Media huddle

with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the European Parliament

  • 23 Feb. 2016 -
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  • Last updated: 24 Feb. 2016 13:22

(As delivered)

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

Once again it was a great pleasure to meet with the Foreign Relations Committee of the European parliament and to meet with the Chairman Elmar Brok and I think we had a very good discussion for actually 1,5 hours. We addressed many different issues and topics.

My main message was about the importance of developing and strengthening the cooperation between the European Union and NATO and we are making progress in many different areas, like hybrid, like cyber and common challenges we face, the EU and NATO.

But now most recently we are also making progress in developing the cooperation between the EU and NATO when it comes to tackling the migrant and the refugee crisis. As you all know NATO’s Ministers of Defence decided two weeks ago that NATO shall assist, help with tackling the migrant and refugee crisis. We have already deployed ships, maritime assets to the Aegean sea. They do monitoring, and we are now, as we discussed, working on the practical details, legal issues, operational issues on how to implement this decision.

And this is about how we can help Turkey, how we can help Greece, but also how we can assist Frontex and EU.

This is important for Europe, this is important to step up the efforts to fight the smugglers, the illegal networks and of course we are ready to provide help to the European Union when it’s asked for and that’s the reason why I also welcome the decision and the work which is now going on related to how it’s going to be implemented.

Q. WALL STREET JOURNAL: Mr. Secretary General, without an operational plan yet approved by the NAC what are the ships in the Aegean doing? What and what can’t they do without the op-plan approved? And the Greeks have stepped up their criticism of Turkey, are you at all worried that the territorial disputes, that other issues could derail full implementation of the mission?

JENS STOLTENBERG (NATO Secretary General):  The standing NATO Maritime Group #2 which is the group which we have deployed to the Aegean Sea, they already, or the group already has their mandate to do monitoring. So they already monitor the situation in, also in the sea or where they are deployed. And they also of course have the mandate to share that information with NATO allies because this is a NATO Standing Maritime Group, meaning that they of course can share that information with other NATO allies. But we would like to do more, that’s the reason why we are now addressing how to develop the technical, the operational mandate, the guidelines for the presence of NATO ships in the Aegean Sea. I think it will be wrong if I go into the details before we have concluded on all the details but we made the decision just a couple of weeks ago and we are working very focused on how to, so solve all the remaining legal and practical issues and then to expand our activity beyond what we already have the mandate to do.

Q:  AL ARABIA: Secretary General I have question to both you, also to Mr. Brok the same question. Turkey is shelling the Kurds in North Syria, those who are women and men fight Daesh and they liberate for example Kobani etcetera. Now they are being targeted by Turkey as a member of the NATO alliance.  Which advice, a little bit if you can explain, what is your message to Turkey in this sense? And if Mr. Brok also can comment on the Turks shelling of the Kurds. Thank you.

JENS STOLTENBERG:  Turkey is the ally most affected by the turmoil, the violence in Syria and Iraq. Turkey has received more than 2 million refugees and Turkey has also suffered from terrorist attacks. And of course I think that this just reminds us of how complex, how difficult the situation in the region is and the importance then is to call for calm, for de-escalation and to support all efforts to find a political negotiated solution. And that’s the reason why I so strongly welcome the agreement between Russia and United States on cessation of hostilities. This has to be, this has to be implemented, it has to be respected and it has to be monitored. Because that can be the first step towards renewed efforts to get real peace negotiations on track, to find a political negotiated solution and to establish a more lasting ceasefire. So I think the fighting, the violence, the turmoil in Syria and along the borders with Turkey just underlines the importance of calm de-escalation and to implement the agreement on cessation of hostilities which was reached yesterday.