Defense ministers of NATO nations pose as a group for photographers atthe annual Informal Meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Birmingham, England, on Oct. 10, 2000. Each Autumn a different member of the 19-nation security alliance hosts the informal meeting in which a range of security issues are freely discussed, but no binding decisions are made. All binding agreements are left to the biannual defense ministerial held at NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. 1st Row, left to right: Hans Haekkerup, minister of defense, Denmark; Vladimir Vetchy, minister of defense, the Czech Republic; Arthur Eggleton, minister of defense, Canada; Andre Flahaut, minister of defense, Belgium; Lord George Robertson, NATO Secretary General; William S. Cohen, secretary of defense, USA; Geoffrey Hoon, secretary of state for defense, the United Kingdom; Sabahattin Cakmakoglu, minister of defense, Turkey; Federico Trillo, minister of defense, Spain. Back Row, left to right: Rudolf Scharping, minister of defense, Germany; Apostolos-Athanasios Tsohatzopoulos, minister of defense, Greece; Janos Szabo, minister of defense, Hungary; Gunnar Palsson, Iceland's ambassador to NATO; Sergio Mattarella, minister of defense, Italy; Charles Goerens, minister of defense, Luxembourg; Bjorn Tore Godal, minister of defense, Norway; Bronislaw Komorowski, minister of defense, Poland, and Julio Castro Caldas, minister of defense, Portugal.