NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced, on the evening of Tuesday 1 June, that the decision to create a technology accelerator (see EUROPE 12731/17), a new “tool to strengthen our coordination, our work on technology and also to prevent any gaps between Allies” could be taken at the NATO leaders’ Summit on 14 June.
“The aim is to make a decision to establish this accelerator at the Summit in two weeks’ time. Then we need to work on the exact governance structures and define the details and also location and so on, on this new accelerator”, explained Mr Stoltenberg after the virtual meeting of Defence ministers. He said the Summit would also allow the Allies to choose whether or not to participate in the accelerator.
“Exactly how, what kind of access those Allies who are not part of the accelerator to have, it's too early to say. But of course they will not have the same access and not participate in exactly the same way as those Allies that decide to be part of the accelerator and also then provide funding for the accelerator”, added the Secretary General.
However, according to Mr Stoltenberg, many Allies will decide to participate because “they see the high value of working together, transatlantic, working with private sector work, working with academia and also supporting start-ups and actually pulling resources by doing this together”.
In front of the media, the Secretary General justified the setting up of such a centre. “New and disruptive technologies such as autonomous systems, artificial intelligence and big data are really changing the way our militaries are going to operate in the future. And we need to maintain our technological advantage, our technological edge, as we have had for so many decades”, he explained. He added that China, for example, is investing heavily in these technologies. NATO must therefore, according to Mr Stoltenberg, stay ahead of the curve. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)