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Jens Stoltenberg called NATO most effective alliance in history

04 December 2019 15:38 (UTC +04:00)

Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general of NATO, on Wednesday called the grouping the most effective alliance in history, APA reports citing WSJ.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO’s secretary general, spoke before the meetings on Wednesday, acknowledging the external and internal pressures facing the alliance but insisting that it was agile and strong enough to deal with them.

Speaking outside the Grove Hotel in Watford, England, Mr. Stoltenberg laid out an ambitious agenda for the leaders from North America and Europe: the international fight against terrorism, arms control, combating Russia, and, for the first time, the rise of China.

Mr. Stoltenberg said that China’s growing global power offered “both opportunities but also challenges,” citing a buildup in military capabilities as a looming threat.

But NATO is not only facing emerging superpowers outside the alliance: It also has deep internal divisions and disputes. Those tensions were on full display on Tuesday during an exchange between President Trump and President Emmanuel Macron of France, who laid out dueling visions for the alliance.

Asked about what he made of earlier comments from Mr. Macron, who said last month that NATO was suffering from “brain death,” Mr. Stoltenberg vigorously defended the 70-year-old institution.

“That’s not the case,” Mr. Stoltenberg said. “NATO is agile. NATO is active. NATO is adapting. NATO is the most effective alliance in history.”

Mr. Stoltenberg said that differences among the heads of the alliance’s member states were nothing new, citing disputes over the Suez crisis of 1956 and more recently the war in Iraq.

“There’s always been differences,” he said. “What we have proven and what we also show today is NATO is able to overcome these differences.”