At a hearing in the European Parliament on Thursday 7 September, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg highlighted cooperation between the EU and NATO.
“To strengthen the cooperation has been a top priority for me, since I started my tenure in 2014. I believe in this cooperation. We share the same values, we have common challenges. We are two different organizations, but we have a lot in common”, he stressed. Mr Stoltenberg pointed out that once Sweden is a member of the Alliance, 96% of the EU’s inhabitants will live in a NATO member country.
The EU and NATO have already signed three joint declarations. According to Mr Stoltenberg, the two organisations have strengthened their cooperation in areas such as space, military mobility, critical infrastructure, cyberspace and the Balkans. EU countries and Allies are also cooperating on the situation in Ukraine. “There is a lot of work to be done, but we can be proud of the progress made in forging the link between our two institutions. This has always been important, but the war in Ukraine has shown that it is even more crucial”, explained Mr Stoltenberg.
In the context of the war in Ukraine, EU and NATO countries are cooperating both politically and pragmatically, in particular via the cooperation cell in Wiesbaden (Germany), where Allies and EU members meet to coordinate on what Ukraine needs. A collaboration that Mr Stoltenberg described as impressive.
Turning to the wider issue of support for Ukraine, the NATO Secretary General said that this support should be continued, stressing that this international aid had enabled Ukraine to launch a counter-offensive “which is gradually gaining ground”.
Jens Stoltenberg reiterated the importance of maintaining the systems sent to Ukraine, saying that the public debate focused a little too much on the new systems rather than on the maintenance of the systems delivered. “When we deliver military support, we deliver a mortar, ammunition, spare parts, training and a maintenance system for the mortar. What’s the priority? Ensuring that all the systems sent to Ukraine work”, he added.
He also welcomed the EU’s efforts to produce more munitions.
Lastly, Mr Stoltenberg said he was “optimistic” that the Allies would soon comply with their commitment to spend the equivalent of 2% of their GDP on defence. He pointed out that eleven allies were already meeting this threshold, and that almost all of them had plans in place to do so within the next few years. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)