National Defence committee  Certainly, interoperability is in many respects what NATO is all about. It allows nations to bring what they can to an operation. So it goes right from the basics of NATO having standard agreements as to standardization of the type of fuel we might use in our airplanes or to the type of ammunition, on up through to, within our headquarters, how do we talk, how do we plan, and having a common approach to, again, having a higher level platform at the pol-mil level, where we can come together and collectively advance approaches—so agreeing on the framework for a future NATO mission.

National Defence committee  There's been a gradual.... There was a resetting of those contributions about five years ago, so there's been a gradual rebalancing, recognizing nations' gross national incomes.

National Defence committee  Quite a wide range. I'm sure you are all familiar with General Bouchard. From NATO's headquarters in SHAPE, where they command operations through to its subordinate headquarters such as the one in Naples, we have a number of Canadians occupying positions of leadership. General Bouchard is the deputy commander in Naples.

National Defence committee  If you were to talk about the NATO command structure itself, NATO's standing framework, it's about 350. That number will come and go, but that's what's contributed to the headquarters, both in North America and in Europe.

National Defence committee  I'd be happy to run through those figures as well. Just as context, NATO's annual budget—both the budget of operations and the budget for investment—is about $3 billion, of which Canada contributes 5.94%. I think this year that translates into about $183 million.

National Defence committee  There's a framework for those contributions based on OECD recognized figures, gross national incomes. Those would be the contributions. There are other programs that can be contributed to, but those lie outside or above and beyond—a research and development establishment where there might be a small contribution and the like.

National Defence committee  I think certainly right from the onset, we played a role in providing a member to the group of experts and the delegation that was put together to draft the strategic concept. I think it was an 11-member group. We did provide a special expert to that. Again, not being involved in the drafting or the like, I think the work that was done or their contributions again reaffirm the importance of the transatlantic security link and the like.

National Defence committee  Great. Sure. Just very, very quickly, I'm running through the largest to the smallest. Certainly in Afghanistan, there's the commitment to the ISAF mission. I'm sure you're all well aware of the commitment of trainers to the NATO training mission. NATO's other missions.... In Kosovo that mission has drawn down significantly.

National Defence committee  Good morning, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for this opportunity. Just building on the comments, again, as we go towards Chicago, smart defence really fits within a larger look for delivering on what we agreed to in Lisbon, and for how we would achieve NATO's level of ambition, looking out to the year 2020 and beyond, in regard to the types of capabilities the alliance would need to have collectively to address its level of ambition.