Central to this idea is the “Partnership for Peace” (PfP) programme, which promotes cooperation among the NATO Allies and its Partner countries in a vast array of security-related activities.

The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), involving 46 countries, including the NATO member countries, provides the political framework for PfP and a forum for discussion on security-related issues. Heads of State and Government of the EAPC countries met in Summit session in Washington, on the day following the NATO Summit.

Over the past few years, Russia and Ukraine have developed special independent relationships with the Alliance, enabling them to pursue, in different ways, cooperative programmes on a wide range of practical security-related issues of benefit to their countries and to Europe as a whole. Both countries are members of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council.

Despite Russian objections to the NATO air campaign, NATO countries worked closely with representatives of the Russian government in the context of diplomatic efforts to bring about an end to the conflict in Kosovo and a lasting political solution.

NATO is confident that NATO-Russia cooperation in the wider sphere will continue to develop positively. Successful cooperation efforts, first in the Implementation Force (IFOR), and then in the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and subsequently in the Kosovo Force (KFOR), as well as in many other spheres, have demonstrated the benefits of working together.

A programme of special cooperation is also being pursued, in the context of NATO's Mediterranean Dialogue, with seven non-NATO Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia). The goal of the Mediterranean Dialogue is to contribute to mutual understanding and enhance security and stability in the Mediterranean region. Within NATO itself, different committees are responsible for planning ahead in such areas as political consultations, defence planning and operations, armaments cooperation and others. The committees recommend action to the North Atlantic Council - NATO’s highest decision-making body - or to NATO’s Defence Planning Committee, which deals primarily with questions relating to NATO's integrated military structure.

NATO also provides a forum for active cooperation among its member states and its Partner countries in areas such as civil emergency planning, disaster relief and scientific and environmental programmes. Although each nation bears the principal responsibility for its own planning to deal with civil emergencies, NATO works to ensure that civil resources can be used in the most effective way, when the moment requires.