On Thursday 20 March, NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska reiterated that Europeans should not turn their backs on the Alliance.
“We welcome the fact that we are stepping up to take greater responsibility for collective security, but that does not mean that going it alone would be a winning strategy, either for the Europeans or the United States, because the stakes are too high,” she told the European Parliament’s Committee on Security and Defence.
Mrs Shekerinska highlighted the need for “a stronger European pillar in a stronger NATO alliance, because the transatlantic relationship is the cornerstone of global stability”.
So while it is important for the EU to take greater responsibility for its own defence, and to stand together to be stronger, the Deputy Secretary General believes that it is necessary to build on the respective strengths of the different organisations. For NATO, this means: “hard” security, military strength, defence capabilities, standards, etc. The EU, for its part, can “use its unique economic leverage to boost defence production and innovation”.
Ms Shekerinska felt that it was “inconceivable” to remain safe without Canada, Iceland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Turkey and the United States. “ It’s not a question of geography, it's a question of money, capabilities and credibility,” she warned, adding that given the challenges facing the Allies, the whole transatlantic family needed to be brought together.
At a time when the Allies may be committing themselves to a substantial increase in defence spending at their summit at the end of June, the Deputy Secretary General reminded the meeting that a country cannot be defended on the basis of GDP percentages. “To fight a battle, you need military capabilities (...) rather than talking about 2% GDP, let's concentrate on what we need to mobilise through this defence spending,” she explained, hoping for an agreement in early June on new capability targets between the Allies. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)