Category: North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Mr Rutte’s speech was followed by a conversation moderated by Dr Rosa Balfour, Director of Carnegie Europe.

Corporal John D. Foy, Staff Sergeant George K. Mullins, Private First Class Fred J. Nungesser Jr, and Corporal Joseph R. Picard are now all 99 years old but as young men they fought to free Europe from tyranny. Mr Rutte paid tribute to them, “we are really honoured that you are all here. I can only start to imagine what you have gone through to liberate this part of the world. Amongst you, you have been in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Germany… I would like to say to you, on behalf of the whole Alliance, a heartfelt thank you for your service.”  NATO staff and members of Allied delegations applauded as the four veterans entered the Headquarters. 
 
This winter marks the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes region of Belgium, and next year will be the 80th anniversary of the end of the World War II in Europe, V-E Day. The veterans were also welcomed to NATO HQ by the Chair of the Military Committee Admiral Rob Bauer, who underscored the value of their service. “Many, many millions of people have to thank you, and are thanking you, for what you have done because what you have done made it possible for us in Europe to live the lives we wanted to live.”

As they arrived, the former servicemen were also greeted by the Director General of the International Military Staff, Lieutenant General Janusz Adamczak, and Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield from the US Mission to NATO.

Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Innovation, Hybrid, and Cyber, James Appathurai said: “We need to double down on our innovation efforts. Advanced batteries, hydrogen fuel cells and other innovations are enablers of key military capabilities. They can directly translate into enhanced battlefield performance and provide NATO with a technological edge against potential adversaries.”
  
The event included speakers from the International Energy Agency, the European Commission, NATO’s Energy Security Centre of Excellence, the US Department of Defense, the University of Bonn, the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, the Centre for Global Studies Strategy XXI, and industry representatives from WindEurope, HIF Global, Alba Emission Free Energy, and Rystad Energy.

These companies are developing deep technology solutions to respond to pressing security challenges related to energy & power, sensing & surveillance, data & information security, human health & performance, and critical infrastructure & logistics.

As part of the programme, the companies will each receive €100,000 in funding, training in technology, commercial development and defence, and opportunities to test their solutions in a variety of specialised environments.

“We are proud to welcome the newest cohort of innovators into DIANA,” said Professor Deeph Chana, Managing Director of DIANA. “Over the coming months, these creative, highly skilled companies will accelerate the development of their dual-use technologies as they work to solve a suite of complex, interconnected defence, security and resilience challenges.”

“The 2025 innovators form a truly impressive cohort combining deep technological expertise and creative problem-solving,” said Chief Scientist Tien Pham. “We look forward to supporting the technical development of these innovators, while connecting them to DIANA’s network of mentors, test centres and end users as they grow their companies and apply their ideas to Allied needs.”

Over 70 companies, headquartered across 20 NATO countries, were selected through a competitive process from more than 2,600 submissions to DIANA’s Challenge call earlier in 2024. They specialise in a range of technological fields from quantum sensing to propulsion technology and biomedical equipment.

Further information is available on LinkedIn and on the DIANA website: DIANA
The complete list of companies can be found here: DIANA | 2025 Cohort of Companies

The event, hosted by Carnegie Europe in cooperation with NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division, will take place at Concert Noble, Brussels.

Media advisory

15:00 (CET)   “To Prevent War, NATO Must Spend More”: a Conversation with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte

Media coverage

• Physical access to media is by invitation only. Media wishing to participate online should register here.
   
• The event will be streamed live on the  NATO website and broadcast live on EBU News Exchange.
   
• A transcript of the Secretary General’s remarks, as well as pictures, will be available on the  NATO website. Video will be available for free download from the  NATO Multimedia Portal after the event.

For more information:
Contact the NATO Press Office

For more information about the event, please contact Mr Mattia Bagherini at Mattia.Bagherini@ceip.org or access Carnegie Europe’s event webpage.

Follow us on X: @NATO, @SecGenNATO  and @NATOPress

Secretary General Rutte praised the Moldovan President for her country’s resilience against unprecedented Russian interference and other significant challenges including political pressure, disinformation and hybrid threats. He thanked Ms Sandu for her staunch leadership in helping to uphold the rules-based international order following Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine. He also welcomed Moldova’s continued valuable contributions to international security, including by deploying troops to the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo (KFOR).

This year NATO and Moldova marked 30 years of partnership. Both the political dialogue and practical cooperation that underpin NATO-Moldova relations have grown significantly in recent years. Through an enhanced defence capacity building package, NATO and Allies continue to help Moldova strengthen its resilience, counter disinformation and respond to cyber-attacks, supporting its path towards its European integration. 

They were joined by industry representatives, including telecommunications operators. Participants at the meeting reviewed mechanisms to boost situational awareness, to enhance information sharing and preparedness, and to deter and defend against attacks to undersea infrastructure.

“Leveraging innovation and technology, including through increased sensing and monitoring to detect suspicious activity near critical undersea infrastructure, is a key focus,” said Ambassador Jean-Charles Ellermann-Kingombe, NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Innovation, Hybrid and Cyber. “This is not a new problem set for NATO, but it is one that requires even closer cooperation between civilian and military actors in the face of intensifying hostile campaigns, including by Russia.”

In May, NATO launched a new Maritime Centre for the Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure within the Alliance’s Maritime Command in the United Kingdom. With growing threats to subsea infrastructure, NATO created earlier this year a Critical Undersea Network to improve information sharing and coordination for the security of undersea cables and pipelines. The Network brings together stakeholders from Allies’ governments, industries, NATO’s civilian and military headquarters as well as other relevant actors.

She holds a Master of Business and Economics from Uppsala University. She spent an additional year studying trade law.

After her studies, she worked on financial audit in the private sector at the Stockholm offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC. She spent two years working at the IT audit department and during her last seven years at the firm, she served as a certified public accountant with a focus on auditing large enterprises. 

Subsequently, she joined the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS), focusing on different regulatory measures in the market for electronic communication. At PTS, she served in various managerial positions and as a project manager of major development projects. During her time at PTS, she was appointed as Sweden’s permanent representative to the Communications Committee, an advisory body under the European Commission with responsibility for various regulatory issues.  

Since 2007, she has been employed at the Swedish National Audit Office. She has held various positions within the Financial Audit Department, including Head of Unit, Head of Technical Support, and project leader. She also served as a long-term advisor in a development project in Tanzania for three years with the objectives of implementing international auditing standards and rolling out audit software to all public sector auditors in the country. In 2018, she was appointed Head of the Financial Audit Department, which includes overall responsibility for the financial audit of all central government agencies in Sweden. In this role, she has been a member of the top management group at the Swedish National Audit Office. 

She has represented the Swedish National Audit Office as a member of INTOSAI’s working group Financial Audit and Accounting Subcommittee (FAAS) since 2018. In 2024, before joining IBAN, she was Vice-chair of FAAS.

There will be no media opportunity.

Photographs will be available on the NATO website after the event.

For more information:
Contact the NATO Press Office

Follow us on X (@NATO, @SecGenNATO and @NATOPress)

The Director of Cooperative Security, Major General Dacian-Tiberiu Șerban, opened the meeting by praising the diversity that Partners bring to the Programme. “Today, we are privileged to have 30 participants from 20 countries across the globe, each bringing their unique perspectives and invaluable expertise,” he said. Major General Șerban also expressed hope that the relationships founded and built at the Programme would help NATO and its Partners tackle shared security challenges together. “By working together, sharing resources, and exchanging expertise, we can achieve our common goals more effectively,” he noted.

The first session introduced the NATO Partnerships programme and featured an explanation of the structure and programmes of Partnerships. Participants discussed how NATO Partners can cooperate with NATO on mutual security issues. NATO also discussed its partnership with the European Union. Additionally, NATO gave a tour of its Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre, NATO’s principal civil emergency response mechanism for supporting Allies and Partners with response and preparedness for natural and human-made disasters and other emergencies

The next day, the second session explained how NATO supports Partners to standardise their forces for closer interoperability with NATO. It also explained ways Partner nations can build their defence capacity with NATO assistance. These include Individually Tailored Partnership Programmes (ITPP), introduction to the Planning & Review Process (PARP) and the Partnership Staff Post (PSP) Program.

On the third day, NATO discussed opportunities for Partner Missions to work with NATO directly. Major General Șerban closed the NATO HQ portion of the NATO Partner Staff Officers’ Familiarization Programme. “We hope you gained some valuable insights here at NATO HQ, and that you will continue to come back and see us here regularly,” he stated.

The second portion of the programme, run by SHAPE’s Partnership Directorate Military Cooperation Division, will be held from 10 to 13 December in Mons. Partners will engage in more detailed exchanges of the different facets of NATO-Partner military and defence cooperation.

The overall aim of the joint programme is to provide Partner Staff Officers serving in the Partnership-related posts in NATO, National Ministries of Defence or General/Defence Staffs with a detailed overview of NATO outreach programmes and activities. It is one of the highlights of NATO’s military cooperation with Partners and a reflection of the Alliance’s increasing interest in expanding networking and enhancing existing partnerships as outlined in the 2022 Strategic Concept.

NATO’s Partnership efforts are designed to develop and strengthen dialogue and practical cooperation with partners across a wide range of political and security-related issues, and contribute to improved security for Allies, Partners, and the broader international community.