NATO's Nuclear Communiqués

A tradition from 6 April 1967 to 15 June 2007

I thought it would be good to remind everyone that the NATO Nuclear Planning Group started with a communiqué, and used to publish a communiqué after each meeting at the Ministerial level (Ministers of Defense) from the first one on 6 April 1967 right up until 15 June 2007.

Of course, NATO did not publish communiqués for working-level meetings, or even meetings in the format of Ambassadors, but for each Defense Ministerial NPG, there was a communiqué, agreed by all members, published for the world to see.

Key decisions, like atomic demolition munition use, participation in nuclear use planning, the use of tactical nuclear weapons for defence purposes, all in there. Maybe we will return to this level of transparency soon. Maybe not. But the record is not silent on this matter.

Also note that in the early days, there were only seven members of the NPG in order to keep things simple and fast and effective. This ended in 1979, when the NPG was opened to all Allies. This meant that the Nuclear Defence Affairs Committee, which was composed of all Allies and met once a year at Defence Minister level, had to endorse the NPG decisions for them to become official. The NDAC went away in 1979, once the NPG was open to all.

It should go without saying that France did not attend any NPGs or NDACs. Iceland did not start attending NPGs until 1987, when it observed for some meetings, and eventually attended as a full voting member. Invitees with the proper clearances (e.g., Spain) were allowed to observe during their membership finalization. Finally, it is worth noting that Denmark and Greece sometimes had…issues requiring reservations or other notations, as listed.

I have put in a brief summary of the topics for each meeting, and I even through I gave up towards the end. I should finish that someday.

Nuclear Planning Group Communiqués (and Nuclear Defence Affairs Committee Communiqués), 1967-2007