Category: North Atlantic Treaty Organization

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NATO Secretary General in Riga: Latvia leads by example

Source: NATO

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg met with President Edgars Rinkēvičs in Riga on Tuesday (11 June 2024), praising Latvia for its many contributions as a NATO Ally over 20 years. He pointed to Latvia’s hosting of a Canadian-led battlegroup, its contributions to missions in Kosovo and Iraq, its strong support to Ukraine, and its defence investment – over 2% of GDP – as examples of Latvia’s commitment. Later on Tuesday, Mr Stoltenberg will participate in the B9 Summit, co-hosted by the Presidents of Latvia, Poland and Romania.

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NATO Secretary General to visit Hungary

Source: NATO

On Wednesday, 12 June 2024, the NATO Secretary General, Mr Jens Stoltenberg, will visit Hungary. He will meet with the Prime Minister of Hungary, Mr Viktor Orbán, in Budapest.

Media advisory

10:10 (CEST)     Joint press conference by the NATO Secretary General and the Prime Minister of Hungary

Media coverage

The Secretary General’s press conference with the Prime Minister will be streamed live on the NATO website, and broadcast live on EBU World feed and EBU News Exchange.

Transcripts of the Secretary General’s remarks, as well as photographs and video, will be available on the NATO website.

For more information:
Contact the NATO Press Office

Follow us on X (@NATO, @jensstoltenberg and @NATOPress).

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Joint press conference by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg with the President of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs

Source: NATO

President Rinkēvičs,
Dear Edgars,

It is great to be back in Riga to meet you again. 
And thank you for hosting me and my delegation for our meeting earlier today and also for hosting the B9 Summit later today.
And let me also thank you for bestowing on me the Three Star Order, this is really an honour for me and recognition to the important work that NATO has been doing over the last decade. 
For 20 years, Latvia has been a valued and reliable NATO Ally. 
You host a Canadian-led battlegroup, strengthening our deterrence and defence.

You contribute to our peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, and our capacity building mission in Iraq.

And on defence spending, Latvia leads by example, 
Spending over 2% of GDP on defence,
And with a pledge to increase that figure to 3% by 2027.
 
Latvia also provides robust military support to Ukraine.
You provide extensive military training to Ukrainian soldiers.
You lead a coalition that works with industry to supply drones.
And you contribute to the Czech-led initiative to provide more artillery shells.

When NATO leaders meet in Washington in July, Allies will take important steps on three issues. 
First, Allies will agree to step up our support to Ukraine for the long haul.
I expect that NATO will take the lead in coordinating the provision of equipment and training. 
And that Allies will make a financial commitment to support Ukraine for as long as it takes. 
 
Second, we will address our deterrence and defence.
Allies are stepping up our efforts on defence spending.
And I expect around two-thirds of Allies to invest at least 2% of GDP in defence this year. 

Since 2014, NATO has implemented the largest reinforcement of our collective defence in a generation. 
We have put in place the most comprehensive defence plans since the Cold War.
We have more troops at higher readiness, backed by substantial naval and air power. 
 
We are also stepping up defence production,
And ensuring that Allies are investing more together.
This reduces costs and increases interoperability.  

So let there be no doubt as to our ability to deter our adversaries and defend our Allies. 

NATO has the forces, resources, capabilities and the political will to defend every Ally.  

 
Finally, we will work on further boosting our partnerships around the globe.
As we have seen in Ukraine, security is not regional, it is global.
So it is essential that we work with our partners on our shared security concerns.

So, President, dear Edgars,
Thank you once again for your hospitality.
I look forward to our discussions at the B9 Summit.
 

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NATO Secretary General attends B9 Summit in Latvia

Source: NATO

On Tuesday, 11 June 2024, the NATO Secretary General, Mr Jens Stoltenberg, will visit Riga, Latvia. He will participate in the B9 Summit, hosted by the President of Latvia, Mr Edgars Rinkēvičs, the President of Romania, Mr Klaus Iohannis, and the President of Poland, Mr Andrzej Duda.

Mr Stoltenberg will also have bilateral meetings with the President of Latvia and the Prime Minister, Ms Evika Siliņa.

Media advisory

08:45 (CEST) Joint press conference by the Secretary General and the President of Latvia
10:30 (CEST) Remarks by the Secretary General at the opening of the B9 Summit
15:00 (CEST) Joint press conference by the Secretary General and the President of Latvia, the President of Romania, and the President of Poland

Media coverage

The Secretary General’s press conferences and remarks will be streamed live on the NATO website, and broadcast live on EBU World feed and EBU News Exchange.

Transcripts of the Secretary General’s engagements, as well as photographs and video, will be available on the NATO website.

For more information:
Contact the NATO Press Office

For more information on the B9 Summit’s programme and media access, please contact Ms Elīna Kresa (elina.kresa@president.lv). For media access requests, please contact prese@president.lv by 9 June.

Follow us on X (@NATO, @jensstoltenberg and @NATOPress).

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NATO Committee of Chiefs of Military Medical Services discuss medical support to collective defence and meet with NATO Joint Health Group

Source: NATO

From 4 to 6 June 2024, the NATO Committee of the Chiefs of Military Medical Services (COMEDS) convened it’s 61st plenary meeting at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. Surgeons General of COMEDS also met with Senior Officials from the NATO Joint Health Group (JHG). COMEDS received keynote addresses from Lt. Gen. Andrew Rohling, Deputy Chair of the NATO Military Committee, and Dr Bryan Wells, the NATO Chief Scientist. Medical support remains largely a national responsibility. However, it is a critical enabler for deterrence and defence, which now demands a collective approach to address mutual challenges faced across the Alliance.

Chair COMEDS, Major General Tim Hodgetts, opened the official plenary session by welcoming participants from Allied nations, partner nations and observer organisations. The Chair highlighted that in the run up to the NATO Summit in Washington in July, the Alliance continues to reaffirm its unwavering commitment to collective security, resilience, and the promotion of peace and stability in a changing and unstable world. “The Summit also provides yet another opportunity for us to push the COMEDS’ agenda by continuing to highlight the key issues we have identified for medical support in Collective Defence,” Major General Hodgetts said.

Delivering his keynote remarks Lt. Gen. Andrew Rohling stressed that medical support is a key enabling factor and a vital cross-cutting function within NATO’s operational framework. “Ensuring the health and readiness of our forces is paramount, requiring seamless cooperation between military and civilian medical sectors,” Lt Gen. Rohling said adding that effective medical support enhances NATO’s capability to respond to both military operations and humanitarian crises. “By prioritizing and investing in medical support, we reinforce our collective resilience and readiness, ensuring that we can meet any challenge with comprehensive and unified health services,” said the Deputy Chair of the NATO Military Committee.

In his keynote speech to COMEDS Dr Bryan Wells provided an overview of key activities and developments of NATO’s Science and Technology Organization.  He highlighted opportunities of new technologies for NATO, but also the associated risks. Dr Wells informed the audience about multiple work strands and research projects in the science and technology domain. A number of these include programmes to support the NATO Warfighting Capstone Concept – for example related to resilience and multi-domain operations.

The COMEDS “Medical Manifesto” which highlights proposals for medical support in collective defence, was central to the plenary discussions. The Ukraine Multi-Year Comprehensive Assistance Package and associated Rehabilitation Project was discussed in a special session where the Ukraine Surgeon General was present to provide a situation report and underline requests for support.

Civil-military cooperation for medical support and healthcare delivery was the main focus of COMEDS’ meeting with the NATO JHG on 6 June chaired jointly with Dr Arafat, Secretary of State and Head of the Romanian Emergency services. The Surgeons General of COMEDS and Senior Officials from the JHG provided direction and set priorities for an action plan to enhance medical support for collective defence. Allied civil authorities emphasised the need to enhance resilience of the civil health services and systems; to be able to function in a potentially contested environment and to do so for a longer duration. In their informal meeting with senior staff representatives from the European Commission as well as the European Union Military Staff, they addressed key issues of mutual interest and welcomed the close staff-to-staff consultations.

COMEDS endorsed the selection of its next Chair, Brigadier General Petter Iversen, from Norway. He will take over from Maj Gen Hodgetts after the 62nd COMEDS Plenary Meeting towards the end of this year.

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Joint press conference by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg with the Prime Minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson

Source: NATO

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg:

[speaking in Norwegian]

Let me say some word in English. First of all, I thank you for the good cooperation and good meetings we had today and yesterday. And, Sweden as a NATO Ally is contributing in many different ways to our shared security, to our collective defence. Sweden is an Ally that already spends 2% or even a bit more actually, of GDP on defence. You have well trained, well equipped forces, you have an advanced defence industry. So therefore, it is a great privilege to be here for the first time as Secretary General in NATO in Sweden as a full-fledged member.

Swedish membership also helps to strengthen our presence, not least in the Nordic, the High North and the Baltic region. And I welcome the announcement today that Sweden will contribute to NATO’s Air Policing. This demonstrates how Sweden is making major contributions to our Alliance just three months after you joined.

We discussed the preparations for the upcoming NATO Summit in Washington.

More support will be one of the main topics, the most urgent task for the Alliance. And we are now working on how NATO can create a better and stronger framework for our support to Ukraine. So, we can play a bigger role in coordinating and providing security assistance and training for Ukraine. We’re also addressing how we can provide and agree long term financial pledge for Ukraine. So, we have more predictability and more accountability. And also, that we send a clear message to Moscow that Moscow cannot wait us out in Ukraine. The [inaudible] is that the stronger our commitment is for Ukraine for long haul, the shorter, the sooner this war can end, because then Moscow, President Putin will understand that they cannot wait out NATO Allies and Ukraine.

We will also address at the Washington Summit how we can further strengthen our deterrence and defence to ensure that our new defence plans are fully operational and fully possible to execute. That means more investments and therefore I welcome that more and more Allies are now spending 2% of GDP on defence. But as we agreed at the last Summit in Vilnius last summer, 2% is a minimum to deliver on the NATO capability targets which Allies have agreed. Most Allies will need to spend more than 2% on defence to ensure that they meet those targets.

So, it is always a pleasure to visit Sweden. Again, a great pleasure to visit Sweden as a NATO Ally. Thank you.

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Secretary General at Berga Naval Base: Sweden’s membership makes NATO stronger and safer

Source: NATO

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited the Swedish Armed Forces at Berga Naval Base on Friday (7 June 2024), in his first visit to Sweden since the country joined NATO in March. After a meeting with Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Mr Stoltenberg underlined that Sweden’s membership has made NATO stronger and Sweden safer.

The Secretary General highlighted Sweden’s many contributions to the Alliance, including highly capable forces and advanced capabilities. Sweden also spends more than 2% of GDP on defence and strengthens “our presence not least in the High North and the Baltic region,” he said. Mr Stoltenberg also welcomed the announcement that Sweden will contribute to NATO’s Air Policing. “This demonstrates how Sweden is making major contributions to our Alliance, just three months after you joined,” said the Secretary General.

On support to Ukraine, Mr Stoltenberg praised Sweden for leading by example and providing billions of euros, making it one of the top supporters. He further welcomed Sweden’s decision to deliver two state-of-the-art radar surveillance aircraft to Ukraine as part of Stockholm’s largest assistance package to date.

At the Washington Summit in July, Allied leaders will discuss a bigger NATO role in coordinating and supplying security assistance and training for Ukraine. The Secretary General has also proposed a multi-year financial pledge to ensure more accountability and predictability. These efforts “will send a clear message to Moscow that Moscow cannot wait us out in Ukraine. The paradox is that the stronger our commitment is for Ukraine for long haul, the sooner this war can end,” said Mr Stoltenberg.

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NATO and Ukraine deepen innovation cooperation at the NATO-Ukraine Defence Innovators Forum

Source: NATO

On 4-6 June, NATO and Ukraine took further steps to enhance cooperation to address most pressing technological challenges in the defence and security.

More than 400 innovators, entrepreneurs, investors, academics, researchers and operational end users from 17 countries, including more than 100 startups, took part in the three-day NATO-Ukraine Defence Innovators Forum at AGH University of Krakow, Poland. The event was organized in partnership with Ukraine government defence innovation platform BRAVE1, the U.S. Defence Innovation Unit (DIU), and the Polish Ministry of National Defence.

Discussions notably focused on the challenges that Ukraine faces with the rapid development, production and use of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) and counter-UAS systems. The Forum also included a hackathon with live flight testing for drone software, investor pitching sessions, and interactive panel sessions. With generous support from the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit and National Security Innovation Network, the hackathons winners received prize totalling USD 100,000. For the first time, Ukrainian innovators were also able to access some of the accelerator work developed for the Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA) and get real-time feedback from NATO Innovation Fund.

The aim is to bring NATO and Ukrainian innovation ecosystems closer together to keep pace with fast-evolving dual-use technologies. In May 2023, NATO and Ukraine had held their first High-Level Innovation Dialogue at NATO Headquarters.

“The energy for more collaboration between Ukrainian and Allied innovation ecosystems was contagious, and is exactly why Allies and Ukraine are working together on a new innovation agreement in the NATO-Ukraine Council,” said David van Weel, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Innovation, Hybrid and Cyber.

Nataliia Kushnerska, Chief Operating Officer of BRAVE1, praised the benefit of such two-way innovation. “We believe that Ukraine is a central hub for defence technology innovation. Ukrainian experience in technology and warfare, combined with Allied expertise, has potential to be the technological foundation for a safer and more secure Europe”, she said.

Major General Edward Vaughan, Executive Director of the U.S. Joint Rapid Acquisition Cell in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment underscored the life-engaging importance of innovation as war rages in Ukraine for the third consecutive year. “Ukraine’s brave men and women are fighting to defend themselves and our shared values” he said. “Their people’s innovative spirit drives rapid technology adoption, proving why collaboration is essential.”

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NATO scientists start research mission in the Arctic Sea

Source: NATO

Scientists and engineers from the NATO Science and Technology Organisation’s Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) arrived at the Norwegian port of Tromsø on Wednesday (5 June 2024) to begin two combined research missions that will assess the impact of climate change in the Arctic. The results of their studies will help NATO adapt to global warming and Arctic environmental transformation.

On board the NATO research ship NRV Alliance, scientists will measure how the transformation of the Arctic affects sonar performance in the region. The data collected will help adapt the technology for submarines, uncrewed underwater vehicles and other capabilities operating in fast-changing Arctic ocean conditions.

For the first time ever, the area of research will be the Barents Sea Polar front, a region where Atlantic and Arctic water masses meet but do not mix.  With the research mission NREP 24 (Nordic Recognized Environmental Picture), scientists will focus on changes in sound propagation in the central Barents Sea.  Another research mission, the ACO 24 (Arctic Climate Observatory) will collect of data related to long-term environmental conditions in the area, including marine biology, water movements and the soundscape. The missions be conducted from 8 June to 12 July 2024.

NREP 24 is a project funded by NATO’s Allied Command Transformation (ACT) with the participation of partner institutions from France, Norway, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.  ACO24 is funded by the NATO Science and Technology Organisation (STO) – Office of the Chief Scientist (OCS) and will have partners from France, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Both research missions will be led by the Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation.  CMRE and partner staff on board NRV Alliance will be supported by a reach-back team working from various research institutions in Allied countries, performing analysis and processing of data.

NREP 24 is the latest iteration of a multi-year oceanographic research project that started in 2017 and has been conducted in different parts of the Arctic Ocean. ACO 24 is the second iteration of a study launched in 2023 as a long-term oceanographic research project.

The Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation is an executive body of the NATO Science and Technology Organisation.  The Centre organises and conducts scientific research and technology development and delivers innovative and field-tested solutions to address defence and security needs of the Alliance, with a focus on the maritime domain.

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Bi-annual Familiarization Programme demonstrates NATO’s desire to strengthen its partnership network and emphasize collective security

Source: NATO

From 5 to 14 June 2024, 30 participants from 20 Partner countries across the globe visited NATO HQ and SHAPE to participate in the NATO Partner Staff Officers’ Familiarization Programme. Participants were introduced to the structures and roles of both headquarters, and explored NATO-Partner cooperation.

 Welcoming the Partner representatives, Brigadier General Eray Üngüder, Deputy Director of NATO’s Cooperative Security Division highlighted the importance of strategic partnership in today’s security environment, “The latest NATO Strategic Concept outlines how the Alliance’s strategic environment is influenced by various trends, threats, and challenges across the globe. NATO has been a pillar of international peace and stability, and our partnerships are crucial in addressing the complex challenges of our time. Our collaboration with Partners is pivotal in fostering peace, stability, and mutual understanding among nations. By working together, sharing resources, and exchanging expertise, we can achieve our common goals more effectively”, Brigadier General Eray Üngüder said.

The first part of the Familiarization Programme was held at NATO HQ in Brussels. The schedule focused on the main partnership policy and programmes, as well as existing working tools and mechanisms. Participants discussed a wide range of Partner-related topics, such as NATO’s cooperation with Partners in the context of the Vilnius Summit and its deliverables, NATO-EU relations, aspects in the fight against terrorism, disaster response and other aspects of NATO–Partner military cooperation.
The Partner staff officers were also briefed on the developments in the various partnership policies and programmes, including the Partnership Staff Post (PSP) programme and the Individually Tailored Partnership Programmes (ITPP). Additionally, participants had the opportunity to discuss existing partnerships with their respective Missions and Delegations to NATO.
The second portion of the programme, run by SHAPE’s Partnership Directorate Military Cooperation Division, will be held from 11 to 14 June in Mons. Partners will participate in more in-depth exchanges covering diverse aspects 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 underlined in the 2022 Strategic Concept and in the report recently delivered by the Group of Experts on NATO’s southern neighbourhood.