Скачать или смотреть NATO Secretary General doorstep message at the EU Foreign Affairs Council, 23 MAY 2023

Doorstep statement by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union with Defence Ministers, Brussels, 23 May 2023.

🗣 | NATO Secretary General:

Good afternoon.
I look forward to meeting the EU Defence Ministers.

NATO-EU cooperation has been close to my heart for many, many years and we are making a lot of progress.
The war in Ukraine demonstrates the importance of NATO and the European Union working closely together and NATO Allies and the EU has delivered unprecedented support to Ukraine.

Just over last months, we have delivered heavy battle tanks – the Leopards, the UK British Challengers but also now the US Abrams and then the last weeks, United Kingdom has delivered advanced long-range cruise missiles, which are already making a difference on the battlefield.
And then of course, over the last days, we have heard an announcement from several Allies including the United States, United Kingdom and several European Allies that they will start the training of pilots on NATO-standard modern western fighter jets.

This demonstrates our readiness to stand by Ukraine and to be prepared for the long haul.
But of course, to continue our support to Ukraine, we also need to ramp up production of weapons and of ammunition, and therefore, one of the issues that we'll discuss with the defence ministers is how we can work even more closely together, NATO and the European Union on increasing and strengthening our transatlantic industrial base.

I welcome the work the EU is doing.
This is making a difference, is helping our joint efforts.

At the same time what NATO does, is also critical because we are setting the standards to ensure interoperability, interchangeability.
We have the NATO guidelines, the capability targets for each and every Ally and we are now in the process of revising the guidelines, the capability targets for battle decisive ammunition which includes also 155mm ammunition which is a critical piece of ammunition in the war in Ukraine.

And we are engaging closely with industry.
I met them several times, we have engaged with them.
And I see now that more and more NATO Allies actually signing contracts, which is what we need to ensure that production actually increases.
We need to avoid creating new barriers between NATO Allies, we need to strengthen the transatlantic industrial base to ensure that we can both replenish our own stocks, to ensure our own deterrence and defence but also to continue to support Ukraine.

Then another topic which was also related to the war in Ukraine is the protection of critical infrastructure.
We have seen the vulnerability of infrastructure, especially undersea infrastructure.
We have established a joint task force with the European Union, NATO and the European Union on resilience including infrastructure.
NATO has established a cell at NATO to coordinate the efforts of different countries, different Allies and the public and the private sector to step up what we do to protect critical infrastructure, and I expect also new announcements and decisions at the upcoming NATO Summit.


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