NATO foreign ministers to hold talks in Brussels

BRUSSELS

NATO foreign ministers will discuss the military alliance’s strategy for the future at their meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“This is an opportunity to open a new chapter in transatlantic relations”, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said about the ministerial meeting.

The ministers will discuss the military alliance’s 2030 strategy to be adopted later this year at the NATO leaders’ summit.

“NATO 2030 is also about protecting the rules-based order, which is being challenged by authoritarian powers like China and Russia” Stoltenberg said.

According to the secretary general, Russia’s “destabilizing activities,” the threat of terrorism, sophisticated cyber-attacks, disruptive technologies, as well as “the rise of China,” are among the main challenges that the NATO will face in the near future.

Stoltenberg also stressed that the alliance had to take a “leading role when it comes to understanding, adapting and mitigating the impact of climate change on our security.”

Asked about the dispute between Turkey and Greece over the Eastern Mediterranean, the NATO chief said he wanted to strengthen NATO’s role as a political platform to consult “when we see differences and disagreements between allies.”

Besides the NATO 2030 strategy, the ministers will assess the situation and the alliance’s role in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The EU foreign policy chief as well as the Swedish and Finnish foreign ministers will also join the talks.