VIII. NATO COMMITMENTS
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NATO-Related effort
61. NATO is at the heart both of our military effort and of our
foreign policy. Over 90% of our forces are committed to NATO; and for all practical purposes our spending on NATO amounts to the total defence budget, less the £150M identifiable cost for national commit- ments. Cuts in our NATO-related expenditure are therefore bound to have broad effects on our standing with our allies, with an influence in many fields beyond that of defence. Moreover, reductions in the
British effort are naturally seen by our allies as having an effect on the whole Alliance and hence to a greater or lesser extent on their own security. Accordingly, consultation with our NATO allies will have
The area
to be of a peculiarly deep and influential character.
involved is particularly complicated and the stakes are high.
We have
no doubt that adequate consultation will take a good deal more time
than is available in 1974.
62. This is not incompatible with Ministers' stated intention to
announce the main results of the Defence Review in October or November
To achieve their timetable and to fulfil our formal commitments to
NATO it will be important to begin bilateral consultation with selected allies before the end of July, and consultation in the NATO
framework shortly thereafter. Formal consultation will require a
minimum of two months: full consultation need not start until about
the end of the year. We believe an approach to our allies might be
constructed on the lines set out in paragraphs 63 to 63 below.
Decisions this autumn
63€ These considerations lead to the conclusion that Ministers may be
able to take four broad decisions at the end of the Defence Review in
the autumn:
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