Questions and answers at the joint press point by the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the President of the Republic of Lithuania Mr. Gitanas Nauseda.

Transcript

ELTA, the lady over there.

Hello Lithuanian News Agency, ELTA. The question is also both of you, and it starts that the relationship of Belarus and the West is hard to define. On one hand, Belarus is a non-democratic regime and the country is also tightly bound with Russia. However, there is a sign that Lukashenko is not always agree with Russia. So, what should be NATO’s position on Belarus, and could we speak about there any clear strategy? Thank you.

So, Belarus is a neighbor of NATO and we believe in dialogue, we believe that it will benefit both NATO, NATO Allies and Belarus to have dialogue with Belarus. And that’s exactly why we are having dialogue with Belarus. Also, as the president mentioned, we need dialogue and cooperation, because Belarus is a neighbor. We respect every nation’s sovereign right to decide its own path. So, we have neighbors who are working for joining NATO. We sit down with them and we work with them. North Macedonia is now in the process of becoming the 30th member of NATO and in 2017 Montenegro joined. And some, some years ago Lithuania joined, based on the same idea that every nation has the right to decide its own path. That also includes, that right is also to decide not to aspire for membership to NATO, and we respect that. So, the thing is that Belarus should have the sovereign right, and must have the sovereign right, to decide exactly its own path. And we will respect that. We believe that it is important to have dialogue with Belarus on security-related issues, on risk reduction, transparency, and also on issues related to arms control. For instance, we are working with Belarus on issues related to non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and other areas where we see a need to continue with a dialogue with Russia, with Belarus.

I would say that we have quite short border with Russia and we have very long border with Belarus. I would like that this border remains the border with Belarus, not the border with Russia. So, meaning that we will support all the efforts of Belarus to stay independent state. So, this is the reason why I think that dialogue is much better than confrontation. And we will try to collaborate, to cooperate in many issues, economy, cultural issues. We already have a lot of trade relations with Belarus, I would like to continue and develop those relations. We have investment, I would like to see more. And what I like most, exchange of the people, moving the people across the border, in order to know each other better and to know more about their neighboring country, because it’s not normal to don’t know anything about the neighbor. It’s not normal situation. And I think this is the reason why we have to continue our efforts to re-establish good connection with Belarus. But it doesn’t mean that the special law which precludes, or which does not allow to buy the energy, electricity for this unsafe nuclear power plant will be changed. It will be in place and we will respect our laws.

Very last question, DPA German news agency.

German news agency, DPA. Secretary General, you said yesterday that NATO supports the U.S. efforts to achieve peace in Afghanistan. Do you think it could be necessary to reduce troop levels for the RSM, Resolute Support Mission, to support these efforts? Thank you.

So, we welcome the talks which are going on and we welcome the efforts by the United States to reach an agreement with the Taliban. I think I will be very careful about speculating when such an agreement will be reached, but we strongly support the efforts to have a political settlement, a political solution. And we have to remember that the reason why NATO is in Afghanistan, our military presence in Afghanistan, is to create the conditions for a political solution. We are there to prevent Afghanistan from ever again becoming a safe haven for international terrorists. But the only way we think we can achieve that in the long term is to create a political solution. Our military presence is there to create the conditions for a political solution. Taliban has to understand that they will never win on the battlefield so they have to sit down at the negotiating table. And that’s exactly what is happening now. And hopefully there will be a solution that can then bring stability to Afghanistan and also secure that we prevent Afghanistan from ever again becoming a safe haven for international terrorists. We went into Afghanistan together, United States and NATO Allies. Roughly half of the troops are non-U.S. troops, so troops from Germany, from other NATO Allied countries and partners. We will make decisions of our future presence together. And, when the time is right, we’ll also leave together. We will not leave too early but our aim is not to stay in Afghanistan forever. Our aim is to make sure that Afghanistan never again creates the platform for threats, from planning for organizing, for funding terrorist attacks against our countries. We are very closely consulting with Ambassador Khalilzad, the chief negotiator. I also have discussed this issue several times with Secretary Pompeo, Secretary Esper, and also President Trump. And Khalilzad the chief negotiator has been several times here at NATO. So, we are closely coordinated with the U.S. on these efforts and we will make decisions together and we will reduce our presence together, when the time is right and given that there is an agreement. So, to answer your question, we will only do things which are in accordance with an agreement. And that’s exactly why we now have continued to commit our support and we continue to support the Afghan security forces, both with training, advice, and assistance and also with funding. And then any reduction will happen as a result of an agreement.

Thank you very much. This concludes this press point. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.