Written question asked by Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative) on Wednesday, 29 October 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 3 November 2008. It was answered by Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour) on Tuesday, 4 November 2008 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

NATO

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of performance under the NATO transformation agenda.

Answer: NATO has come a long way in recognising the importance of expeditionary capabilities in dealing with the broad range of security threats the alliance is likely to face. It continues to make progress, but not as quickly as we—and others—would like. The alliance needs to do more to provide the capabilities it needs for current and future operations, such as strategic and intra-theatre lift and contributions to the NATO Response Force. The UK and other allies have sought to find innovative ways of developing such capabilities through initiatives to make more helicopters and strategic lift available for operations, but ultimately these capabilities depend on sufficient investment by allies in defence, and prioritisation on the capabilities the alliance needs most. NATO Defence Ministers met in London in September to inject more dynamism into this transformation process. NATO's agreement in Budapest the following month to increase targets for the deployability of allies' land forces is a welcome step in the right direction.

Secondary information