The 2014 Wales Summit of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was a meeting of the
heads of state and
heads of government of the NATO countries, held in
Newport,
Wales on 4 and 5 September 2014. Such
summits are sporadically held and allow leaders and officials from NATO Allies to discuss current issues of mutual concern and to plan strategic activities. The 2014 summit has been described by US Navy Admiral
James G. Stavridis as the most important since the fall of the
Berlin Wall.[1]
World leaders met at the
Celtic Manor, and informally at other locales in and around
Cardiff. They discussed ongoing events in the world, such as terrorism,
cyberwarfare, and other areas of national security interest to the member states.
Ukrainian President
Petro Poroshenko had a joint discussion with
EU big four leaders and US President Barack Obama before the official start of the Summit, to discuss the crisis with Russia.[6][7][8]
Outcomes
The following declarations and agreements were made at the Summit:
At the end of the summit Ukrainian President Poroshenko announced the
Minsk Protocol, a ceasefire which had been agreed with the separatist leader
Alexander Zakharchenko under terms proposed by Russian President
Vladimir Putin. The protocol was cautiously welcomed by NATO leaders.[27]
On 12 September 2014 the EU announced a much wider expansion of its sanctions programme over the
Russia-Ukraine conflict.[28]
On 12 September a communiqué of the US Treasury announced a sweeping ban on the Russian defense sector.[29]
Wales Pledge
For the first time, the Allies formally pledged to aim to move towards what had previously been an informal guideline based on
Article 3 of spending 2% of their gross domestic products on defense, and 20% of that on new equipment.[30] For countries which spend less than 2% they agreed upon that these countries "aim to move towards the 2% guideline within a decade".[9] This pledge was the brainchild of US
Secretary of DefenceChuck Hagel. In 2015, five of its 28 members met that goal.[31][32][33] In the aftermath of the pledge, defense spending increased among NATO members.[34] At the beginning of 2018, eight of the 29 members either were meeting the target or were close to it; six others had laid out plans to reach the target by 2024 as promised; and Norway and Denmark had unveiled plans to substantially boost defense spending (including Norway's planned purchase 52 new
F-35 fighter jets).[35]
On 5 September 2014, the U.S., Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, agreed to support anti-ISIL forces in
Iraq and
Syria with supplies and air support.[36]
Joint Expeditionary Force (FNC/UK)
On the initiative of the UK, the multinational
Joint Expeditionary Force was officially launched with a Letter of Intent at and peripheral to the Summit.[37] It was subsumed under the new “Framework Nations Concept” rubric.[38][39] Germany, the UK and Italy were to act as framework nations for groups of Allies coming together to work multi-nationally for the joint development of forces and capabilities required by NATO.[40][10]
In both Newport and Cardiff, road closures and security measures, starting weeks in advance of the summit, created widespread disruption.[42] Thirteen miles (21 km) of security fencing, 2.7 m (9 ft) high, was erected around the Newport hotel venue[42] and 10 miles (16 km) of fencing put up around Cardiff city centre. Businesses in the vicinity of security fencing in Cardiff reported a drop in trade by up to a third.[43] This fencing was based on and expanded, the '
National Barrier Asset' which is held in reserve for similar events.
Protests, demonstrations, and marches took place in Newport and Cardiff involving several hundred people, though the turnout was much lower than predicted.[45]
^
abNorth Atlantic Alliance (5 September 2015).
Wales Summit Declaration(PDF). Meeting of the North Atlantic Council, 4–5 September 2014. Government Digital Service. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 21 June 2015. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
^Saxi, Håkon Lunde (2017). "British and German initiatives for defence cooperation: The Joint Expeditionary Force and the Framework Nations Concept". Defence Studies. 17 (2): 171–197.
doi:
10.1080/14702436.2017.1307690.
S2CID157450274.
^Techau, Jan (2 September 2015).
"The Politics of 2 Percent: NATO and the Security Vacuum in Europe".
Carnegie Europe. Retrieved 11 July 2018. A month before [the alliance's summit in Riga in 2006], Victoria Nuland, then the U.S. ambassador to NATO, called the 2 percent metric the "unofficial floor" on defense spending in NATO. But never had all governments of NATO's 28 nations officially embraced it at the highest possible political level—a summit declaration.
^Stützle, Walther (4 September 2014).
"Die NATO wird nicht bedroht" [NATO is not threatened]. deutschlandfunk.de (Interview) (in German). Interviewed by Friedbert Meurer. Köln, DE: Deutschlandfunk.
Archived from the original on 5 September 2014.