Short statements

by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

  • 05 May. 2021 -
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  • Last updated: 05 May. 2021 13:00

(As delivered)

NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg

Your Majesty. Welcome back to NATO.

It's always a great honor and pleasure to receive you here.

You are such a strong and close friend of this alliance. And let me start by congratulating you on the 100th anniversary of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Jordan is a very close and important partner of NATO.

We have worked together for many many years. Our forces have served together side by side in the Balkans, in Afghanistan, over Libya, and Jordanian troops also participate in the NATO Response Force.

So we really value the many contributions Jordan is making to different NATO missions and operations.

As part of our partnership, we also provide support to Jordan, help to improve border security, countering improvised explosive devices, and during the pandemic we also tried to provide you with some support, some advisors, to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Allies have also decided to step up and deliver some more personal protective equipment, and also some ventilators to further step up the support for Jordan.

We appreciate the cooperation with Jordan for many reasons, but not least because you have always been a source for stability in the region, and we look forward to continuing to further deepen our partnership.

And I look forward to our discussions later on today, and also to listen to your assessments, analysis of the challenges you face in the region, because your understanding, your knowledge about the region is something we really appreciate here at NATO.

Let me also say that we also think it's extremely important that Jordan and NATO Allies have been working side by side in the efforts to fight global terrorism.
We have made enormous progress in the Global Coalition to defeat Daesh, and we welcome the fact that we are further strengthening our cooperation also in the global fight against international terrorism.

So you’re an old friend, a good friend, a highly valued friend of this Alliance. So once again, welcome to the NATO headquarters.

 

His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan

My dear friend, thank you very much.

It is an honor for me to be back here with you and with our friends here in NATO.

I truly appreciate, on behalf of Jordan and our armed forces, a special relationship as you have mentioned between NATO and our country.

The wonderful support that you give us, whether it's protecting our borders and with the challenges of COVID again, this is something that has been very appreciated by all Jordanians.

So we've had a relationship over the years, as you have mentioned, standing shoulder to shoulder with NATO forces all over the world. That is not going to change, thank goodness.

As we look at the challenges of 2021 into the next couple of years, again, we have challenges in our region and further afield, and I can guarantee you that Jordanians will again shoulder the responsibility, shoulder to shoulder with NATO on many of the challenges that we have. And I look forward to being able to discuss these issues with you in great detail.

As we look forward to the future, I think that the relationship between our organizations will actually allow us to overcome a lot of the challenges as we come out of a COVID pandemic challenge around the world.

I am honored to be here and honored about the friendship that we have.

And I can only think of good things going forward between NATO and Jordan.

Thank you so much for having me here.