Bundesregierung

The anniversary summit breaks new ground in the history of NATO – for the first time ever a summit is being jointly hosted by two countries. Germany and France have together prepared the summit meeting, which will be held in Baden-Baden, Kehl and Strasbourg. Summit participants will be focussing their gaze, however, on the future of the alliance.
 
Terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear weapons, but also the consequences of climate change and natural disasters are new threats and demand new answers. Chancellor Angela Merkel is convinced that NATO needs a new strategy – networked security.
 
The NATO summit offers time for in-depth discussions. The event will begin on Friday with a concert and dinner at Baden-Baden’ s Kurhaus. The next day the North Atlantic Council will meet at the level of heads of state and government. The North Atlantic Council is the most important policy-making organ of NATO. Over the two days of the summit about six hours will be earmarked for discussions. The foreign and defence ministers of member states will also be attending.
 

No security without reconstruction, no reconstruction without security

 
"NATO must get used to coordinating activities with other international organisations.” This was the bold message of the Chancellor in her most recent video podcast.
 
The ISAF mission in Afghanistan shows how important it is to cooperate with other organisations. The protection offered by the military operation in Afghanistan makes possible reconstruction work, which in turn generates greater security. This shows us that civilian and military inputs cannot be viewed separately. The Afghan partners are to gradually assume greater ownership.
 
This is why Germany is helping to train the Afghan security forces. This commitment remains. The Chancellor has already announced that Germany will continue to provide assistance in northern Afghanistan on the basis of the concept of networked security. For the first time ever, NATO member states will discuss further procedure in Afghanistan with the new US President Barack Obama.
 

Old friends and new faces

 
There is, however, also a lot to celebrate on this 60^th anniversary of the founding of NATO. Since 1949 it has been the world’s most important security-policy alliance. It sees itself as a community of values shared by free democratic states. It began with ten western European member states alongside the USA and Canada. Today it also embraces a number of Central and Eastern European states.
 
And the alliance continues to expand. At this summit it will be welcoming two new members – Albania and Croatia. France too has rejoined the military command structure, which it left in 1966, because of concerns about retaining military independence.
 
At the summit, the heads of state and government will also be discussing NATO’s relationship with Russia. After the war in Georgia in August last year, relations were suspended. After this NATO summit meeting, the meetings of the NATO-Russia Council are to be resumed.
 

Strengthened for the future

 These are complex topics and ambitious objectives. There will be a lot to discuss in Baden-Baden, Kehl and Strasbourg. Germany and France aim to be good hosts. Together they will be pursuing one goal – "We want to make this summit a success, a summit that will strengthen NATO,” underscored the Chancellor. In the run-up to the summit both countries have done everything possible to ensure just this