The 1985 Brussels summit was the 7th

NATO summit A NATO summit is a summit meeting that is regarded as a periodic opportunity for heads of state and heads of government of NATO member countries to evaluate and provide strategic direction for Alliance activities. NATO summits are not regular ...

bringing the leaders of member nations together at the same time. The formal sessions and informal meetings in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, Belgium took place on 21 November 1985. This event was only the seventh meeting of the NATO heads of state following the ceremonial signing of the

North Atlantic Treaty The North Atlantic Treaty, also referred to as the Washington Treaty, is the treaty that forms the legal basis of, and is implemented by, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 194 ...

on 4 April 1949.Thomas, Ian Q.R. (1997)
''The promise of alliance: NATO and the political imagination,'' p. 101.
/ref> Lord Carrington was

Secretary General of NATO The secretary general of NATO is the chief civil servant of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The officeholder is an international diplomat responsible for coordinating the workings of the alliance, leading NATO's international staff ...

at the time, and he chaired the meeting.

Background

In this period, the organization faced unresolved questions concerned whether a new generation of leaders would be as committed to NATO as their predecessors had been. Generational change in the leadership of the Soviet Union brought Mikhail Gorbachev to the international stage.Thomas
p. 130.
/ref> Carrington wrote for EUROPÄISCHE WEHRKUNDE a briefing paper entitled "Challenges to the Alliance".

North Atlantic Council meeting summary

President Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

told the

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 ...

about his recent meeting with Gorbachev. The meeting happened in the wake of the 1985 Geneva summit and was simply a report on developments there. Carrington remarked on the Ministerial meeting that was scheduled to occur in December.

Ministerial meeting

The Defence Planning Committee of NATO met in Ministerial Session in Brussels over three days from 3 December 1986; day one of the meeting was devoted to a briefing on the Reagan-Gorbachev summit, while the discussion over the final two days centred on the Annual Defence Review and the adoption of the NATO Force Plan 1987-1991, which "reflected our determination to give these Alliance priority areas special emphasis in our national plans and programmes." Of special note was the attention paid to the December 1984 decision to acquire more ammunition stocks for selected battle decisive systems. The objective was for each ally to maintain 30 days worth of munitions in order to prepare battle readiness.

Notes

References

* Thomas, Ian Q.R. (1997)
''The promise of alliance: NATO and the political imagination.''
Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. ;

External links