Subscribe here: https://bit.ly/eudebates NATO and the EU are seeking to ramp up cooperation in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a fresh joint declaration signed on Tuesday (10 January). But it also means redefining talk of strategic autonomy.

Signed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel, and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, the new 14-point cooperation agreement comes almost a year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last February.

Initially, the expectation was that it would receive a sign-off at the NATO summit in Madrid in June 2022, but was mostly held up by tensions between Turkey and Cyprus, according to NATO diplomats.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels, both sides stressed they aim to “take the partnership to the next level”, with Stoltenberg pointing out that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin had “failed” in his attempts to divide Western allies regarding the war in Ukraine.

“Russia’s war against Ukraine has had two unintended consequences: It has strengthened both our organisations, the EU and NATO, and has brought us closer together,” Michel said.

“Putin wanted less NATO, but he has achieved the opposite – he will have more NATO and he will have more EU,” he added, adding that the EU would be “determined to contribute more effectively to global and transatlantic security”.

The new EU-NATO document builds on two previous joint declarations from 2016 and 2018.

But while the new version is the first of such declarations to mention Russia and China by name, the rest of the text remains largely unremarkable when it comes to pinpointing threats or practical commitments.

The declaration points to tackling “growing geostrategic competition”, protecting critical infrastructure, and dealing with threats from emerging technologies and in space as important areas for deeper cooperation.

Redefining strategic autonomy
However, EU and NATO diplomats point out that the document itself represents a diplomatic achievement given years of fears in some quarters that efforts to bolster the EU’s role in defence could undermine the US-led military alliance.

Twenty-one of the EU’s 27 member states are members of NATO, with Sweden and Finland on a path to join the military alliance by the end of 2023.

Over the years, efforts led mostly by France to boost the EU’s role in defence and Paris’ push for strategic autonomy have caused tensions with Eastern European members who see Washington as Europe’s main guarantor of security.

The US, meanwhile, has long been pushing its European allies to spend more on defence, take on cyber threats and bolster infrastructure around the continent that is needed to shift forces quickly.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has changed the picture, with calls to better align and coordinate the responsibilities of both Brussels-based organisations.

The new joint declaration makes clear that NATO “remains the foundation of collective defence” for its members and the broader Euro-Atlantic area.

However, it also says, “we recognise the value of a stronger and more capable European defence that contributes positively to global and transatlantic security and is complementary to, and interoperable with, NATO.”

“Strategic autonomy does not say that you do not cooperate, you cooperate with like-minded partners,” Von der Leyen said.

Progress has been particularly made in the fields of vaccine production as well as getting rid of Europe’s “toxic dependency” on Russian fossil fuels, she added.

Ukraine centre-stage
A key element of a long-awaited declaration on cooperation between EU and NATO, signed by heads of the institutions on Tuesday is a vow to back Ukraine.

Since Moscow’s invasion, NATO has reinforced its troop numbers in Eastern Europe as the alliance conducts the largest overhaul of its defences since the end of the Cold War.

NATO chief Stoltenberg last week had called on NATO members to supply more weapons to Ukraine.

The EU will also impose new sanctions on Belarus as it keeps up the pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine and extends measures to those countries that support Russia, von der Leyen said on Tuesday.

“We will keep pressure on the Kremlin for as long as it takes with a biting sanctions regime, we will extend these sanctions to those who militarily support Russia’s war such as Belarus or Iran,” she told reporters in NATO headquarters in Brussels.

“And we will be coming forward with new sanctions against Belarus answering their role in this Russian war in Ukraine,” she added.

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