Good morning to all of you in North America and good afternoon to everybody here in Europe. I'm speaking to you from NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Mons, Belgium.
Dr. Polyakova, thanks for the opportunity to address this group of leaders who are committed to promoting a strong and enduring transatlantic Alliance.
I would like to talk this morning a little bit about how NATO has strengthened its military posture to shield NATO Allies during Russia’s force build up and invasion of Ukraine. This adjustment of our posture has been framed and guided by our concept for the Deterrence and Defence of the Euro-Atlantic area, DDA.
Under DDA, we are executing modern deterrence and defence strategically, coherently and together.
It was the DDA strategy that enabled Allies to rapidly strengthen NATO’s deterrence and defence posture, in all domains, before and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in a coherent and purpose driven manner. This strengthened posture is shielding NATO Allies, and it reduces the risk of the conflict widening. It also both reflects and reinforces the Alliance’s unity.
As part of this strengthened posture, we currently maintain on our eastern flank a sizeable land force under NATO C2. This force is complemented by national forces, and totals over 150,000 troops. These land forces are supported by very significant numbers of air and maritime forces, including air and missile defence capabilities. Our forces are at a high level of readiness and we have a strategically advantageous posture.
DDA is also driving improvements to our plans, forces, command, and control.
We are developing strategic, domain-specific, and regional defence plans to improve our ability to respond to any contingency and ensure timely reinforcement.
This new family of DDA plans represents an unprecedented level of Alliance planning for defence against threats in the post-Cold War era.
Allies have also committed to further develop the full range of ready forces and capabilities necessary to respond to multiple contingencies. This effort aims to triple the number of force available to support NATO’s military objectives.
Flexible and agile forces that can be employed across the Euro-Atlantic to strengthen deterrence, respond to crisis, or defend in conflict are central to a DDA-based, modernised NATO joint-force and multi-domain architecture.
Through the implementation of DDA, NATO is in a period of strategic scale adaptation of our collective defence to strengthen and secure all Allies today and into the future.
Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you today and for your support for the transatlantic Alliance.