Secretary General praises Greece’s contributions to NATO
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg arrived in Athens on Thursday (10 October 2019) for talks with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and President Prokopis Pavlopoulos. To honour fallen Greek soldiers, the Secretary General also laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The Secretary General and Prime Minister Mitsotakis discussed current security challenges and preparations for the meeting of NATO leaders in London. The Secretary General praised Greece for its contributions to NATO missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo, as well as its support for key partnerships. He also thanked Greece for investing more than 2% of GDP in defence, and securing the skies over NATO’s newest Ally, Montenegro.
The two leaders also discussed NATO’s response to Russia’s violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. “We must ensure that we maintain credible deterrence and defence, as well as our commitment to arms control and disarmament,” said the Secretary General.
Addressing the refugee and migrant crisis, the Secretary General underlined that NATO’s presence in the Aegean helps counter illegal human smuggling by providing real-time information to coastguards. NATO is also helping to address the instability and violence at the root of the migrant crisis by working with partners in the Middle East and North Africa.