Joint press point with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the President of the European Council Charles Michel, Europa Building, Brussels, Belgium, 29 June 2023.
NATO-EU cooperation is key to supporting Ukraine, responding to key security challenges
NATO Secretary General is taking part in the the European Council today, at the invitation of European Council President Charles Michel. The Secretary General praised the partnership between NATO and the European Union, which has reached unprecedented levels. He described it as key for continued support to Ukraine and in responding to other critical challenges.
The Secretary General welcomed NATO-EU cooperation on the resilience of critical infrastructure and today’s release of the NATO-EU Task Force assessment report. He thanked the European Commission and the European External Action Service for the joint work with NATO on the report, which suggests concrete ways to further develop ties – including through more information exchanges; work to identify alternate transport routes for civilian and military mobility; and closer ties in security research.
The Secretary General also underscored the shared focus of NATO and the EU on the situation in Kosovo. He stressed that the NATO-led KFOR mission continues to implement its UN mandate impartially. He called on Belgrade and Pristina to avoid escalation and return to the EU-facilitated dialogue.
🗣 | NATO Secretary General:
Thank you so much.
President Michel,
Dear Charles,
It is a great honour to be back.
And thank you so much for inviting me to the European Council.
And thank you, also, for your personal commitment to the strategic partnership between the European Union and NATO.
This partnership is extremely important now when we face a full-fledged war in Europe. The war which goes on in Ukraine.
And I commend the European Union for the support you have provided to Ukraine, [it is] unprecedented.
And also NATO Allies and NATO is providing unprecedented support to Ukraine. It demonstrates how we complement each other.
We work also together on many other areas, including on resilience or critical infrastructure.
And we have a Task Force together. The European Commission, supported also by the European External Action Service.
And the report is released today on how we confirm the strength of what the European Union and NATO does together to protect energy, infrastructure, transport and other types of critical infrastructure.
Lastly, I will say that what is… the situation in Kosovo also demonstrates the importance of NATO-EU cooperation.
NATO strongly supports the efforts of the European Union, the diplomatic efforts, the EU-facilitated Dialogue.
With our military presence on the ground, the KFOR forces, we have increased our presence there.
And we call on all the parties to de-escalate, to refrain from any action that can further increase tensions and to engage in good faith in the EU-facilitated Dialogue.
So once again, Charles, I very much look forward to the meeting today.
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