EUROPEAN REASSURANCE INITIATIVE

The European Reassurance Initiative will provide U.S.$1 billion in funding to enable the U.S. Department of Defence (DoD) to continue its efforts to reassure NATO allies and bolster the security and capacity of U.S. partners in Central and Eastern Europe. This initiative will enable DoD to:

• Continue conducting military exercises and training on land, in the air and at sea, while sustaining a rotational presence across Europe in support of Operation Atlantic Resolve;
• Increase the responsiveness of U.S. forces to reinforce NATO by exploring initiatives such as prepositioning of equipment and enhancing reception facilities in Europe;
• Increase participation by the U.S. Navy in NATO naval force deployments, including more persistent deployments to the Black and Baltic seas;
• Build the capacity of close partners such as Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine to enhance interoperability to work alongside the United States and NATO forces, as well as provide for their own defense.

Ultimately, the European Reassurance Initiative allows the US to continue to take the necessary actions to increase the readiness and responsiveness not only of the U.S. military forces in Europe, but also of NATO allies and partners to address any threat and help deter further destabilizing activities in the region.

The European Reassurance Initiative is a strong signal of transatlantic commitment. And America has sent planes, ships and troops to reinforce Allies in Central and Eastern Europe. Europeans are also taking responsibility for Europe’s security. Most of the ships, planes and soldiers reinforcing the Eastern part of the Alliance are European. And six European nations will lead the Spearhead Force in the coming years: France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom will be framework nations for the Spearhead Force. They will command in rotation in the coming years to ensure that the Spearhead Force can be sustained for the long term. These countries will provide the main elements of the force, and help bring together other allies, so this will be truly a multinational force. Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and others already have begun training and exercising an interim Spearhead Force.

Six command and control units in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania are to be established. If a crisis arises they will ensure that national and NATO forces from across the alliance are able to act as one from the start. They will make rapid deployment easier, support planning for collective defense, and help coordinate training and exercises. These units will be the link between national defense and multinational NATO forces. They will be key for connecting national forces with NATO reinforcements. All NATO nations will contribute staff to these units, and they will be in the countries on a persistent basis. Germany, Denmark and Poland  are to develop the Headquarters Multinational Corps Northeast in Szcecin, Poland. This will enhance NATO’s high readiness capability to command forces deployed to Poland and the Baltic states and Romania has the intention to make available a new deployable Multinational Division Headquarters for the southeast.

The very high readiness force or Spearhead Force will consist of a land brigade of around 5,000 troops. These will be supported by air, sea and special forces, The Spearhead Force will be backed up by two more brigades as a rapid reinforcement capability in case of a major crisis. Altogether, the enhanced NATO Response Force will count up to around 30,000 troops.

NATO is also committed to help Georgia make its defence more modern, and thereby enable Georgia to move closer to NATO membership. The Alliance is deploying a team of experts to advise the Georgian authorities on defence reforms, and a Joint NATO-Georgia Training Centre is being set up in Tbilisi.

Finally, defense spending is to reach the two per cent guideline. Some countries are already at two per cent, Estonia, Greece, UK. Poland is very close and Romania, Lithuania and Latvia are increasing substantially. Germany has also announced that it will increase its defence spending.

NATO Forces (Active+ Reserve Personnel)

1. Albania: 19 500
2. Belgium: 125 000
3. Bulgaria: 337 475
4. Canada: 143 000
5. Croatia: 198 000
6. Czech Rep: 21 733
7. Denmark: 89 000
8. Estonia: 63 209
9. France: 322 215
10. Germany: 163 396
11. Greece: 389 070
12. Hungary: 19 000
13. Iceland: 380
14. Italy: 220 867
15. Latvia: 17 000
16. Lithuania: 19 255
17. Luxembourg: 1 335
18. Netherlands: 104 860
19. Norway: 82 400
20. Poland: 635 000
21. Portugal: 255 830
22. Romania: 153 250
23. Slovakia: 16 000
24. Slovenia: 8 800
25. Spain: 139 200
26. Turkey: 1 041 900
27. United Kingdom: 387 570
28. United States of America: 2 220 412

Total: NATO: 7 885 000 (Active: 3 585 000 Reserve: 4 300 000)