“I very much look forward to meeting with allies to discuss how we will strengthen deterrence and defence,” Lloyd said in a joint statement with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the entrance to the meeting.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) today has “a very strong program”.
NATO, he pointed out, is going through a “critical point” in its history, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine creating “the greatest security crisis since World War II”. [1939-1945]”.
Austin also took the opportunity to welcome Finland, which sits in today’s ministerial meeting, and said he hoped Sweden would join the Alliance “in the not-too-distant future”, making alluding to the application for membership which still lacks unanimous support.
Stoltenberg, for his part, said he hoped that at the Vilnius summit in July, “allies would assume an even stronger commitment to increase defense spending by two percent of gross domestic product,” a rate he called minimum “to ensure “collective defense and deterrence and defense, as a strong NATO Alliance”.
European allies and Canada, he pointed out, have already added “more than 350 billion euros to defence” since 2014.
Portugal is represented at the meeting, which ends on Friday, by Defense Minister Helena Carreiras.
IG // APN
By Impala News / Lusa
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