On Sunday 28 November, during a visit to Latvia and Lithuania with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, to underline their objection against the Belarusian regime’s use of migration as a tool, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for closer cooperation between the EU and NATO in the fight against hybrid attacks.
To respond to these attacks, “it is important that the EU and NATO work hand in hand”, she told the media. “We are testing and coordinating our crisis responses during regular exercises. And we are stepping up our coordination, cooperation on resilience, on situational awareness and on fighting disinformation”, she added.
Cooperation already exists, but in the face of increasingly acute hybrid threats, the President felt that cooperation needed to be taken to a higher level, adding that this was why a new joint EU-NATO declaration was being drafted. “Our aim is to renew and update our political commitment to a very strong EU-NATO partnership”, she said.
For his part, Mr Stoltenberg highlighted that “NATO and the European Union are unique and essential partners”, which are stronger when working together. “In uncertain times, in challenging times, it is even more important that we have big and strong institutions like NATO and like the European Union, and that we are demonstrating our ability to work together”, he added.
NATO foreign ministers will gather in Riga on Tuesday 30 November and Wednesday 1 December for a ministerial meeting, during which the situation on the Belarusian border will be discussed (see EUROPE 12841/19). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)