NATO Deputy Secretary General underscores importance of Asia-Pacific partnerships
Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller stressed the importance of NATO’s partners in the Asia-Pacific region at the seventh NATO Asia-Pacific Dialogue in Brussels on Monday (16 October 2017). The Dialogue is organized annually by NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division in cooperation with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (Foundation), and was hosted by the Atlantic Treaty Association.
Ms Gottemoeller explained that while NATO is primarily focused on the Euro-Atlantic area, the Alliance cares a great deal about what happens in the Asia-Pacific region. “In an interconnected world, the risk of instability and conflict in the Asia-Pacific region is a potential challenge not only to the region itself, but to stability worldwide,” she said. “In today’s security environment,” Ms Gottemoeller added, “partnership is a necessity, not a luxury. And, as a consequence, NATO has increasingly opened up its core business to partners.”
The two-day, high-level conference provides a platform for discussion and cooperation between NATO and experts from the Asia-Pacific region. This year’s roster of speakers features experts from across the Asia-Pacific region: Afghanistan, Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Singapore. Dialogue participants include representatives from Brussels-based think tanks and NGOs, as well as NATO member delegations and several NATO partner embassies in Brussels.