenges, a comprehensive package of help to Ukraine to defend itself from the Russian invasion and a united position towards Chinaterrorism and cyber attacks.
This is the document approved by the 30 Heads of State and Government of NATO, in 5 keys:
The main threats: Russia and China
The document defines Russia as “the most significant and direct threat to the security of the allies and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic zone”, and points to China, for the first time, because of the challenge it poses to the security, interests and values of NATO members. “We cannot consider the Russian Federation as our partner,” the document reads.
As for China, in the document, the allies specify that “China’s declared ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values.” According to the manifesto, China employs a “wide range of political, economic, and military tools to increase its global presence and project power, while maintaining opacity about its strategy, intentions, and military buildup.”
Similarly, NATO warns of the weapons capacity of countries such as North Korea, Iran or Syria.
“The fundamental purpose of NATO’s nuclear capability is to preserve the peace, prevent coercion and deter aggression. As long as nuclear weapons exist, NATO will remain a nuclear alliance. NATO’s goal is a safer world for all; We seek to create the security environment for a world without nuclear weapons,” the document underlines.
Cyber attacks and hybrid warfare
“Cyberspace is disputed at all times,” says the manifesto. “Malignant actors seek to degrade our critical infrastructure infrastructure, interfere with our government services, extract intelligence, steal intellectual property, and impede our military activities,” the allies say. In this regard, they have pledged to accelerate digital transformation, adapt NATO’s Command Structure for the information age and improve cyber defensesnetworks and infrastructures.
“The hybrid operations against allies could rise to the level of armed attack and could lead the North Atlantic Council to invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. North Atlantic Treaty,” they say.
Allies also refer to the southern border of NATO in your document. In it, they specify that “conflicts, fragility and instability in Africa Y Middle East directly affect our security and that of our partners.” The challenges facing NATO’s southern neighborhood “provide fertile ground for proliferation of non-state armed groupsincluding terrorist organizations. It also allows destabilizing and coercive interference by strategic competitors,” the document reads.
Similarly, they specify that this situation “contributes to the forced displacementfeeding the human trafficking and the irregular immigration. These trends pose serious transnational and humanitarian problems.”
NATO leaders have pledged in their new Strategic Concept to defend “every inch of allied territory” in an attempt to “preserve their sovereignty and integrity territorial” to “prevail against any aggressor”. Thus, the Alliance has stressed that it will make use of “all the military and non-military tools at its disposal to respond to threats against its security at the appropriate time”.
This strategy is framed, as stated in the document, in a “360 degree” policy which seeks to strengthen NATO’s defense and deterrence posture in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For this, he explains, “combat-prepared” forces will be used, which will have an improved infrastructure that will include equipment and ammunition, among other things.