On October 17, NATO defense ministers agreed to intensify cooperation with their partners in the Indo-Pacific region and increase support for Ukraine.
At the first session of the two-day meeting, the defense ministers met in an expanded format, which for the first time included partners from Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea, as well as the European Union.
Secretary General Mark Rutte stated that this was a “clear sign of our deepening cooperation in the face of shared challenges.”
The ministers discussed joint efforts to strengthen cybersecurity, defense production, and innovation; combat disinformation; and leverage new technologies, including artificial intelligence. They also consulted on how they are working together to support Ukraine.
“The war in Ukraine has shown that instability in Europe can have far-reaching consequences globally and that countries thousands of miles away—such as Iran, China, and North Korea—can become security disruptors right on our doorstep,” said Rutte.
Rutte was chairing his first NATO defense ministers’ meeting since taking office in early October. He emphasized the deep interconnectedness of our world and its security.
The Secretary General emphasized that NATO countries are firmly committed to fulfilling their financial pledge to allocate €40 billion for security assistance to Ukraine, with €20.9 billion already provided in the first half of this year.
Rutte also highlighted his recent trip to Wiesbaden, Germany, where he visited NATO’s new command center coordinating security assistance and training in Ukraine. He said that the men and women serving there “are already working hard to ensure we deliver for Ukraine—so you can win.”
On October 17, NATO launched a series of initiatives aimed at addressing some of the most critical deterrence and defense challenges faced by the Allies. These new multinational initiatives will involve 26 Allies and help provide crucial capabilities to enhance NATO forces’ interoperability.
The first initiative focuses on accelerating the delivery of a new generation of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS)—such as NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS)—through multinational cooperation. Thirteen Allies have begun the project: Czechia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. The RPAS fleet is essential for a range of roles and missions, including joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and electronic warfare.
The second initiative aims to improve the interchangeability and compatibility of key Allied artillery munitions. With an initial contribution from 15 Allies—Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Turkey, the UK, and the US—the project will help harmonize national testing and certification mechanisms for fire support. It will also assist in keeping relevant standards up-to-date and maintaining their adoption.
The Distributed Synthetic Training Environment, the third initiative, caters to the increasing need for global virtual training. It creates a network of advanced and immersive multinational training capabilities for the military. Eighteen NATO countries have joined the project: Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the UK, and the US. By utilizing national simulation training capabilities for multinational purposes, the project will offer significant operational benefits and economies of scale.
The fourth initiative involves NATO stepping up its efforts to support Allied space technology supplies through two new projects.
Under the NORTHLINK initiative, 13 Allies—Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the US—will explore the possibility of creating secure, sustainable, and reliable multinational Arctic satellite communications.
Under the STARLIFT initiative, 14 countries—Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the UK, and the US—will study ways to strengthen NATO’s access to space and its use to address a range of challenges from operating in space. STARLIFT may help Allies launch assets in short timeframes, maneuver prepositioned backup spacecraft, or purchase data from commercial partners during crises or conflicts.
Further steps were also taken to advance work on two already-started projects: Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability (NGRC) and NATO’s cross-border cooperation in airspace. Launched in 2020 and managed by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), the NGRC initiative aims to replace medium multi-role capabilities reaching the end of their lifecycle by 2035 and beyond. On October 17, five participating allies—France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK—committed to identifying a single preferred solution for replacing these capabilities by the end of 2027, ensuring its development by 2030.
NATO’s cross-border airspace initiative has also expanded to 20 member countries with the addition of Denmark, Germany, Iceland, and Portugal. First launched in October 2023, the project aims to promote civil-military cooperation in the use of airspace for NATO exercises and training, as well as other types of aerial activities across several regions in Europe.
On October 17, NATO also launched a new initiative to promote secure data exchange at high speeds and large scales to further enhance situational awareness and data-driven decision-making.
The Alliance Data Sharing Ecosystem (ADSE) for defense and security will support NATO’s digital transformation and its efforts to quickly adopt dual-use technologies. It will leverage existing capabilities within NATO enterprises, Allied government agencies, industry, academia, and other key stakeholders.
The pilot phase will run until the end of 2025 and will initially focus on publicly available and unclassified data to support four priority areas: critical undersea infrastructure security; geospatial awareness; information environment assessment; and maritime situational awareness.
Combining ADSE with other data-sharing initiatives, such as NATO’s Persistent Space Surveillance, will have a multiplier effect on NATO’s ability to leverage data for multi-domain operations.
Rutte believes this new initiative is timely. Strategic competitors are accelerating their exploitation of data in military and civilian spheres, particularly to develop AI-enabled capabilities.