NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (Jens Stoltenberg) on Friday (October 22) called on the EU to cooperate more closely with the military alliance, as the EU’s latest defense efforts in recent months have sparked concerns about possible competition with NATO. Worries about the parallel structure.
“We must ensure that our security concepts remain unified,” Stoltenberg said after a two-day NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels.
The head of NATO is referring to negotiations on a new EU-NATO joint statement on mutual cooperation, which will be submitted before the end of the year.
According to NATO officials, this aims to include cooperation in areas such as military maneuvering, maritime security, cyber security, and addressing security challenges posed by climate change.
Stoltenberg told reporters that the cooperation between NATO and the EU has reached an “unprecedented level.” He welcomed the growing military ambitions of EU member states, but emphasized that these should not duplicate the NATO structure.
In the latest move to accelerate the deepening of EU defense cooperation, the EU is formulating a military strategy document similar to NATO’s “strategic concept”, which may be the closest that the EU may have in the future to military doctrine.
After the crisis in Afghanistan, the EU Defense Minister discussed in September the proposal for initial entry into the force and the possibility of temporary military cooperation between interested EU member states.
After the chaotic scenes at Kabul Airport after the Taliban seized power, the EU once again called for the development of a European initial entry force response force, the group’s own joint military capability, to quickly respond to the crisis.
The plan was first proposed more than two decades ago. Although a battle group system consisting of 1,500 soldiers was created in 2007, it was never used due to funding problems and unwillingness to deploy. However, the plan has remained stagnant. forward.
“We need more skills, not new structures,” Stoltenberg said in Brussels.
After the NATO Defense Ministers’ Meeting, the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin stated in Brussels that if it “makes an active contribution to transatlantic and global security and is compatible with NATO”, the US will support a “stronger and more capable Europe”. defense”.
Austin responded positively in his public speech to reporters, saying that he welcomes a more capable European defense, which echoes the joint statement issued by the French and US presidents in September.
“What we want to see are initiatives that are complementary to the type of things NATO is doing,” Austin said at a press conference and urged NATO allies to live up to their “top job” of “reliable deterrence and defense.”
Austin also stated that the strategies of Europe and the United States in the Indo-Pacific region are not contradictory, saying that NATO allies are working together to counter China’s military rise.
Washington reached an agreement called AUKUS with Australia and the United Kingdom in September, which led to the signing of a submarine agreement between France and the Australian Navy, which angered Paris.
Austin also pledged to “work together to ensure that the Indo-Pacific region remains free and open.”
German and French guarantee
Earlier on Thursday, the outgoing German Defense Minister Annegrett Kramp-Karenbauer called for strengthening the military capabilities of European NATO member states.
During the evacuation mission in Kabul in August, Europeans discovered that without the United States, Europeans “cannot behave as we all hope,” she told German style.
Kramp-Karrenbauer also emphasized that the recent joint proposals made by Germany, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland and the Netherlands to improve the structure and processes have received positive responses, but it does not mean that Europe is competing with NATO.
French Armed Forces Minister Florence Pali told her NATO counterparts on Friday not to be afraid of the European Union’s defense plan, saying that the United States will benefit and any European capabilities will strengthen the alliance.
These remarks were made at the NATO Defense Ministers Meeting and shared with reporters, aiming to end the uncertainty over the past few months about whether the EU’s latest efforts to develop weapons and forces will compete with NATO.
“When I hear some defensive statements about European defense, when I observe certain threats, including within this organization, I will say:’Don’t be afraid!'” Parley said at a meeting, which also includes the European Union. Chief Diplomat Jose Puborel.
Pali said: “European defense was not created to oppose NATO, on the contrary: a stronger Europe will help build a stronger and more resilient alliance.”
However, Eastern European member states tend to rely more on the NATO structure.
[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]
