Political Unity in Facing New Chalenges

Participants of the panel Keeping NATO Strong and Relevant concluded that in order to successfully implement results of previous NATO summit in Wales 2014 (e.g. Readiness Action Plan RAP), and define new strategic decisions at forthcoming Warsaw summit in 2016, NATO’s member states need to unite their efforts and sync their policies.

Political unity must overcome main challenges that NATO is facing, namely military capacity and lack of resources. RAP’s guideline to spend a minimum of 2% of countries Gross Domestic Product on defence has proved hard to reach, not only by smaller countries, but big players such as Germany, France and UK, as well. However, even though it’s necessary to increase NATO’s defence budget, that’s not enough. Member states need to focus on output, not only on input, and should determine how to use that desirable 2%.

Several times it was pointed out how crucial the cooperation between the NATO and EU for international stability had been. Those two alliances have been related to policies and overlapping interests, therefore their collaboration is highly needed in fighting so called hybrid warfare of ISIS. Germany is seen as a key actor in establishing stronger partnership.

Panellist also reviewed Serbia’s relation with NATO. Owing to complicated past, Serbia reasonably is not a member of NATO and it’s not seeking membership. However, Serbia should work on maintaining and enhancing currently good relations with the Alliance for several reasons and benefits, such as:

• security benefits, since NATO is the strongest military force in the world;
• financial benefits, since investors will came to stable, secure country;
• maintaining regional stability, since we are surrounded by NATO members;
• taking care of its interests in Kosovo, since NATO troops are responsible for maintaining peace there.

• H.E. Momir Udovički‚ Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia to NATO
• Giselle Wilz‚ Commander, NATO Sarajevo HQ
• Tamir Waser‚ Political Adviser, US Mission to NATO
• Claudia Major‚ Senior Associate, International Security, SWP Berlin
• Ivan Vejvoda‚ Senior Vice President of the German Marshall Fund of the United States