On 4 June, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg gave a keynote speech to preview the NATO Summit in Brussels on 14 June.His speech was made at an event organised by NATO together with the German Council on Foreign Relations and The Brookings Institute.

Transcript

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen and good afternoon and good evening to our friends who are joining us from around the world. For those of you who have not yet had the honor to meet. I’m john Allen and I’m the president of the Brookings Institution and it is a great pleasure that I welcome you to this important event featuring our honored guests, the NATO secretary general, john Stoltenberg. Before I begin, I’d like to first thank our partners in organizing this event, the German Council on Foreign Relations and NATO without them and their excellent staff supporting today’s event. Our conversation simply would not have been made possible. Today’s address with Secretary General Stoltenberg and his conversation later with brookings fritz, stern chair Constanza Stetson comes at a critical time Amidst the lingering challenges of COVID-19 is a pandemic. The US has of course welcome to new presidential administration, which under President joe biden has in turn ushered in a new era of US foreign policy. Indeed, President Biden’s upcoming appearance at the NATO leaders summit On 14 June will undoubtedly feature a strong and outspoken American commitment, the transatlantic alliance and to NATO as a former commander of NATO and US forces in Afghanistan. I’ve seen firsthand the importance indeed, indeed the vital imperative of NATO as both a strategic and international partner. There is little doubt of NATO’s value as a force multiplier within that particular theater and we found great value in that. I also know the alliance was a force for good and remains one in the broadest sense. And we watched closely as NATO led efforts to enable the afghan people enact a new constitution that granted rights and opportunities for women and girls in particular, NATO was a great force multiplier for the good in the afghan society. But still I’m aware that the challenges that NATO faced 10 years ago are in many cases not the same ones that the alliance faces today, china and Russia present unique challenges. And with the rise of artificial intelligence and quantum computing, big data analytics, biotechnology and more emerging technologies present new opportunities but also potential challenges for humanity. What’s more climate change, one of the defining transnational challenges of our time, threatens the ability of millions of people to access natural resources as basic as water and raising the potential for new and destabilizing waves of migration and conflict globally. The resurgence of nationalism and radicalism and indeed authoritarianism seeks to undermine the very foundations of our democracies as well. So recognizing these unique threats, some of which are truly existential, it’s imperative that we have multilateral institutions like NATO rooted in the community of democracies and tied together by our essential values to meet the challenges of the future. That’s why I’m so pleased to welcome Secretary General Stoltenberg for this virtual brookings stage today. Who will highlight his vision for how NATO can prepare for the challenges of the 21st century Through his NATO 2030 initiative. And I’ll say mr Secretary General that on monday I’ll be lecturing at your NATO Defense College in Rome and I look forward to returning to that forum. So with that, I’d like to take the turn the floor over to Catherine, clever Ashbrook who will introduce Secretary General Stoltenberg shortly because the incoming director and Ceo of the German Council on Foreign Relations, Catherine is a crucial voice on foreign policy and international relations. Formerly the Director of the Future of Diplomacy Project at Harvard Kennedy school. Catherine has a multi decade career as an expert on trade and security policy. So that Catherine, it was wonderful to see you again this morning and the floor is yours. Well, thank you. General Allen. Thank you. Not only for these remarks, but of course your service to the oldest democratically grounded alliance in the world. Yeah. On behalf of the D. J. P. The german Council on Foreign Relations, the Dodgers also Vatican politic. I also want to welcome everyone and thank our partners at brookings and of course at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and say how pleased we are Mr Secretary General uh, to be hosting this event across two time zones, uh, and across, well, maybe perhaps many more, but certainly across to NATO members. And I wonder how many occasions you’ve had to be in two places at once. NATO was born in the aftermath of the Great War of the last century. It evolved to engage and ultimately end that centuries. Cold War focused above all on the security and the integrity of the european continent and the equal protection of all of its member states, grounded in the solidarity commitment of the Washington Treaty. In this century, as we’ve just heard vividly from General Allen, the Major League deployment of NATO was far off out of area, in Afghanistan, and then, of course, some closer to home in Kosovo and in the Mediterranean. Those two decades of joint efforts have both been laudable and at times they’ve been highly frustrating for the alliance and in the 20th century, for most of NATO’s history, the systemic rival of the Alliance, of course, to the Alliance democracies was the soviet union. It was an adversary that was of course formidable in its armaments, but not in its economy and its innovative capacity. That was the prerogative of the West and its partners In the 21st century as General Allen has just alluded, NATO’s members face new realities and constraints an entirely new confrontation on multiple levels that demands a new type of engagement. A competitor in china with formidable military capacity and of course, an economy that’s fully competitive, to say the least. With NATO’s democracies, a country like Germany my own with a strong economic link to china, must now contemplate new tensions when economic partner also embodies a major challenge to democratic political ideals, free, open market economy, innovative capacities and has in part allowed for the presumption that there might be ultimate militarily super superiority. So how do these issues play out in the NATO context? We will hear great details, great detail from our our guest this morning, the NATO secretary general, but geographically, in the shrinking world, it brings questions of rights and controls between NATO and Russia and china into direct relief in the arctic, for instance, where those contacts mesh directly and we see a weakening of democratic integrity. Grass NATO member states, not just because it’s weakening internally, but because that weakening is a result of influence by Russia and china through disinformation, through cyber incursions that stand to weaken the very trust fabric on which NATO is built. And then of course, we do see these shifts in technology that will challenge NATO to be at once more resilient and more anticipatory. And the transnational issues that general Allen mentioned are vivid. They are vital and they are threat multipliers. So I’m pleased that we at D. J. P. Will be opening a climate center in the fall to support NATO in this vital work and our collaborators across the world. So these urgent realities require radically new thinking. That was the prerogative of NATO 2030. We were very pleased to be a part of this project. We are all the more pleased to hear from the Secretary General how the conclusions of this project will play out in the conversations on June 14 at the NATO summit. Mr. Secretary General welcome. And the floor is yours. Thank you so much. And good afternoon from Brussels. Hello Catherine in Berlin and two constants and John in Washington. Let me start by thanking the Brookings institution and the German Council on Foreign Relations for causing this event with NATO. In 10 days time, NATO leaders will meet here in Brussels at a pivotal moment for our alliance. We are drawing down in Afghanistan ending our largest military operation, but at the same time we’re stepping up our response to growing global competition. Russia and china are leading an authoritarian pushback against the rules based international order. Russia continues its pattern over dangerous behavior. With its massive military build up from the arctic to africa, it intimidates its neighbors, suppresses peaceful opposition at home and carries out cyber and hybrid attacks across NATO countries. China is asserting itself on the global stage. NATO does not see china as an adversary. There are opportunities to engage with Beijing on issues like trade, climate change and arms control. But we must be clear eyed about the challenges. China opposes. China would soon have the largest economy in the world. It only has the second largest defense budget and the biggest navy and it is seeking to control critical infrastructure in our countries and around the world. But Beijing does not share our values. The chinese authorities have created an unprecedented system of surveillance and control over their own people. The crackdown on peaceful dissent and religious minorities threaten Taiwan course the neighbors and hamper freedom of navigation in the south china sea. So our security environment is more complex and contested than ever before. With global competition, sophisticated cyberattacks, disruptive technologies, brutal terrorism, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and the security impacts of climate change. None of our countries can face these challenges alone. But the nations of europe and North America are not alone. We stand together in NATO. This is what NATO 2030 is about. Standing strong together and it’s good to know that Our recent polling confirms that over 80 our citizens consider the relationship between North America and europe important in dealing with security challenges. This makes an ambitious NATO 2030 agenda even more relevant. Let me therefore outlined the key areas. First we will strengthen NATO as unique and indispensable forum for transatlantic consultations on all issues that affect transatlantic security, including for instance on Syria Iran or the south china sea. Because NATO is not just a military alliance. We are a political military alliance. And even when we may not take military action, our political unity matters, so we must use NATO even more to address our differences, forge a common understanding and coordinate our responses military, economic and diplomatic. Second, we will boost our commitment to our collective defense against all threats. Since 2014 we have implemented the largest reinforcement of our collective defense in the generation, enhancing our ability to defend all hours online at sea, in there, in cyberspace and in space we will rapidly and fully implement our plans to strengthen our military posture, continuing to increase the redness of forces modernize our capabilities and invest more in our collective events. Strong militaries are important but strong societies are our first line of defense, so we must raise the level of ambition when it comes to resilience. Our third aim is therefore to develop alliance wide resilience objectives and work with allies to translate them into concrete national goals, to protect our critical infrastructure, make our society is less vulnerable to attack and coercion and ensure our militaries can operate in peace crisis and conflict. Fourth, we must boost transatlantic innovation to sharpen our technological edge. I prevent innovation gaps among allies. To ensure we can continue to work together. We will create a transatlantic defence accelerator, a new center to foster greater cooperation among allies on technology and closer collaboration with our world class researchers, industries and startups. Underpinned with extra funding from those nations that decided to participate. Fifth, we must play our part in upholding the rules based international order by speaking with one voice to defend our values and interests and encourage others to play By the rules ensuring freedom of navigation, a safe and secure cyberspace and setting new standards for emerging technologies. We will strengthen our existing partnerships, for example, with the european Union and forge new engagements with like minded countries around the world, including in Africa, Asia and latin America conflict and instability in NATO’s neighborhood directly undermine our security. So the 6th aim is to step up our training and capacity building support for partners from Iraq to Jordan and Georgia to Ukraine in areas like counterterrorism, countering cyber attacks, crisis management and defence reform. NATO has a long track record and we must build on it because training and building the capacity or partners is the best way to ensure stability in our neighborhood. Seventh, climate change, Global warming is a crisis multiply so, NATO must address the security consequences of climate change. My ambition is to have a clear political commitment at the summit to significantly reduce military missions contributing to Net zero. Will also conduct and Alliance wide assessment or assets and installations integrate climate change into a planning and exercises partner with industry to deliver climate mutual capabilities and prioritize sustainable technical technology in our procurement. As our societies move to more renewable energies, we must ensure our militaries are part of that energy transition. Eight. We will agree to develop NATO’s next strategic concept to recommit to our values and our enduring purpose and adapt to the changing security environment. And finally, to do all of this, we need to invest more. We are on the right track With seven years of consecutive increases in defense spending by europe and Canada. We must keep up this momentum. But we should not only invest more, we should also invest better. That is why we should increase NATO’s comin from the budget to help fund more joint training and exercises stronger cyber defenses, cutting edge capabilities and more capacity building for our partners. Because investing together to NATO is a force multiplier. It is more efficient and it sends a strong message of unity and resolve through 2030 we have, we are adapting to a more competitive world. Our ambitions must be high as the challenges to our security are great are therefore welcome. President Biden’s clear message on strengthening alliances. Starting with NATO, we have a unique opportunity to open a new chapter in transatlantic relations. We must seize this opportunity to strengthen NATO and the vital transatlantic bond to keep our people safe in a more contested world. Thank you. And I look forward to our conversation.