Remarks

Thank you so much Dan for having me. 
Multumesc pentru invitatie. 
It’s like feeling, coming home. 
Thanks to the Atlantic Council and the Freedom and Prosperity Centre for having me and I know there are lots of friends in this very hall and many others watching our conversation in a digital way, virtual including in my home country of Romania, our home country of Romania where I salute the Project Romania 2030 partnership with your centre. 

It's in a way, I think, there is some form of symmetry in people's lives because I started, let's say my international career, being five years as Romania’s  Ambassador, very young, to Washington. 
And as Kelly has said, you know, running like crazy to convince American legislature and American administration, American public that my country, Romania deserved to be a member of NATO and the symmetries that I'll be probably having five years in NATO after complex career in politics and diplomacy. 

So in a way, I started with the obsession that Romania had, and the Poles had and the Czechs had and the Balts had, that we have to be part of the Euro-Atlantic family. And in a way, there is God. 

I hope not towards the end of my career, I have this great job as number two and I want to say how much I appreciate Secretary General Stoltenberg’s –not only decision to pick me, which was great, but also his steady hand at the helm. 

There is an absolute direct connection between freedom, prosperity and security. There is absolutely nothing in our lives, but nothing – no business, no personal life, no tranquility, no dreams, no hope, if we don't have peace and stability. And the business of NATO is to make sure that this very foundation of peace and stability is preserved for the 1 billion people including 20 million Romanians, and Finns and hopefully soon Swedes that are part of our great alliance. 

And next year we’ll be in Washington to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the greatest Alliance in human history. 
And every single time when we go and look into the complexities of today's world, or yesterday's world, or tomorrow's world, we are always coming back to the value proposition that NATO embodies. 
And this is freedom, this is democracy and this is the rule of law. 

And I certainly see this with this war that Russia started against innocent Ukraine, and so many other issues that are tormenting today's world. People start to see again, even the ones who are not –sometimes I preach to the choir, I meet people that already believe in NATO, but I go to universities, I see young people, I was at Stanford, I will be giving the commencement speech at Virginia Tech next Sunday, when I go in my home country of Romania, when I go everywhere, and I start to feel that also the younger generations, who are not accustomed to live with war in Europe anymore, so sort of a distant memory of our forefathers. 

And now they see that NATO is such a relevant organization and again, I come back irrespective how many airplanes and fighter jets and tanks that we need to have, or how strong you are on cyber or anything else, in the end is the values. 

And I think for countries in my part of Europe, in the former communist Europe, I think that proposition is probably even more intense than for others that have been living in democracy and freedom for centuries. 

We cherish freedom, we value democracy and if sometimes democracies are imperfect. 
I don't try to find excuse to anyone […] there is not an easy proposition to rebuild a free society with modern, political and economic institutions, the reflexes and the culture of the people that live for 50 years in communism because the destruction and the social engineering that Soviet Russia and then communist ideologies did to our countries is a severe trauma. 

And people expect that, you know, it's one or two generations. 

So I come from that group of leaders from my part of Europe, intensely believing in transatlantic connection, intensely believing that there is a connection between freedom, democracy and rule of law, and also the fact that there is a chance for nations like ours, like my country of Romania, like Poland, like the Czech Republic […] that if we do the right things, we could avoid the middle income trap. And we could really go to the first echelon of developed nations. 

I think there is nothing shorter than this ambition that we all share, being members of NATO, member of European Union, also a great achievement. I signed the negotiations for Romania joining the EU as well. 

That's a very nice, it's a very nice, you know, tandem of institutions. But I think there is nothing short of the ambition that if we strengthen our institutions, political, economic, if we cherish our freedom, and also have better governance and less corruption, and more transparency in what we do. 

I believe that our part of Europe would and should become part of the developed part of it. And also, why not be an inspiration for other nations that are still struggling with this thing, okay, you develop and then you reach a plateau, and then you suffocate somehow, and then you have a problem with going to the real deal. And historically, there are not that many nations that made it to the top. 

I was just amazed by the state visit of the President of South Korea to Washington and you know… wow, wonderful, and we met him for the first time at our NATO Summit in Madrid last year when we had for the first time the four leaders of the Indo-Pacific, Australia, Japan, Korea and New Zealand and I think that if this part of Europe will declare victory – and the end of history is not joining NATO and EU. The real ambition for our part of Europe is to really make sure that we become –I don't think we'll be Switzerland necessarily, but why not believe that you can be Belgium or the Netherlands, or Denmark, or why not Sweden or Finland? 

And I think this is something that should be the next level of ambition for my part of the world and also my home country, Romania.