Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Goldie on 26 June, relating to the Chiefs of Defence Staff (ChoDS) Network and the promotion and integration of gender perspectives in the armed forces, stating that 10 NATO members, including the UK, are members of the ChoDS Network (HL Deb, col 156), which members of NATO are not yet members of the ChoDS Network; and what discussions they have had with those countries to ascertain their reasons for deciding not to join that Network.

Since launching the Chief of Defence Staff (CHODS) network in November 2017, seven NATO members (Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the UK and the USA) have joined and three further members (Belgium, Estonia and Germany) have expressed an interest in joining. This is in addition to the 20 non-NATO countries who are also members.

Conversations are on-going with the remaining NATO members and, as the network matures, we anticipate more will join. The Vice Chief of Defence Staff, General Sir Gordon Messenger, will host the first meeting of the CHODS network in the autumn of 2018, ahead of Canada taking the chairmanship of the network in 2019.