This site is not updated so external links may no longer function. Contact us with any questions about finding information. External links to other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the views contained therein. The North Atlantic Cooperation Council Prepared by the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs, Department of State, May 9, 1997. Subjects discussed in regular meetings between allies and partner states include defense planning and budgeting, democratic concepts of civil-military relations, defense conversion, and scientific and environmental topics.
Members also discuss current political issues of common concern.
NACC's Origins As the advent of glasnost and perestroika in the Soviet Union and the crumbling of communist control in Eastern Europe changed the nature of the European security challenge, NATO turned from a posture of confrontation with the East to one of dialogue and cooperation. London NATO summit extended the hand of friendship to NATO's former adversaries and called for the alliance to institute a liaison program with the Warsaw Pact states. In their October 3,1991, joint statement, Secretary of State Baker and German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher proposed the institutionalization of the NATO liaison program in a North Atlantic Cooperation Council. The following month, the Rome NATO summit formally established the NACC as a forum in which allies could offer their experience and expertise to partner countries on security and related issues. In its first year, NACC developed a solid basis of cooperation and dialogue.