The next NATO Summit meeting will be held in Brussels on 11–12 July. The heads of state and government will be taking stock of the decisions of the Wales and Warsaw Summits and implement further the adaptation of the Alliance to respond to the wide range of 21st-century security challenges.
Although there will be no milestone decisions comparable with the Warsaw Summit’s decision on the establishment of enhanced Forward Presence, the Brussels Summit will focus on the strategic issues of reinforcement, readiness and speed of decision-making, but also on burden-sharing, NATO-EU relations, military mobility, cyber defence and the Open Door policy.
NATO members should once again reiterate that the Alliance is strong, united, prepared and ready to deal with any threats against its territory at any time and by any means. All members of the Alliance need to commit to more equal burden-sharing and meet commonly agreed defence spending objectives. As Russia will continue to challenge NATO both conventionally and by hybrid means, NATO needs to provide guidance on addressing the existing deficiencies in its overall posture to guarantee credible collective defence and deterrence.
This policy paper examines the most pressing topics related to the Summit, makes recommendations on the issues relevant to its preparation, and specifically looks at security issues in the Baltic Sea region.