# North Atlantic Council

The North Atlantic Council (NAC) is the principal political decision-making body of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), consisting of permanent representatives of its member countries. It was established by Article 9 of the North Atlantic Treaty, and it is the only body in NATO that derives its authority explicitly from the treaty.

## Powers and duties

The North Atlantic Treaty gave the NAC the power to set up subsidiary bodies for various policy functions, including a defense committee to implement other parts of the treaty. Since 1952, the NAC has been in permanent session. The NAC can be held at the Permanent Representative Level (PermReps), or can be composed of member states' Ministers of State, Defense, or Heads of Government. The NAC has the same powers regardless of the formation under which it meets. The NAC meets twice a week: every Tuesday, for an informal lunch discussion; and every Wednesday for a decision-taking session. Usually, meetings occur amongst the permanent representatives who are the senior permanent member of each delegation and is generally a senior civil servant or an experienced ambassador (and holding that diplomatic rank). The list of permanent representatives may be found on the NATO website.
The 32 members of NATO have diplomatic missions to the organization through embassies in Belgium. The meetings of the NAC are chaired by the Secretary General and, when decisions have to be made, action is agreed upon on the basis of unanimity and common accord. There is no voting or decision by majority. Each nation represented at the NAC table or on any of its subordinate committees retains complete sovereignty and responsibility for its own decisions.
* POLITICAL-STRATEGIC LEVEL:
* North Atlantic Council (NAC) NATO Headquarters, Brussels, BEL
* Secretary-General (SECGEN) NATO Headquarters, Brussels, BEL
* International Staff (IS) NATO Headquarters, Brussels, BEL
* MILITARY-STRATEGIC LEVEL:
* International Military Staff (IMS) NATO Headquarters, Brussels, BEL
* Military Committee (MC) NATO Headquarters, Brussels, BEL
* STRATEGIC COMMANDS:
* Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Allied Command Transformation (ACT) Norfolk, USA
* Supreme Allied Commander Europe Allied Command Operations (ACO) Mons, BEL
* TRANSFORMATION COMMANDS:
* OPERATIONAL COMMANDS:
* Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) Stavanger, NOR
* Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFC Brunssum) Brunssum, NLD
* Allied Air Command (AIRCOM) Ramstein, DEU
* Joint Force Training Centre (JFTC) Bydgoszcz, POL
* Joint Force Command Naples (JFC Naples) Naples, ITA
* Allied Land Command (LANDCOM) İzmir, TUR
* Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre (JALLC) Lisbon, PRT
* Joint Force Command Norfolk (JFC Norfolk) Norfolk, Virginia, USA
* Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) Northwood, GBR
* Joint Support and Enabling Command (JSEC) Ulm, DEU

## Composition

Each member nation is normally represented on the North Atlantic Council by an Ambassador or Permanent Representative supported by a national delegation composed of advisers and officials who represent their country on different NATO committees.
North Atlantic Council :
| Name | Country | Incumbent since |
| Ilir Gjoni | Albania | September 2023 |
| Ariadne Petridis | Belgium | 16 August 2022 |
| Nikolay Milkov | Bulgaria | 10 May 2023 |
| David Angell | Canada | 12 February 2019 |
| Mario Nobilo | Croatia | 5 September 2017 |
| Jakub Landovský | Czechia | 3 October 2022 |
| Lone Dencker Wisborg | Denmark | 2 September 2022 |
| Jüri Luik | Estonia | 2 September 2022 |
| Piritta Asunmaa | Finland | |
| Muriel Domenach | France | September 2019 |
| Géza Andreas von Geyr | Germany | August 2023 |
| Ioannis-Miltiadis Nicolaidis | Greece | |
| István Balogh | Hungary | 25 January 2023 |
| Hermann Ingólfsson | Iceland | 15 December 2021 |
| Marco Peronaci | Italy | |
| Māris Riekstiņš | Latvia | 1 September 2023 |
| Deividas Matulionis | Lithuania | 27 May 2020 |
| Stephan Frédéric Müller | Luxembourg | 15 December 2021 |
| Milena Kalezić | Montenegro | November 2023 |
| Thijs van der Plas | Netherlands | 8 August 2022 |
| Dane Taleski | North Macedonia | |
| Anita Nergaard | Norway | September 2022 |
| Tomasz Szatkowski | Poland | 23 July 2019 |
| Pedro Costa Pereira | Portugal | 9 December 2019 |
| Dan Neculăescu | Romania | February 2022 |
| Peter Bátor | Slovakia | 8 February 2021 |
| Andrej Benedejčič | Slovenia | 24 November 2023 |
| Federico Torres Muro | Spain | 24 November 2022 |
| Axel Wernhoff | Sweden | 7 March 2024 |
| Zeki Levent Gümrükçü | Turkey | 16 January 2023 |
| David Quarrey | United Kingdom | 25 April 2022 |
| Julianne Smith | United States | 6 December 2021 |