Forums

In 2004, the first Industry Day opened a series of unique opportunities to share experiences and views with industry and to identify areas where industry could help NATO"s military transformation process. Industry as a Partner to NATO, but also a NATO better coordinated among all its strands of work were two faces to address in order to tackle the challenges.Since then, building on 10 years of engagement with Industry at the strategic level, the NATO-Industry Forum has become more than a capstone event: it is considered a milestone in a shared and living roadmap. The Framework for NATO-Industry Engagement presented during our forum last year in Istanbul is a major step towards more coherence of NATO in engaging Industry, and both NATO and Industry have engaged in building a set of implementation measures.The end of ISAF mission and the more recent events in Ukraine puts Readinesson the top of NATO"s priorities. A Readiness Action Plan was therefore agreed at the Wales Summit: it contains measures that address both the continuing need for assurance of Allies and the adaptation of the Alliance"s military strategic posture. This will enrich the Connected Forces Initiative, agreed In Chicago in 2012, which is the main vehicle for ensuring the coherence and the right level of Preparedness and Readiness across the Alliance.The Wales Summit confirmed the way paved for the Alliance in Chicago in 2012, re-affirming its core strategic objectives (collective defence, crisis management, and cooperative security) and the bond between Europe and North America. The importance of a strong defence industry across the Alliance was also stressed as essential to deliver the required capabilities. Cooperation across Europe and North America, Innovation, the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises are some of the important focus areas to put in perspective of the recognized need to halt the decline in defence budgets. As such, the new partnership with Industry on Cyberdefence announced by the Alliance"s Heads of States and Governments illustrates this perfectly.This year, through two panels,Keeping the edge through readiness,andEquipped for the Challenge, we intend to provide you with the opportunity to share a number of perspectives, to review the progress of the Framework for NATO Industry Engagement, and to give more room to debate and challenging ideas.