Deputy Secretary General at Brussels Forum: NATO is responding in unity to the pandemic
NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană spoke at the German Marshall Fund’s Brussels Forum on Monday (29 June 2020). Together with the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun, they discussed security challenges in the COVID-19 context.
“The biggest challenge for NATO during this crisis is quite simple because that’s the heart of our mission: it’s to make sure that the health crisis and economic downturn doesn’t become a security crisis as well”, he said. “We have seen solidarity in action. This is something, I believe, that proves that our Alliance is strong, is vital and is learning the lessons from this thing”.
The Deputy Secretary General further stressed the importance of international solidarity in fighting future challenges. “We are obliged as democratic nations to come out of this pandemic stronger”, he said. “The only lesson we can draw from this that here in Europe, across the Atlantic, in NATO, with all the other global allies of ours, from the Asia-Pacific, from India, from many other countries, we have to join forces because this is just the beginning of an acceleration of a global competition where our very values, our way of life are threatened and menaced. This is what NATO is all about.”
The Brussels Forum brings together European and North American leaders, policymakers, and experts, to discuss current transatlantic challenges.