Military Partnership

Over the past two decades, NATO has developed a network of structured military partnerships with countries from the Euro-Atlantic area, the Mediterranean and the Gulf region, as well as individual relationships with other partners across the globe mainly to enhance Euro-Atlantic and international security, peace and stability by promoting regional security and cooperation.

As outlined in the new Strategic Concept adopted at the Lisbon Summit in November 2010 and strengthened at the Wales Summit in 2014, NATO pursues a more inclusive dialogue and cooperation with non-member countries on a wide range of political and security-related issues, and partners contribute to NATO’s goals and tasks, including to NATO-led operations and its actions against terrorism and emerging security challenges.

The new policy concerns not only partnerships with non-member countries but also NATO’s cooperation with other international actors and organisations. In fact, the complexity of today’s peace-support and stabilization operations and the multifaceted nature of 21st century security challenges call for a comprehensive approach that effectively combines political, civilian and military instruments.

A number of partnership tools supports cooperation with partner countries through a mix of policies, programmes, action plans and other arrangements which are focused on the important priorities of building capabilities and interoperability, supporting defence and security-related reform.