Secretary General Joins Meeting Of Seven NATO Allies To Prepare Madrid Summit

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg joined the leaders of seven NATO Allies in The Hague on Tuesday (14 June 2022) to help prepare the Alliance’s Summit in Madrid.

The meeting was co-hosted by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, and Latvian Prime Minister Krišjānis Karinš also taking part.

The Secretary General said the upcoming Summit would be “historic and transformative”, including with decisions on strong support for Ukraine over the short and longer terms.  He also underlined that Allies will agree “a major strengthening of our posture”, which will require “more robust and combat-ready forward presence, even higher readiness, and more pre-positioned equipment and supplies”, and welcomed that more and more Allies are moving to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defence.

On the Strategic Concept to be agreed in Madrid, Mr Stoltenberg said the document will “assess our changed security environment, and reaffirm our fundamental values and tasks; it will be a blueprint for the Alliance’s future.” Leaders also discussed Finland and Sweden’s historic applications to join NATO. “I welcome the serious steps already taken to address Türkiye’s concerns,” said the Secretary General, adding: “our dialogue continues, to find a united way forward”.