On Wednesday 18 January, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană said that 2023 would be a difficult year, in connection with the war in Ukraine.
“There is no indication that Putin’s objectives have changed. So we have to be ready for the long term. 2023 will be a difficult year. And we must support Ukraine for as long as it takes”, he explained ahead of the meeting of the Atlantic Alliance’s Military Committee of Chiefs of Defence.
“We are witnessing the dawn of a new era of collective defence. But this is an era for which NATO is ready”, warned the Chairman of the Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer.
Beyond support for Ukraine, Geoană highlighted that NATO must implement the decisions taken at the Madrid Summit last June and work towards the Vilnius Summit next July.
He called on the Allies to invest more in defence, to increase their industrial capacity to manufacture weapons and munitions and to work closely with the defence industry to replenish their own stocks. For Geoană, the Allies, while learning from the war in Ukraine, must also prepare for possible future wars and continue to transform NATO for the digital age. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)