North Atlantic Council

This article is about the NATO body. For the US think tank, see Atlantic Council.

North Atlantic Council
Type
Type	Committee of the NATO
History
Founded	4 April 1949;76 years ago (1949-04-04)
Leadership
Secretary General	Mark Rutte
Deputy Secretary-General	Radmila Šekerinska
Structure
Seats	32 states: Albania Belgium Bulgaria Canada Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Iceland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Montenegro Netherlands North Macedonia Norway Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Turkey United Kingdom United States
Joint committees	20 reporting to NAC: [1] Deputies Committee Political Committee Partnerships and Cooperative Security Committee Defence Policy and Planning Committee Committee on Proliferation Digital Policy Committee Operations Policy Committee High Level Task Force on Conventional Arms Control Verification Coordinating Committee Conference of National Armaments Directors Committee for Standardization Logistics Committee Resource Policy and Planning Board Integrated Air and Missile Defence Policy Committee Aviation Committee Resilience Committee Committee on Public Diplomacy Council Operations and Exercises Committee Security Committee Civilian Intelligence Committee Archives Committee
Authority	Principal political decision-making body
Meeting place
NATO headquarters Brussels, Belgium
Website
www.nato.int/
Footnotes
Historical meeting venues Palais de Chaillot (April 1952 (1952-04)-December 1959 (1959-12)) Quartier de la Porte-Dauphine  [ fr ], Paris (December 1959 (1959-12)-1967 (1967))

The North Atlantic Council (abbr.NAC, French : Conseil de l'Atlantique nord) is the principal political decision-making body of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), consisting of permanent representatives of its member countries. ^[2] It was established by Article 9 of the North Atlantic Treaty, and it is the only body in NATO that derives its authority explicitly from the treaty.

Powers and duties

The North Atlantic Treaty gave the NAC the power to set up subsidiary bodies for various policy functions, including a defense committee to implement other parts of the treaty. Since 1952, the NAC has been in permanent session. ^[3] The NAC can be held at the Permanent Representative Level (PermReps), or can be composed of member states' Ministers of State, Defense, or Heads of Government. The NAC has the same powers regardless of the formation under which it meets. The NAC meets twice a week: every Tuesday, for an informal lunch discussion; and every Wednesday for a decision-taking session. Usually, meetings occur amongst the permanent representatives who are the senior permanent member of each delegation and is generally a senior civil servant or an experienced ambassador (and holding that diplomatic rank). The list of permanent representatives may be found on the NATO website. ^[4]

The 32 members of NATO have diplomatic missions to the organization through embassies in Belgium. The meetings of the NAC are chaired by the secretary general and, when decisions have to be made, action is agreed upon on the basis of unanimity and common accord. There is no voting or decision by majority. Each nation represented at the NAC table or on any of its subordinate committees retains complete sovereignty and responsibility for its own decisions. ^[5]

POLITICAL-STRATEGIC LEVEL:

North Atlantic Council (NAC) NATO Headquarters, Brussels, BEL

Secretary-General (SECGEN) NATO Headquarters, Brussels, BEL

International Staff (IS) NATO Headquarters, Brussels, BEL

MILITARY-STRATEGIC LEVEL:

International Military Staff (IMS) NATO Headquarters, Brussels, BEL

Military Committee (MC) NATO Headquarters, Brussels, BEL

STRATEGIC COMMANDS:

Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Allied Command Transformation (ACT) Norfolk, U.S.

Supreme Allied Commander Europe Allied Command Operations (ACO) Mons, BEL

TRANSFORMATION COMMANDS:

OPERATIONAL COMMANDS:

Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) Stavanger, NOR

Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFC Brunssum) Brunssum, NLD

Allied Air Command (AIRCOM) Ramstein, DEU

Joint Force Training Centre (JFTC) Bydgoszcz, POL

Joint Force Command Naples (JFC Naples) Naples, ITA

Allied Land Command (LANDCOM) İzmir, TUR

Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre (JALLC) Lisbon, PRT

Joint Force Command Norfolk (JFC Norfolk) Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.

Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) Northwood, GBR

Joint Support and Enabling Command (JSEC) Ulm, DEU

Composition

Each member nation is normally represented on the North Atlantic Council by an Ambassador or Permanent Representative supported by a national delegation composed of advisers and officials who represent their country on different NATO committees.

North Atlantic Council

Portrait	Name	Country	Incumbent since
	Ilir Gjoni	Albania	September 2023 [6]
	Ariadne Petridis	Belgium	16 August 2022 [7]
	Nikolay Milkov	Bulgaria	10 May 2023 [8]
	David Angell	Canada	12 February 2019 [9]
	Mario Nobilo	Croatia	5 September 2017 [10]
	David Konecký	Czech Republic	31 July 2024 [11]
	Lone Dencker Wisborg	Denmark	2 September 2022 [12]
	Jüri Luik	Estonia	2 September 2022 [13]
	Piritta Asunmaa	Finland	September 2023 [14]
	David Cvach	France	August 2024 [15] [16]
	Géza Andreas von Geyr	Germany	August 2023 [17]
	Vasiliki Gounari	Greece	[18]
	István Balogh	Hungary	25 January 2023 [19]
	Hermann Ingólfsson	Iceland	15 December 2021
	Marco Peronaci	Italy	[20]
	Māris Riekstiņš	Latvia	1 September 2023 [21]
	Darius Jauniškis	Lithuania	18 April 2025 [22]
	Stephan Frédéric Müller	Luxembourg	15 December 2021 [23]
	Milena Kalezić	Montenegro	November 2023 [24]
	Thijs van der Plas	Netherlands	8 August 2022 [25]
	Dane Taleski	North Macedonia	[26]
	Anita Nergaard	Norway	September 2022 [27]
	Jacek Najder	Poland	2025 [28]
	Pedro Costa Pereira	Portugal	9 December 2019 [29]
	Dan Neculăescu	Romania	February 2022 [30]
	Peter Bátor	Slovakia	8 February 2021 [31]
	Andrej Benedejčič	Slovenia	24 November 2023 [32]
	Federico Torres Muro	Spain	24 November 2022 [33]
	Jan Knutsson	Sweden	25 August 2024 [34]
	Basat Öztürk	Turkey	29 May 2025 [35]
	Angus Lapsley	United Kingdom	April 2025 [36]
	Matthew Whitaker	United States	25 April 2025 [37]

See also

• Secretary General of NATO
• NATO Military Committee
  • International Military Staff

References

1. "Committees reporting to the North Atlantic Council" . Retrieved August 6, 2025– via www.nato.int.
2. "The North Atlantic Council". NATO.
3. "REORGANIZATION OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION".
4. "nato.int: "NATO Permanent Representatives"".
5. "North Atlantic Council".
6. NATO. "Ilir Gjoni, Permanent Representative of Albania to NATO". NATO. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
7. NATO. "Ariadne Petridis, Permanent Representative of Belgium to NATO". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
8. NATO. "Nikolay Milkov, NATO Permanent Representative for Bulgaria". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
9. NATO. "David Angell, NATO Permanent Representative for Canada". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
10. NATO. "Mario Nobilo, Permanent Representative of Croatia to NATO". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
11. "Velvyslanec David Konecký předal pověřovací listiny generálnímu tajemníkovi NATO". mzv.gov.cz (in Czech). Retrieved June 25, 2025.
12. NATO. "Lone Dencker Wisborg, NATO Permanent Representative for Denmark". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
13. NATO. "Lone Dencker Wisborg, NATO Permanent Representative for Denmark". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
14. NATO. "NATO Permanent Representatives". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
15. NATO. "NATO Permanent Representatives". NATO. Retrieved April 1, 2025.
16. "Ambassador David CVACH". Permanent Representation of France to NATO. August 19, 2024. Retrieved April 1, 2025.
17. "Ambassador Dr Géza Andreas von Geyrs". Permanent Delegation of the Federal Republic of Germany to NATO. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
18. NATO. "Ioannis - Miltiadis Nicolaidis, Permanent representative of Greece to NATO". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
19. NATO. "István Balogh, Permanent Representative of Hungary to NATO". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
20. NATO. "NATO Permanent Representatives". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
21. NATO. "Māris Riekstiņš, NATO Permanent Representative for Latvia". NATO. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
22. "Ambassador Jauniškis presented his letters of credence to the NATO Secretary General". Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Lithuania). April 30, 2025. Retrieved May 7, 2025.
23. NATO. "Stephan Frédéric Müller, NATO Permanent Representative of Luxembourg". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
24. NATO. "Milena Kalezić, NATO Permanent Representative for Montenegro". NATO. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
25. NATO. "Thijs van der Plas, Permanent Representative of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to NATO". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
26. NATO. "NATO Permanent Representatives". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
27. NATO. "Anita Nergaard, NATO Permanent Representative for Norway". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
28. • NATO. "NATO Permanent Representatives". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
    • "NATO Permanent Representative".
29. NATO. "Pedro Costa Pereira, Permanent representative of Portugal to NATO". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
30. NATO. "Dan Neculăescu, Permanent Representative of Romania". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
31. NATO. "Peter Bátor, Permanent Representative of Slovakia to NATO". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
32. NATO. "Ambassador Dr Andrej Benedejčič presents letters of credence to NATO Secretary General". Government of Slovenia. Retrieved December 22, 2023.
33. NATO. "Federico Torres Muro, Permanent Representative of Spain to NATO". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
34. NATO. "Jan Knutsson, Permanent Representative of Sweden to NATO" (PDF). NATO. Retrieved December 28, 2024.
35. NATO. "Ambassador Basat Öztürk, Permanent Representative of Türkiye to NATO". NATO. Retrieved June 11, 2025.
36. "UK Permanent Representative to NATO Angus Lapsley". gov.uk . Retrieved May 7, 2025.
37. NATO. "NATO Permanent Representatives". NATO. Retrieved May 13, 2023.

Bibliography

• Bumgardner, Sherrod Lewis, ed. (2010). NATO Legal Deskbook (PDF) (2nd ed.). Belgium.

External links

• North Atlantic Council at the NATO website