NATO chief attends EU Commission college meeting

By Busra Nur Bilgic Cakmak

ANKARA (AA) - NATO chief on Tuesday attended a college meeting of the European Commission to discuss matters pertaining to cybersecurity, climate change, and resilience.

Following the meeting, Jens Stoltenberg and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen held a news conference marking the first visit of a NATO secretary-general to a EU college meeting in the history.

“The European Commission, and NATO are good partners, but we could do more. We could be more strategic and we could prioritize better. So, it's about topics like cybersecurity and emerging technologies. It's about climate change and resilience,” von der Leyen said at the news conference.

“Today, in college, we are adopting a strategy to enhance cybersecurity. We have a common interest to ensure that the hardware we rely on is safe. And we both want to fight disinformation that threatens our democracies,” she added.

Stoltenberg, for his part said, NATO has seen “more frequent and more sophisticated cyberattacks” and “established cyber as a military domain, alongside air, land and sea.”

On climate change, the both leaders emphasized the importance of the impacts of climate change in the area of defense and security.

“Global warming, climate change is a crisis multiplier, and NATO has to address the security consequences of climate change,” said Stoltenberg.

“Resilience is another area where I strongly believe that we can work even more closely together. We need strong societies, strong and resilient infrastructure to make sure that we have strong defense,” he added.

Von der Leyen said: “It's [resilience] also a key to mitigate possible threats such as those threats in hybrid warfare. So, there's a close link between the two organizations’ potential to re-energize the partnership between the European Commission and NATO.”

The NATO chief also said it is important to enhance transatlantic relations.

“We have a unique opportunity to strengthen, to re-energize the transatlantic bond. And I strongly believe that we need to work together. I don't believe in the US alone, I don't believe in Europe alone, I strongly believe in North America and Europe working together. Because we share the same values we need to stand together in a more unpredictable world,” he said.