NATO cooperates on an individual basis with a number of countries which are not part of its regional partnership frameworks. Referred to as “partners across the globe” or simply “global partners”, they include Afghanistan, Australia, Colombia, Iraq, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand and Pakistan. Since the 90’s NATO has developed regular dialogue and cooperation with countries “across the Globe”, sharing security interests, which did not belong to any traditional regional partnership frameworks, such as Afghanistan, Australia, Colombia, Iraq, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand and Pakistan. Practical cooperation is being developed in a wide range of areas, including peace keeping, cyber defence, maritime security, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, non-proliferation, defence science and technology peace and security.
- The importance of reaching out to countries and organisations across the globe was underlined in the Strategic Concept adopted at the November 2010 Lisbon Summit.
- Following the Lisbon Summit, NATO revised its partnership policy in April 2011 to better engage with partners.
- Global partners now have access to the full range of activities NATO offers to all partners; each has developed an Individual Partnership Cooperation Program, choosing the areas where they wish to engage with NATO in a spirit of mutual benefit and reciprocity.
- Most global partners contribute actively to NATO-led operations and missions.
- NATO also consults with other non-member countries which have no bilateral programme of cooperation (for example, China, India, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia) on issues such as counter piracy and countering narcotics in Afghanistan.