Spring Session of NATO Parliamentary Assembly takes place in Luxembourg

The Rt Hon Alec Shelbrooke MP leads the Delegation and Chairs the Assembly’s Defence and Security Committee whilst the Rt Hon Kevan Jones MP is the Deputy Leader and a Vice-President of the Assembly.

The first three days of the session focussed on committee meetings where the Assembly’s five Committee discussed their 2023 draft reports and heard from a range of top officials and experts on these and other critical topics, including:

• defending the Alliance’s shared democratic values and the international rules-based order;
• accelerating the adaptation of NATO’s deterrence and defence posture, including in the Baltic and Black Sea regions;
• strengthening resilience, combatting disinformation and securing critical infrastructure and supplies;
• NATO’s partnerships and the future of the Open Door policy;
• China’s global role and challenge, including its deepening partnership with Russia;
• the implications of Russia’s war for Allied capabilities, the need to strengthen the industrial base and developments in emerging and disruptive technologies;
• further reinforcing the unique transatlantic bond; and
• further ways to mainstream a gender perspective into defence and security.

The final day was a plenary for all delegates. The plenary debate was opened by an address from the President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, Joelle Garriaud-Maylam (France), who spoke alongside senior representatives of the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and of NATO and other high-level guest speakers.

Ahead of the session, the Delegation received a briefing from the Rt Hon James Heappey MP, Minister of State for the Armed Forces at the Ministry of Defence, and also met with His Majesty’s Ambassador to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

At the session in Luxembourg, the leader of the UK delegation, the Rt Hon Alec Shelbrooke MP, commented:

“This weekend we have been looking at the draft reports of the Assembly that will eventually be ratified at the Annual Session in the Autumn and passed on to the NATO Secretary General.
The work of the Assembly is very important in bringing political accountability to NATO, making sure that we are addressing the issues that really matter to our allies and partners.
This weekend we met with the Ukrainian delegation who once again emphasised their thanks to the United Kingdom for being one of the leading nations in helping support them to rid their country of the illegal invasion by the Russian Federation.
Overall, the Spring Session was it was a very positive meeting, and the Alliance continues to be in a very strong position.”