Ambassadors take NATO priorities on US road trip
Twelve NATO Ambassadors toured five major American cities from 22 to 24 February to meet the US public and talk about key issues facing the Alliance today. With the Chairman of the Military Committee, Admiral Giampaolo di Paola, the Permanent Representatives visited Baltimore, Dallas, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC, reaching out to millions on radio and television.
US Ambassador Ivo Daalder, Italian Ambassador Stefano Stefanini, and Danish Ambassador Per Poulsen-Hansen held frank and open discussions at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club on how NATO is measuring up to the new security challenges of terrorism, cyber defence, climate change, natural disasters and nuclear proliferation. They spoke on Northern California Public Broadcasting’s KQED Radio show “Forum” with Frank Krasny, a nationally syndicated call-in talk show, about these issues as well.
In Dallas, Hungarian Ambassador István Kovacs discussed NATO’s current situation in Afghanistan and the transatlantic relationship between Hungary and the United States, hosted by the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth. Ambassadors Sorin Ducaru of Romania, Linas Linkevicius of Lithuania, and Frank Majoor of the Netherlands took part in a public symposium sponsored by the European Institute in New York. Polish Ambassador Boguslaw Winid spoke at the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs.
In Washington, DC, Ambassadors Juri Luik of Estonia and Artur Kuko of Albania spoke for two hours with students at the American University. Ambassador Kim Traavik of Norway joined Ambassadors Daalder and Stefanini in Washington to take questions on WAMU 88.5 FM American University Radio’s anchor program “The Diane Rehm Show”, which reaches more than two million listeners across the country. Afterwards, they took discussions to policy-makers at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
British Ambassador Stewart Eldon spoke with viewers on public service broadcaster C-SPAN’sTV headline program “Washington Journal”, taking questions on NATO’s commitment to Afghanistan among other issues. In addition, Admiral di Paola spoke at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC.
The Ambassadors’ tour was organized by NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division on the margins of the fourth seminar on NATO’s new Strategic Concept, hosted by Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk and the National Defense University in Washington