The military alliance also agreed to raise its common funding budget to “up to EUR 6.5 billion” for next year, and signed off on its investment priorities for the next five years. For 2026, allies had agreed on a budget of €5.3 billion.
Countries have held negotiations for months on the revamp of the alliance’s 10,000-kilometer Cold War-era pipeline network, which is designed to connect NATO’s existing system in Western Europe to newer alliance member countries in the east and north.
The project, touted as NATO’s largest-ever and most expensive commonly funded scheme, could take up to 30 years to complete and covers dozens of projects, ranging from pipeline upgrades to energy storage sites.
“A stronger NATO is in the pipeline,” said one of the diplomats.
NATO countries had previously disagreed over the high costs of the agreement, while some fretted that it would lock in fuel projects for decades, although they later dropped their objections.
At this month’s leaders’ gathering in Ankara, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte praised the political deal reached by allies on the revamp. The “historic step” on the revamp “will modernize our existing fuel storage and distribution infrastructure,” he told reporters.