NATO leaders on Friday adopted a new Strategic Concept that will serve as the alliance's roadmap for the next 10 years and that reconfirms the commitment to defend one another against attack as the bedrock of Euro-Atlantic security. 

NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen addresses a press conference of the NATO Summit in Lisbon, capital of Portugal, on Nov. 19, 2010. Leaders from 28 NATO countries endorsed new Strategic Concept at the military bloc's annual summit held on Friday. [Wu Wei/Xinhua]

The document lays out NATO's vision for an evolving alliance that will remain able to defend its members against modern threats and commits NATO to become more agile, more capable and more effective.

"We face new threats and challenges. This Strategic Concept will ensure that NATO remains as effective as ever in defending our peace, our security and our prosperity," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a news conference held in Lisbon, capital of Portugal, on Friday evening.

Stressing that the time has come for NATO to develop new capabilities and new partnerships, the new Strategic Concept paves the way for the alliance to modernize its ability to carry out its core mission of collective defense, while continuing to promote international stability.

The new Strategic Concept is a document outlining the guiding principles of the alliance to tackle the challenges of the 21st century. As radical changes have occurred on the global scene since the last strategy was adopted in 1999, leaders decided to revise the document to take into account new security threats, such as terrorism and cyber criminality.