Senate Hearing on NATO Warsaw Summit Agenda

• •NATO is scheduled to hold a biennial summit in Warsaw in July 2016.
• •The 'Very High Readiness Joint Task Force' is scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2016.
• •NATO members previously agreed to a target of spending 2% of GDP on defense within a decade.
• •Only five NATO nations currently meet the 2% defense spending target: the United States, Estonia, Greece, Poland, and the U.K.
• •16 NATO allies have increased or maintained steady defense budgets since the 2014 Wales Summit.
• •The U.S. is currently involved in the Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan.
• •Russia is accused of violating the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) and the Open Skies Treaty.
• •Russia is accused of occupying portions of Ukraine and Georgia.
• •The committee identified the flow of asylum seekers into Europe as a pressure point on NATO operational capacities.

This hearing outlines the U.S. government's priorities for NATO, which directly impacts American military commitments, defense spending expectations for allies, and collective security strategies in Europe and Afghanistan.

Patterns POLISCOPE noticed across the record. These are observations to investigate, not conclusions.