Q&A session following joint press point with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the Prime Minister of Romania Mr Ludovic Orban, January 9, 2019.
Transcript
[Narrator] Okay. We have time for a few questions. We’ll start with Callero Bernard, gentleman the in glasses.
Thank you. So as we know, NATO has adapted its portion on the Black Sea. But at the same time, we see a challenging situation because Russia is building up its military and so on: ships, missile, missiles. In this context, does NATO intended to update its, its posture on the Black Sea region? And also, on the middle East crisis, during the attacks on the Iraqi bases where were, where were hosted the allied forces, does the Aegis Ashore missile defense system, uh, which is hosted by Romania as part of the NATO’s defense, uh, system. It was, uh, it has functioned, uh, let’s say, properly. Thank you. So first of all, the Black Sea is of strategic importance for NATO and, uh, NATO has increased its presence in the Black Sea region on land, at sea, and in the air, uh, with enhanced air policing, with uh, more naval presence, and also with more presence with land forces, uh, especially with the tailored forward presence, uh, and the brigade we have in Kiowa. Um, we are constantly assessing, uh, the need to further strengthen our presence. Uh, we have to remember that, uh, three of our member states are literal states to the Black Sea: Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Uh, and then we have two close partners, uh, Ukraine and Georgia, who are also Black Sea, uh, countries. We are also working closely with them, uh, helping them, working with them, exercising with them. Uh, I recently visited, um, uh, Ukraine, the whole North Atlantic council visited the Ukraine, and, uh, and we saw how we are helping them to, for instance, uh, build uh, naval academies and strengthen their naval capabilities. So, um, uh, on top of that we have increased the readiness of our forces, so we can easily, uh, quickly reinforce, and we are also conducting war exercises. So the Black Sea region is of importance, of great importance for NATO, and we have to remember that, uh, what triggered the, uh, adaptation, the strengthening of NATO’s collective defense, which I’ve seen over the last years, was actually the illegal annexation of Crimea in the Black Sea. Then when it comes to the ballistic missile defense, uh, site, uh, in Romania, in Deveselu, uh, we are of course, um, uh, vigilant. We are following the situation very closely, but there is no reason to change our posture level, because we have no indication of an increased threat of ballistic missiles to NATO territory. But we remain vigilant. We follow the situation closely, and the missile defense site and the radars are, of course, providing us with valuable information. And we continue to follow the situation very closely.
Lady in gray, lady in gray.
Uh, can you tell uh, please tell us what do you mean by larger involvement in the middle East? Uh, can you be more specific?
NATO is already playing an important role uh, in the fight against terrorism, and NATO is already present in the middle East in different ways. If you look at the wider middle East region, we are of course present in Afghanistan, with our train, assist, and advise mission there. We have a training mission in Iraq, and we are also working with a partner countries in the region. For instance, Tunisia and Jordan, we help them with intelligence, with special operation forces, because we strongly believe that building local capacity, training local forces, is the best way to fight international terrorism. Uh, we are, just before Christmas, we also visited, uh, a new regional center, which NATO has, uh, developed and uh, established, uh, together with some countries in the Gulf region, a regional center in Kuwait, which is also contributing to our presence and our activities, capacity-building activities, in the wider middle East region. So, NATO already plays an important role in fighting international terrorism, and we are present in the region. Um, what we, what President Trump called for yesterday was more NATO involvement. And we are looking into what more we can do. Uh, I will not speculate about the outcome, but I will say that I think that NATO has the potential to do more. If we look at NATO’s history, we have conducted big operations before in different theaters in different ways. So we have the command structure. We have tried and tested structures to do capacity building, to do training. Uh, and uh, and we have also the structures to do this in a way where we ensure political transparency and, and consultation and decision-making involving all the countries being part of this, which is not always only NATO allies, but also very often partner countries. As for instance, we have seen both in Afghanistan and Iraq, where we NATO allies work with partners. Then I will highlight the importance of talking with countries in the region. If NATO’s going to do more, of course we are going to do that together with countries in the region, as we do in Afghanistan, as we do in Iraq, Jordan, Tunisia, and elsewhere. So I spoke with the Iraqi prime minister a few days ago. This today I had a meeting with the Iraqi ambassador to NATO and of course, we will consult, discuss closely with countries in the region. Because if we are going to do more, we are going to do that based on agreement with them.
And okay. Gentleman in the second row.
Uh, secretary general and prime minister Ludovic Orban. Secretary general, could you please, without concluding, just give us an insight to what capacities and resources that you could deploy in the middle East that would satisfy what president Trump is asking for? And prime minister Orban, tomorrow there’ll be a meeting in the European union among the foreign ministers that have been moved forward. President Trump has asked European countries to pull out of what remains of the Iranian, uh, deal. Uh, do you support, uh, this position? And again, secretary general, uh, Europe has been challenged because of the situation between Iran and the U.S. How will this affect the EU and NATO partnership? Will NATO and EU collaborate tighter or more closely, when it comes to the middle East? Thank you.
So, we are now looking into what more we can do, uh, to help to stabilize the middle East and to fight international terrorism. We already do a lot, especially when it comes to training, advising, and assisting local forces, as we do in Afghanistan with our training mission there, and we do with the training mission we have in uh, in Iraq. I visited uh, Iraq last fall, and I saw how NATO trainers are helping the Iraqi forces to improve their skills, their capabilities to fight ISIS, to fight the Daesh, to fight international terrorism. And I strongly believe that the best way we can fight international terrorism is not always by deploying NATO troops in big combat operations. Sometimes we have to do that, but the best way is to enable local forces to fight terrorism themselves. And that’s exactly what we do in Afghanistan, what to do in in Iraq. And of course, we can look into if we can do more of that kind of activities. We can also do other things. But I will be very careful about speculating too much about that because we are now looking into the different options. We need a proper decision-making process in NATO, involving, of course, all allies, and we need to discuss this with the countries in the region. Because what we do in Afghanistan, what we do in Iraq, Jordan, Tunisia, and elsewhere is always, of course, uh, dependent on that. We work together with the countries in the region. And this is also one of the issues I then discussed with the Iraqi prime minister earlier this week, how we can make sure that NATO can continue and help them in fighting terrorism in Iraq. Yeah sorry, the other question was about NATO EU. Well, for me it is extremely important to um, to work together, NATO and the European union. Because we face the same security environment, the same challenges. We have different capabilities, and when we fight international terrorism, when we try to stabilize the middle East, we need many different tools. We need political tools, diplomatic tools, sometimes military tools. Uh, we need, uh, economic tools. So, uh, neither EU nor NATO has, have all these tools. So, we need to work together to make sure that we have all the different capabilities, all the different tools in, in, we need in the fight against international terrorism.
I think the appeal is not addressed to, to Romania, because our position was very clear. From our point of view. Iran should respect the provision regarding the nonproliferation of uh, nuclear. And uh, for addressing, so very clear, I can not answer in the name of other countries, European countries.
Okay, last question, NPR Deutsche Welle.
Hi, Terry Schultz, thank you very much. Um, since you’ve already given lots of answers on this, I’ve got to try, um, more. Um, when you told president Trump that you believed that NATO could do more, surely you hadn’t had time to discuss in that very few moments since he made the, made the announcement with, with all of the allies. Um, so did you already have the feeling that all 29, uh 28, are going to support, um, perhaps diverting some resources to this new request of the United States? Um, and to the Romanian prime minister, do you believe that given your concerns are in a different part of the world than the middle East, as, as are many of the other allies, is that something you would like to see, um, NATO money, NATO resources, NATO planning go to the middle East when you feel that there are, uh, pressures right on NATO’s borders?
I would just say that president Trump has been very consistent in his message about NATO. He has called on European NATO allies and Canada to invest more, and he has called on NATO to do more in the fight against international terrorism. Uh, we are delivering more when it comes to investing, to spending, burden sharing. We still have a long way to go, but I think all NATO allies, including the United States, uh, recognizes that, uh, that we are making progress, when it comes to burden sharing, defense spending. We are also, uh, and we have also stepped up our efforts in the fight against international terrorism, working with countries in the region, North Africa, uh, the middle East. We have established a training mission in Iraq. NATO has joined the global coalition to defeat Daesh. We provide support to the global coalition, to the efforts of the global coalition to defeat Daesh, and all NATO allies are part of the global coalition. Um, so for me it’s no surprise that the United States is calling for NATO to do more because that has actually been the message from the United States for a long time. Uh, we are looking into what more we can do. Uh, of course, we make decisions in NATO by consensus. So, we need a process. We need, we need, uh, agreement, uh, within the Alliance, but also with the countries in the region. And this will take some time, but I welcome the fact that we now, uh, are looking into what more we can do, because we need to fight international terrorism. There is no way we can avoid doing that. It’s a threat to all of us, uh, and to stabilize, to help, to create more predictability, peace, stability in the wider middle East region is, of course, important for the people living there. But it’s also extremely important for the people living in NATO countries. We are more secure when our neighbors are more stable. And that’s exactly why NATO has been addressing these challenges for a long time, and why we are looking into what more we can do.
We prove, uh, we proved to from the moment we became a member of, uh, NATO, that, uh, our, uh, involvement, uh, was very important. And, uh, if, uh, NATO will consider necessary to have a stronger presence and a stronger involvement in the fight against terrorists, uh, in middle East or in other parts, uh, we will be part of this, uh, uh, action, decision, that movement.
Thank you very much. This concludes this press point. Thank you.
Thank you. Okay.