Press statement

It is great to unite with two dear friends and patriots – the Chairman of the Military Committee Stuart Peach and Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation, André Lanata. 

It’s an exciting time to come together to talk with the Allied chiefs of defense about what the Alliance is doing, where we are going, and where to apply focus and resources.

Not only do we have forces deployed on operations, but we also continue to adapt our formations, and train together to improve our readiness and interoperability.

Our Allied and Partner forces are currently deployed and operating together in Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, NATO Mission Iraq, and Kosovo Force. 

Meanwhile,Allied Command Operations is implementing the biggest adaptation of our Alliance since the Cold War and continues to adapt across air, land, sea, space and cyber to provide security to more than one billion citizens. 

NATO Command Structure Adaptation puts people in the right position, in the right place and at the right time to accomplish the mission, significantly increasing the readiness of our forces.

This allows us to remain robust and flexible force, and enables us to take quick, decisive action.

Developing our new NATO Military Strategy provides an overarching approach that takes into account the challenging security environment, reinforcing the importance of readiness and our exercises to remain a true deterrent force with speed, depth and breadth.

Additionally, our forces continue to train at national and NATO-level to ensure units are organized and trained as elements to credible formations, including critical enablers.

The threats facing the Alliance are complex. The past 70 years reminds us all of the challenges we have faced together, and our collective success in preserving the comprehensive defense for the Euro-Atlantic area.

The ability to change as the world is changing demonstrates the strength of our Allied Forces.

With that, I will turn it over to General Lanata.