Germany and Poland hosted the second informal meeting of NATO's Senior National Officials for Resilience in Berlin (16-18 September 2025). The meeting involved a scenario-based discussion, enabling Allies to share their national progress, experiences and best practices when preparing for complex, multi-domain crises.
The scenario explored the cascading effects of disruptions across essential services, challenging Allies' ability simultaneously to protect the Alliance's 1 billion citizens, and support NATO forces. A broad range of issues critical to further strengthening resilience, including civil preparedness and capabilities, critical infrastructure, regional and cross-border interdependencies and public-private cooperation were discussed.
During the event, Director Julien Kita of NATO's Defence Enablement and Resilience Directorate highlighted that: "The resilience community is stepping up to deliver on the historic commitments made by Allies at the summits in Vilnius, Washington and The Hague, to match the scale and requirements of NATO's deterrence and defence."
This informal meeting took place in the context of Allies' recent decisions during the Washington Summit to strengthen national resilience by ensuring civilian readiness to support national and collective defence planning and the commitment taken at the summit in The Hague to invest 1,5% of GDP in defence and security related expenditures.
