NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday 22 October that it was time for the EU and the Atlantic Alliance to update their cooperation.
“The time has come to make a third declaration [after those of 2016 and 2018], to update, to define our ambitions on enhanced cooperation between NATO and the EU”, he explained at the end of the second day of the meeting of the defence ministers of the Allied countries. The aim is to adopt a new declaration of cooperation in December.
EU-NATO cooperation was discussed with the Finnish and Swedish ministers, but not with the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who was detained at the European Council (see other news).
While “NATO-EU cooperation has already reached unprecedented levels”—notably in cyberspace, the Aegean, and Kosovo—Mr Stoltenberg hoped that cooperation would be strengthened in areas such as military mobility, resilience, emerging and disruptive technologies, and the security impact of climate change.
“We share the same values, the same challenges, the same neighbourhood. More than 90% of EU citizens live in a NATO country, it makes sense to work together”, justified the Secretary General. He reiterated that the approach to security between the two organisations should remain consistent.
Thus, while welcoming the “increased defence efforts of the EU”, Mr Stoltenberg recalled that these should not duplicate the Alliance. “What is needed are additional capabilities, not new structures”, he warned, adding that NATO remained the foundation of transatlantic security.
In addition, on Thursday 21 October, Ministers adopted the Alliance’s first-ever Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy, which describes how AI can be applied to the defence and security sector in a secure and ethical manner.
See a summary of the strategy: https://bit.ly/3Gb07C8 (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)