2014 Wales summit

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]

NATO Summit Wales 2014 2014 Newport Summit
Logo of the 2014 Wales Summit
Host country	United Kingdom
Date	4–5 September 2014
Venue(s)	Celtic Manor, Newport
Cities	Newport, Cardiff
Website	NATO Summit Wales 2014

The Celtic Manor Resort, where the meeting was held

Background

The summit was hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron. Attendees included Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

 

US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, walking in the grounds of the Celtic Manor Resort

There were another 180 VIPs, and 4,000 delegates and officials from approximately 60 countries.^[2]

The official logo for the summit included a panel with four quadrants, each bearing a stylised symbol of Newport or Wales: a Celtic knot, the Welsh Dragon, Newport Transporter Bridge and a Welsh castle.^[3] The entrance to the venue was fronted by a full-scale replica of a Eurofighter Typhoon.^[4][5]

Agenda

 

NATO Foreign Ministers' dinner, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, 4 September 2014

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

 

Petro Poroshenko and NATO Quint leaders (Hollande, Obama, Cameron, Renzi and Merkel) discussing the crisis with Russia

The following declarations and agreements were made at the Summit:

• Wales Summit Declaration^[9]
• Joint Expeditionary Force agreement^[10]
• NATO Readiness Action Plan^[11]
• NATO Security Capacity Building Initiative^[11]
• Armed Forces Declaration^[12]
• Joint Statement of the NATO-Ukraine Commission^[13]
• Declaration on Afghanistan^[14]
• The Wales Declaration on the Transatlantic Bond^[15]

Russia and Ukraine

Immediately prior to the summit on 3 September 2014 French President François Hollande announced the postponement of delivery of the first Mistral-class amphibious assault ship which had been sold to Russia, a ship provisionally named Vladivostok, due to the Russia–Ukraine crisis.^[16][17]

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.^[18]

On 12 September 2014 the EU announced a much wider expansion of its sanctions programme over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.^[19]

On 12 September a communiqué of the US Treasury announced a sweeping ban on the Russian defense sector.^[20]

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.^[21] 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 Defence Chuck Hagel. In 2015, five of its 28 members met that goal.^[22][23][24] 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).^[25]

Support for Military Intervention Against ISIL

Main article: International_military_intervention_against_the_Islamic_State § US-led_coalitions

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.^[26]

Criticism

A retired German politician, Walther Stützle [de], former defense Parliamentary Secretary of State (until 2002) in the SPD's First Schröder cabinet and former head of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (until 1991), criticized the summit agenda for its focus on military details and not political perspectives. Stützle said that the Russian Federation was not a military threat to NATO but criticized that new NATO members' policies were not détente and negotiation with the Russian Federation.^[27]

Protestors and security detail

 

Cardiff Castle during the summit, showing NATO flags and the "ring of steel".

In both Newport and Cardiff, road closures and security measures, starting weeks in advance of the summit, created widespread disruption.^[28] Thirteen miles (21 km) of security fencing, 2.7 m (9 ft) high, was erected around the Newport hotel venue^[28] 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.^[29] This fencing was based on and expanded, the 'National Barrier Asset' which is held in reserve for similar events.

Security included around 9,500 specially trained police officers patrolling the streets of the two cities, military helicopters including US Osprey V22s and the Royal Navy's new £1bn Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan stationed in Cardiff Bay.^[30]

 

Anti-NATO protests in central Cardiff

Protests, demonstrations, and marches took place in Newport and Cardiff involving several hundred people, though the turnout was much lower than predicted.^[31]

Leaders and other dignitaries in attendance

Member states

Albania – Prime Minister Edi Rama   Belgium – Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo   Bulgaria – President Rosen Plevneliev   Canada – Prime Minister Stephen Harper   Croatia – President Ivo Josipović   Czech Republic – President Miloš Zeman   Denmark – Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt   Estonia – Prime Minister Taavi Roivas   France – President François Hollande   Germany – Chancellor Angela Merkel   Greece – Prime Minister Antonis Samaras   Hungary – Prime Minister Viktor Orbán   Iceland – Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson   Italy – Prime Minister Matteo Renzi

Latvia – President Andris Bērziņš   Lithuania – President Dalia Grybauskaitė   Luxembourg – Prime Minister Xavier Bettel   Netherlands – Prime Minister Mark Rutte   Norway – Prime Minister Erna Solberg   Poland – President Bronisław Komorowski   Portugal – Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho   Romania – President Traian Băsescu   Slovakia – President Andrej Kiska   Slovenia – Prime Minister Alenka Bratušek   Spain – Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy   Turkey – President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan   United Kingdom – Prime Minister David Cameron   United States – President Barack Obama   NATO – Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen

Non-member states and organisations

Armenia – President Serzh Sargsyan   Azerbaijan – President Ilham Aliyev   European Union – Commission President José Manuel Barroso   European Union – Council President Herman Van Rompuy   European Union – High Representative Baroness Ashton   Finland – President Sauli Niinistö

Georgia – President Giorgi Margvelashvili   Ireland – Minister for Defence Simon Coveney   Jordan – King Abdullah II of Jordan   Ukraine – President Petro Poroshenko   Serbia – Minister of Defence Bratislav Gašić   Switzerland – President Didier Burkhalter

NATO Foreign ministers

•   Albania – Minister of Foreign Affairs Ditmir Bushati
•   Belgium – Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders
•   Bulgaria – Minister of Foreign Affairs Daniel Mitov
•   France – Minister of Foreign Affairs Laurent Fabius
•   Germany – Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier
•   Italy – Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini^[32]
•   Norway – Minister of Foreign Affairs Børge Brende
•   Spain – Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation José Manuel García-Margallo
•   United Kingdom – Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond
•   United States – Secretary of State John Kerry

See also

• Article 3 of the North Atlantic Treaty

References

1. Hjelmgaard, Kim (31 August 2014). "NATO summit 'most important' since fall of Berlin Wall". USA Today. from the original on 1 September 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
2. "Nato Wales 2014: Newport summit in numbers". BBC News. 29 August 2014. Retrieved 30 August 2014.
3. "Nato summit logo features Newport's Transporter Bridge – BBC News". BBC News. 25 June 2014. Retrieved 9 December 2015.
4. "Final preparations for Nato summit in Newport – BBC News". BBC News. 3 September 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
5. "Summit Wales 2014 – Day 1". Getty Images. 4 September 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
6. "Poroshenko to brief world leaders before NATO summit". Channel NewsAsia. 4 September 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
7. "Obama, Cameron, Merkel, Hollande y Renzi se reunirán con presidente de Ucrania – Noticias | TeleticaMovil". teletica.com. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
8. "Ucraina. Renzi arriva al vertice Nato, summit G5 su Ucraina apre incontri". Internazionale (in Italian). Rome. 4 September 2014.
9. North Atlantic Alliance (5 September 2015). (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.
10. "International partners sign Joint Expeditionary Force agreement – News stories". Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
11. "Defence and Related Security Capacity Building Initiative". NATO.
12. "NATO Summit 2014: Armed Forces Declaration – Publications". Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
13. "NATO Summit 2014: Joint Statement of the NATO-Ukraine Commission – Publications". Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
14. "Wales Summit Declaration on Afghanistan – Publications". Government of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 12 September 2014.
15. "The Wales Declaration on the Transatlantic Bond". NATO.
16. de la Baume, Maïa; Gladstone, Rick (3 September 2014). "France Postpones Delivery of Warship to Russia". The New York Times Company.
17. "Ukraine crisis: France halts warship delivery to Russia". BBC. 3 September 2014.
18. MacAskill, Ewen; Walker, Shaun (4 September 2014). "Nato leaders cautiously welcome Ukraine ceasefire agreement". The Guardian. from the original on 4 September 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
19. "UPDATE 1-EU raises pressure on Moscow with tougher sanctions". Reuters. 12 September 2014.
20. "Announcement of Expanded Treasury Sanctions within the Russian Financial Services, Energy and Defense or Related Materiel Sectors". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY. 12 September 2014.
21. 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.
22. "Military Spending by NATO Members". The Economist. 16 February 2017. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
23. Bendavid, Naftali (22 June 2015). "Just Five of 28 NATO Members Meet Defense Spending Goal, Report Says". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
24. Ivana, Kottasova (8 July 2016). "These NATO Countries are Not Spending Their Fair Share on Defense". CNNMoney. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
25. Gramer, Robbie (27 June 2018). "Ahead of NATO Summit, U.S. President Exhorts Allies to Pay Up". Foreign Policy magazine. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
26. ‘U.S. Forms Anti-ISIS Coalition at NATO Summit’. Time, 5 September 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
27. 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. from the original on 5 September 2014.
28. Deans, David (7 August 2014). "Nato Summit 2014: Road closures and disruption in Cardiff city centre". Wales Online. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
29. Atwell, Jessica (28 August 2014). "Nato Summit 2014: Businesses near Cardiff Ring of Steel claim trade has dropped by a third since fence was erected". Wales Online. Retrieved 1 September 2014.
30. Paul Rowland (2 September 2014). "Nato Summit 2014: The main security measures in Newport and Cardiff". Wales Online. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
31. "Four arrests at anti-Nato protest in Cardiff". BBC News. 5 September 2014. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
32. . agenparl.com. Archived from the original on 7 September 2014. Retrieved 12 September 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2014 Wales summit.

• NATO Summit Wales 2014
• 2014 NATO Summit Media information
• Łukasz Kulesa (www.europeanleadershipnetwork.org): NATO at a Crossroads – Again: Recommendations for the Newport Summit, PDF (14 p.)