Meeting Today’s Security Challenges: The Importance of NATO-EU Cooperation

Thank you, Mr. Schrijver, for that kind introduction.  It is a pleasure to be here today to address such a distinguished group of parliamentarians from across the European Union.  The bridge you provide between organisations like the EU and NATO, and the people you represent, is one of the great things about our societies.  Open debate and democratic accountability are as essential to our security as any forces that our nations can bring to bear. 

The relationship between the European Union and NATO has rarely been closer, and it has never been as important as it is now.  NATO and the EU share many things.  Twenty-two EU member states, and nine out of every ten people in the EU enjoy the protection of the NATO Alliance.  We share the same values: freedom, democracy, respect for human rights and for the rule of law. 

We also share the same notion that, when we stand together, we are more than just the sum of our parts.  We know that the nations of the EU and of NATO are stronger, safer and more prosperous when we stand united than when we stand apart.

As we look around us, in almost every direction we see a host of complex challenges, many of which pose a direct threat to our long-term safety, security and prosperity.  Indeed, it is the most challenging security environment that Europe and the transatlantic community have faced since the height of the Cold War.

Right now, the headlines are dominated by the war in Syria and the growing instability across North Africa and the Middle East, which pose a serious threat to our own security, stability and cohesion.  After Syria descended into civil war, terrorist organisations like ISIL (or Daesh) were quick to occupy large swathes of Syria and Iraq, with the aim of building a caliphate based on violence and a twisted version of Islam. 

The humanitarian catastrophe that has ensued has left hundreds of thousands dead, while millions have fled in search of safety.  Although most of the displaced persons remain in the region, many have sought refuge on European shores.  I don’t have to tell you about the impact of so many people – desperate and in need – arriving in such a short space of time. 

This is one area where NATO and the EU are working together.  Our remits, our experiences and our expertise may be different, but they are also complementary.  The direct response to the refugee crisis is primarily for national governments and the EU, but NATO is also playing a role.  When NATO Defence Ministers met in February, they agreed to send ships to the Aegean to assist with the refugee and migrant crisis.  They were deployed immediately and are now supporting the Greek and Turkish authorities as well as Frontex through the provision of maritime surveillance aimed at helping to halt illegal smuggling of migrants and refugees.

In addition to our efforts to manage the effects of the crisis, NATO is also working to address its root causes.  Every NATO Ally is part of the US-led Coalition against ISIL and contributes in some way – militarily, politically, economically – to discredit, degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL.  While the military operations are not under NATO command, the success of the Coalition in reversing ISIL’s gains is in large part due to the ability of so many different nations to work together, a skill gained through years of challenging NATO operations from the Balkans to Afghanistan.

The ceasefire currently in place in Syria is holding, and I urge all parties to move towards a sustainable peace and a successful transition.  Putting an end to the civil war will also enable the international community to focus all its energies on destroying ISIL and discrediting its extremist ideology. 

Success in stabilizing the region will not be achieved by external forces imposing order, but by local nations gaining the strength and capacity to defend themselves from terror and insurgency, and ensuring that the safety, freedom and rights of their own people are put above all other considerations.  NATO and the EU both have a role to play here. 

Both our organisations have a history of working in the region to build our partners’ capacity, be it in the military, political or economic realm.  NATO has been assisting our southern neighbours with their defence reforms for more than two decades as part of the Mediterranean Dialogue, and we have been working almost as long with partners in the Gulf as part of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative.  At our Summit in Wales two years ago, we launched our more ambitious Defence Capacity Building initiative, and we are now implementing tailored support packages for several partners, including Jordan and Iraq.

Our support package with Jordan includes a focus on training, as well as assistance in areas as diverse as information protection and cyber defence, harbour protection, defence-related border security, and cooperation on countering Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs.

Jordan is also playing an important part in our support to Iraq.  Just last week, we began training Iraqi armed forces at the King Abdullah II Special Operations Training Centre (KASOTC) in Jordan.  Counter-IED, demining, military medicine, and civil military planning are among the key areas of our support.  All these NATO efforts are being closely coordinated with the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL.

NATO’s contributions are important, but we are not doing enough.  If we want to have a strategic impact on the region, an impact that will also contribute to our own security, then we need to significantly ramp-up our efforts.  We need greater investment of time, energy and resources in our defence capacity building programs in the region.  That is what I hope NATO leaders will agree to at our next Summit in Warsaw in July.  And it is what I hope EU leaders will commit to when they meet in June.  By coordinating NATO and EU capacity-building efforts, we can have greater success in halting the spread of violent extremism and stabilizing Europe’s southern neighbourhood.

So, there’s plenty of work for NATO and the EU to do together as we look South.  Unfortunately, we also need to pay equal attention to our Eastern neighbourhood. While NATO and the EU can take pride in their respective roles in building a Europe whole and free following the end of the Cold War, that vision is now being directly challenged by a revisionist Russia, a Russia that has turned its back on the years of cooperation and partnership with the West. 

With its aggression against Ukraine, Russia has shown that it rejects the values, principles and structures jointly agreed in Europe in the form of the Helsinki Final Act and numerous post-Cold War agreements.  Russia now no longer wants to be integrated in a common Euro-Atlantic community; it wants to re-establish spheres of influence and is prepared to redraw borders by force toward that end.  It has literally torn up the international rulebook.  And all this is being justified by a false narrative alleging that the West has sought deliberately to weaken, humiliate and take advantage of Russia for the past 25-30 years.

In declaring Yalta rather than Helsinki as the model for European security, Russia refuses to respect the sovereignty of its neighbours or the fundamental right of all nations to choose their own path.  It occupies territory in Georgia and Moldova against the sovereign will of those governments.  It has annexed Crimea and continues to use violence to destabilise Eastern Ukraine.  And Russian ships and planes continue to test the resolve of NATO Allies by approaching – and even entering – NATO sovereign territory.  The consequences of this, as we saw when Turkey downed the Russian jet last November, can be very serious indeed.

In response, NATO has embarked on the biggest increase in our collective defence since the Cold War.  Allies have moved to halt further cuts in defence spending, with 16 Allies spending more last year than in 2014.  One of those countries was the Netherlands.  I very much welcome this move and the Dutch government’s commitment to increase spending in real terms in the coming years.  I also welcome its plan to spend 20% of that money on new equipment by the end of this decade. 

But as the economy grows, spending will continue to fall as a percentage of GDP.  The Netherlands – and the many other allies who are still well below 2% of GDP – can do more and must do more.

In addition to reversing the decline in defence spending, NATO is taking important steps to strengthen our defence posture in the face of a more aggressive Russia.  Through our Readiness Action Plan launched at the 2014 Wales Summit, the Alliance has tripled the strength of the NATO Response Force to over 40,000 troops, with a rapid reaction Spearhead force at its centre, able to deploy within 48 hours.  We have put in place assurance measures along our eastern flank – in the air, at sea and on the ground – to underscore our determination to defend all allies. 

At our Warsaw Summit in July, we will take further steps to strengthen our defence posture for the long term, moving from assurance to deterrence.  A key decision in this regard will be to complement our rapid reinforcement capability with an enhanced forward presence on the territory of the eastern members of the Alliance.  This will be based on rotational deployments of capable, multinational forces.  The aim is to ensure that any would-be aggressor understands that any incursion into Allied territory would be countered by forces from the whole Alliance – Americans, Europeans and home defence forces – and that any such aggression would be a mistake.

The United States has announced that it intends to quadruple its commitment to European security next year under the European Reassurance Initiative, with more troops on continuous rotation in Europe, more training and exercises, and more pre-positioned equipment on European soil.  This will represent a huge contribution to NATO’s enhanced forward presence, and I hope it will encourage European Allies to do their part.

Now, the challenge from Russia is not a straightforward military confrontation, it is far more subtle than that.  Russia uses a wide range of tactics – from propaganda and cyber warfare to energy cut-offs and its infamous ‘Little Green Men’ – to achieve its political aims. These so-called ’hybrid’ tactics are not new in themselves.  But what is new are their scale, speed and intensity.  Of course, we use many different means to achieve our objectives; the difference is that we use them to bring stability, freedom and prosperity, while Russia uses them to spread instability and fear.

Given the broad nature of hybrid warfare, both NATO and the EU are both working hard to thwart it.  In their own ways, both organisations are seeking to prepare for, deter, and defend against hybrid warfare.  But neither organisation has all the tools on its own.  By combining NATO and EU efforts, and by bringing to bear the full range of our civilian and military tools, we can have greater success in protecting our member states against hybrid aggression – again, making the impact of our efforts greater than the sum of its parts.

It is essential that NATO and the EU work together in areas such as improving our situational awareness, civil preparedness and resilience, cyber defence, and strategic communications. We must also test our capabilities and our resilience through joint training and exercises, so that should a crisis involving hybrid warfare arise, we each know what to do and whom to call on the other side of town.

By the time the EU and NATO leaders have their summit meetings this summer, I hope we can enhance our cooperation on hybrid warfare.  We need a clearer understanding of where we are most effective working at the national, EU or NATO level, and where it is essential to combine our efforts in order to achieve the best outcome.  On the basis of this understanding, the two organizations should have parallel but coordinated “playbooks” that set out how they can best coordinate and cooperate to counter the different dimensions of hybrid warfare. 

When it comes to collective defence and complex crisis response operations, NATO will always be the option of first resort.  And there will always be areas – political and economic reform or development, for example – where the EU has the most appropriate skill mix.  But at a time when our security and long-term prosperity is under such pressure to the East and to the South, it makes sense for us to work together, to support each other and to achieve more together than we can alone.  I am confident that this is exactly what we will do.