NATO Military Committee takes the temperature of health crisis and commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq

This briefing paper presents an overview of the NATO Military Committee meeting that took place on 14 May 2020. The discussions were carried out in private and there were no official documents or summaries of the outcomes. The analysis in this briefing is limited to information that NATO published on the event and what is publicly known from other sources.

The NATO Military Committee, the alliance’s highest military authority, held its first virtual meeting in Chiefs of Defence Session via secure teleconference on 14 May 2020. Air Chief Marshal Sir Stuart Peach, Chairman of the Military Committee, presided over the sessions supported by General Tod Wolters (Supreme Allied Commander Europe, SACEUR) and General André Lanata (Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, SACT). Air Chief Marshal Peach said the unprecedented virtual meeting demonstrates "that despite the challenging times that we are all currently facing, the core mission of NATO continues unchanged: to deliver credible and effective deterrence and defence”.

For the first time in the history of the NATO Military Committee, the 30 Chiefs of Defence, including from the most recent NATO member, North Macedonia, held a virtual meeting to discuss the alliance’s ongoing operations, missions and activities, namely its ongoing training missions in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the NATO Military Strategy. They also discussed the current global COVID-19 crisis, its impact on allied activities and NATO’s support to the response efforts.

Read more in the attached pdf