Secretary General discusses Strategic Concept, Afghanistan and NATO-EU relations in Greece
In preparation for the Lisbon Summit of 19 and 20 November, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen visited Greece on Thursday, 21 October 2010. He met with Prime Minister George Papandreou, Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas and Defence Minister Evangelos Venizelos.
They discussed NATO’s new Strategic Concept, which will guide the Alliance’s activities over the next 10 years on its adoption at the Lisbon Summit. The Secretary General stated that the Concept needs to reconfirm NATO's core mission: the territorial defence of all Allies. But it should also stress the need for NATO to modernise its defence concepts and capabilities in view of new security challenges, like cyber attacks and the growing threat of ballistic missiles.
Mr Fogh Rasmussen also thanked the Prime Minister for the commitment of Greek troops deployed as part of NATO's operations in Afghanistan, Kosovo and off the coast of Somalia. The Secretary General highlighted the importance of NATO's training mission in Afghanistan, because that is the ticket to transition.
On the NATO-EU relationship, the Secretary General expressed his strong wish to enhance and improve cooperation between both organizations. "It is important to overcome the obstacles that prevent us from achieving the most out of our cooperation. In operations and missions, NATO and the EU must be able to work together," Mr Fogh Rasmussen stressed.