Work starts on new NATO Headquarters
On 16 December 2010, the NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen joined the Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme and the Belgian Defense Minister Pieter de Crem on the site of the new NATO Headquarters in Brussels to attend a ground-breaking ceremony.
The project will deliver new, more efficient and environmentally sustainable office and conference space for Allies and NATO staffs by 2015. Allies expect this important infrastructure project to accompany the reform of the Alliance they have mandated the Secretary General to pursue.
"A modern NATO needs a modern building," Mr Rasmussen said. "A new headquarters building is essential for NATO to meet the demands of a rapidly changing security environment. Our Headquarters project will serve as a further driver for change."
He also offered thanks to the national and local Belgian authorities for providing the land for NATO's new premises and for hosting NATO Headquarters since 1967. The building of the new Headquarters is making a clear statement, the Secretary General said: "In an unpredictable world, NATO is here to stay. And NATO will stay here in Brussels."