Q&A following speech by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Maritime Academy, Odesa. The speech is part of the engagements of the two-day North Atlantic Council visit to Ukraine.
Transcript
[Moderator] Thank you very much. Next question. Yeah, here.
[Questioner] What does Ukraine need to do to defend its sovereignty and interests at sea?
[NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg] It needs you. Meaning that it needs excellent cadets and naval officers and a navy that can defend Ukraine and interests at sea. And that’s also just why I think that this naval academy is so important and what you are doing here, studying, training, is so important for you as individuals but also for Ukraine because you are the future of the Ukrainian navy. Then of course, working together with partners as you do with NATO allies and the partnership with NATO is also helping and supporting you. But you also support us, this is a two-way street. And the fact that we have more exercises, that we share more information, that we work more closer together is also important for Ukraine but also for NATO.
Thank you. From the first row here, yes. Lady in the red, sweetheart, please, yeah.
[Questioner] Instructor of the Navy Institute, Elizabeth Lasenko. So, since you started talking about the personnel, today the Western world talks a lot about the gender equality problem. How is this issue resolved by NATO and the alliance countries? And could you give some advice on how Ukraine can implement NATO experience? Thank you.
Of course, the armed forces, the navy, the army, the air forces, they have in all NATO allied countries, and in Ukraine always been, or traditionally been totally male dominated. But as the technologies change, as the societies change, there is less and less reason for that. And therefore we also see some encouraging signs that of course it varies between NATO allies but more and more women are also now a big and integral part, an important part of our armed forces. I think that’s important for equal rights, but it’s also extremely important for the armed forces because if you can recruit from not only 50 percent of the population, but from 100 percent of the population, you get a much better force. So it’s in the interest of our armed forces, the Ukrainian armed forces, the Norwegian armed forces, the NATO forces that we are able to recruit both men and women. So we often say in NATO that equal rights for women and men is both the right thing to do, but also the smart thing to do. And that’s about partly to overcome prejudice, to change attitudes and that’s partly about speaking about the importance. Just showing role models and showing that women can be as important at any level in the armed forces, political military, as men. When I was Prime Minister we actually introduced conscription for women, that was extremely controversial in the beginning, now it’s totally accepted by everyone. And that’s a good thing for the armed forces because then they get a lot of smart women working in the Norwegian armed forces. So uh, changing the attitudes, fighting prejudice and developing role models, I think is at least some of the things you can do to try to strengthen the role of women in your armed forces. The smart thing to do and the right thing to do.
Thank you. Next question please. Okay let’s go to this side, yes.
[Questioner] Uh, Kattatof, Nevell College. What do in other countries which advise people to join army and make them be dedicated to this profession? Thank you.
Again, of course it varies but the message is that the service has to be meaningful. I think it’s absolutely possible to convince young people to join the navy, to join the army, as long as we can make sure that what they learn when they train, they learn and train on something which is meaningful. So, to organize the education, to organize the training, to organize the service in a good way with modern equipment, good teaching methods, I think is the most important thing we can do to motivate young people to join. And then as you know, Bette and I, modern navies, it’s very much about competence, technology, so it also requires skills and competence which is highly valued also in the civilian society. And that makes it even more important for the armed forces and the navy to be competitive when it comes to the way you organize the services.
Thank you, and unfortunately our time is about to finish, I know that we have time to just one question, so the last row in the green camouflage, yeah.
[Questioner] So, how do you think the development of technologies and military warfare will impact future military capabilities?
I think we have to understand that the changing and disruptive technologies we are seeing being developed now, they are changing warfare as fundamentally as the Industrial Revolution did in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. And I think it’s hard to grasp how important this is because artificial intelligence, autonomous weapons systems, bio-engineering or bio-tech, and the combination of these different technologies, and also cyber, has the potential of totally changing the nature of warfare. And that’s extremely challenging, especially because we don’t have so many national standards, rules, norms, for how to deal with that. And also, because we see great challenges from countries in the world which are not NATO or NATO partners. NATO has always had a technological edge. Our defense, our armies, our navies, our defense industry has always been technologically advanced. Precision guided ammunition, command and control, all of that has been areas where NATO has been by far, the most advanced defense forces in the world. Now we see for instance the rise of China. They are leading in artificial intelligence, they collect much more data for developing artificial intelligence than any other country in the world. And we see new hypersonic missiles or hypersonic glides, we see underwater drones, we see autonomous systems, systems that can operate without any decision from human beings. So, this is really really changing the nature of warfare. And for NATO and for NATO partners as Ukraine, this means at least three things. We need to invest in new technologies, to keep the technological edge, and second we need to look into how we can develop new arms standards in some areas, also arms controls arrangements. So, we make sure that this is a development which is controlled as much as possible. So, for me this is just an argument for working together, NATO allies and partners, because the challenge is so huge, so it can only be addressed if we stand together and work together as allies and partners. Thank you so much for hosting me, it was great to be here, and I’m really impressed by the questions and by this academy, and I wish you all the best and am looking forward to seeing you be the leaders of the future Ukrainian navy, and am looking forward to working with you in the future in different NATO missions and operations, so thank you so much.
[Moderator] Sir thank you very much for your time, for your comprehensive answers, and I am absolutely delighted and have the honor to give the floor to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Mr. Andriy Zagorodniuk.