Host country United Kingdom Venue(s) Celtic Manor, Newport Website NATO Summit Wales 2014 | Date 4–5 September 2014 Cities Newport, Cardiff | |
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The 2014 Wales Summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was a meeting of the heads of state and heads of government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, held in Newport, Wales on 4 and 5 September 2014. Such summits are sporadically held, and allow leaders and officials from NATO member states to discuss current issues of mutual concern and to plan strategic activities going forward. The 2014 summit has been described by Admiral James Stavridis as the most important since the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Contents
Background
The summit was hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron. Attendees included Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
There were another 180 VIPs, and 4,000 delegates and officials from approximately 60 countries.
The official logo for the summit included a panel with four quadrants, each bearing a stylized symbol of Newport or Wales: a Celtic knot, the Welsh Dragon, Newport Transporter Bridge and a Welsh castle. The entrance to the venue was fronted by a full-scale replica of a Eurofighter Typhoon.
Agenda
World leaders met at the Celtic Manor, and informally at other locales in and around Cardiff. They discussed ongoing events in the world, such as terrorism, cyber warfare, and other areas of national security interest to the member states.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko had a joint discussion with EU big four leaders and US President Barack Obama before the official start of the Summit, to discuss the crisis with Russia.
Outcomes
The following declarations and agreements were made at the Summit:
At the end of the summit Ukrainian President Poroshenko announced a ceasefire which had been agreed with one of the leading pro-Russia separatist leaders, under terms proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was cautiously welcomed by NATO leaders.
Criticism
Walther Stützle, Social Democratic Party of Germany former defense secretary of state and former head of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, criticised the summit agenda for its focus on military details and not political perspectives. Stützle said that the Russian Federation was not a military threat to NATO but criticized that new NATO members' policies were not détente and negotiation with the Russian Federation.
Protests, demonstrations and marches took place in Newport and Cardiff involving several hundred people, though the turnout was much lower than predicted.
Security
In both Newport and Cardiff, road closures and security measures, starting weeks in advance of the summit, created widespread disruption. Thirteen miles (21 km) of security fencing, 2.7 m (9 ft) high, was erected around the Newport hotel venue and ten miles of fencing put up around Cardiff city centre, creating what was described as a "ring of steel". Businesses in the vicinity of security fencing in Cardiff reported a drop in trade by up to a third. This fencing was based on, and expanded, the 'National Barrier Asset ' which is held in reserve for similar events.
Security included around 9,500 police officers patrolling the streets of the two cities, military helicopters including US Osprey V22s and the Royal Navy’s new £1bn Type 45 destroyer HMS Duncan.