It was the concept of "Smart Defence" that was the subject of discussions during the Brussels meeting of NATO Ministers of Defence on the 2nd and 3rd of February, attended by Gérard Longuet, representing France. More particularly, this meeting was in preparation for the Chicago summit next May.
On the 2nd and 3rd of February in Brussels, the Ministers of Defence of the NATO nations met to prepare the Chicago summit, bringing together the Heads of State of the member countries to review the Afghan theatre. In Brussels the issue of "Smart Defence", strengthening and rationalising the allies' military capabilities, was also debated.
"Smart Defence" is a NATO initiative that Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's Secretary General, referred to once again at the end of the first day's meeting: "Even in a period of economic crisis, we still need to ensure the security of our States". This initiative's objective is to improve the NATO member countries' contributions, in spite of a more restrictive budgetary context. "Each Euro that we spend must lead to a concrete result. For that to happen, we must set our priorities, specialise and work together", the NATO Secretary General pointed out. He continued by stating: "We have identified a certain number of sectors in which "Smart Defence" would have real added value. This is true in the fields of intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, logistics, maintenance and training.". Moreover, France highlighted the Libya operation as a demonstration of the usefulness of NATO partnerships at political, logistic and military levels.
"Smart Defence" can be summed up under three headings: cooperation, prioritisation and specialisation, and is a complementary initiative to the European policy of "Pooling & Sharing".
In December 2010, the Council of the European Union (EU) asked the Member States to identify the capabilities that could be pooled, those that could give rise to a sharing of roles and tasks, by means of renewed cooperation, and those to remain under the control of individual countries. France is already involved in this initiative. Each year it invests five billion Euros, or almost 30% of its forces' equipment budget, in cooperative armaments projects in Europe. The Lancaster House treaty gave further impetus to this policy. The force of Franco-British cooperation is contributing to the strengthening of EU and NATO capabilities. This cooperation, which is both ambitious and a structuring factor for the armed forces of our two countries, should, in the long term, be able to include other European partners. France is also involved with other Member States, in particular Germany, in shared work in the areas of training, command structures, units and logistic support.