Will be relevant and effective over the coming decade and in 2030 . To answer these questions, we will begin with framing remarks from nato secretary general. Then my wonderful colleague in brussels nadia chickova will moderate a conversation with the secretary general. She will start with fred and me and then take questions from you. Fred will then close us out. Now, a word about eye an stoltenberg, the secretary general of nato. At a time when citizens in nato countries are looking for leadership, they need look no further than nato headquarters where secretary general stoltenberg is providing strong principled and decisive leadership. It is my sincere pleasure to welcome jens stoltenberg, native secretary general to the state, mr. Secretary general over to you. Good afternoon from brussels. And good morning to karen and fred in washington and welcome to all who are following us online. Last december nato leaders asked me to make our Strong Alliance even stronger. By making sure we are as effective politically as we are militarily. And that we remain ready today to tackle the challenges of tomorrow. This is an opportunity to reflect on where we see our alliance ten years from now. And how it will continue to keep us safe in the more uncertain world. So today i am happy to launch my reflection on nato 2030. Covid19 has changed our lives in ways we could barely imagine. And it has magnified existing trends and tensions when it comes to our security. Russia continues its military activities unabated. Isis and other terrorist groups are emboldened. Both state and nonstate actors promote disinformation and propaganda and the rise of china is fundamentally shifting the global balance of power. Heating up the race for a technology supremacy, multiplying the fence to open societies and individual freedoms and increasing the competition of our values and our way of life. Nato 2030 is about how we adapt this new normal. And to do this we must stay strong militarily, be more united politically, and take a broader approach globally. So, first, we need a Strong Military alliance. To protect our democracy and to continue to compete in the more competitive world. Threats to our security have not gone away while were focusing on the pandemic. Just the opposite. As we look to 2030, we must continue to invest in our armed forces and military capabilities. They have kept us safe for over 70 years as they continue to do today. Security is the foundation for our prosperity now and in the future. But military strength is only part of the answer. We also need to use nato more politically. This means bringing all of the issues that affect our security to natos table. So that we could forge stronger con ses. From conflicts in the middle east to global arms control and the security consequences of climate change. Using nato more politically also means using a broader range of tools. Military and nonmilitary. Economic and diplomatic. This is especially important as we Work Together to strengthen the resilience of our societies and our economies. And to ensure that we do not import vulnerabilities, into our Critical Infrastructure and industries and supply chains. Nato may not always be on the front line to act. But it must always be the forum for frank discussion and genuine consultation. In fact, nato is the only place that brings europe and north america together every day. We have the structures and the institutions in place. What we need is the political will to use nato, to decide and when necessary to act for our shared security. Finally, in a world of great global competition, where we see china coming closer to us from the arctic to cyberspace, nato needs a more global approach. This is not about a global presence, but about a global approach. Nato brings together 30 allies on both sides of the atlantic. Almost 1 billion people, half of the worlds military and economic might and a network of global partners. As we look to 2030, we need to work even more closely with likeminded countries like australia, japan, new zealand, south korea. To defend the global rules and institutions that have kept us safe for decades. To set norms and standards in space and in cyberspace. New technologies and global arms control. And ultimately to stand up for the world built on freedom and democracy. Not on bullying and coercion. The challenges that we face over the next decade are great than any of us could tackle alone. Neither europe alone, nor america alone, so we must resist the temptation of national solutions. And we must live up to our values, freedom, democracy and the rule of law. These values are what define us. They are what make us strong. As nations and as an alliance. As we continue to compete in the more competitive world, we must keep our democracy strong. My vision for nato 2030 is not about reinventing nato, it is about making our Strong Alliance even stronger. Strong militarily, Stronger Politically, and more global. To help us get there, ive asked a group of experts to provide new ideas. Ill continue to consult actively with allies and ill reach out to civil society, the private sector and young leaders, as we are doing here today. Many recommendations will inform the direction nato leaders set out when we meet next year. Together we could look to nato 2030 confidence, together we keep our people safe in the more uncertain world. Thank you. Thank you very much, secretary general for your insightful remarks and sharing your vision and reflection for nato 2030. It is my great pleasure to lead the conversation with you today. And now i will turn back to washington, d. C. For the first two questions. Karen, the floor is yours. Thanks, nattia. And mr. Secretary general, what a terrific set of framing remarks. And you mentioned that your goal in this reflection process is not about reinventing nato, but about making nato stronger and more global. And i want to draw you out on what that means in terms of natos relationship with china. We have seen a stark deterioration certainly in the u. S. china relationship. From where you sit in brussels, does nato see china as the new enemy . Thank you. No, nato does not see china as the new enemy or an adversary, but what we see is that the rise of china is fundamentally changing the global balance of power. And nato leaders, heads of state and government, when they met in london in december, they for the first time in history agreed that nato has to address the consequences, the security consequences of the rise of china. There are some opportunities because the Economic Growth of clooirn china has fueled Economic Growth in our part of the world and helped to lift hundreds of million of people out of poverty but at the same time we see that the fact that china soon had the biggest economy in the world, they will have they will have the second largest Defense Budget and theyre investing heavily in capability, including missiles that could reach all nato allied countries and coming close in the cyberspace, we see them in arctic and africa and investing in Critical Infrastructure and working more together with russia. All of this has a security consequence for nato allies. And therefore we need to be able to respond to that, to address that and we need to do that by forging nato to have Stronger Political lines and working together with partners not the least in the asiapacific including australia, japan, south korea, new zealand, which are very close and likeminded partners to nato. So this is a message coming from the leaders last december and now were following up on that when we now address nato 2030 and the reflection process. Very important points and i would like to turn to the second question coming from d. C. Fred, over to you. Thank you very much. Strong militarily, Stronger Politically, and more global. Mr. Secretary general, that is such an Important Message and this reflection process is historically significant, so thank you for this. One question on this, as a follower of nato for many years you seem to be pointing to what people call article two. And one of the pieces of language said they will seek to eliminate conflict in their International Economic policies and will encourage economic collaboration between any or all of them. Most people dont know that is in the nato charter. So my question running off of this is how important is this and you didnt explicitly mention the European Union in your vision for the future of nato, but this new direction would suggest a closer collaboration with the European Union. Sir, nato is a military and Political Alliance and youre right that sometimes i feel that we all forget in a way the importance of the political dimension of nato. Of course nato is about protecting each other. It is about article five, collected events. But it is will about working together in the Political Alliance addressing, for instance, the importance of reving. That is article three. So there are many articles, article two and three is about nonmilitary means of securing our security of maintaining peace. And i think that covid19 has demonstrated clearly the importance of address those nonmilitary challenges and threats an the role nato can play in helping the civilian society dealing with that. When it comes to the European Union and europe, i strongly believe in cooperation between the European Union and nato and i very much welcome the fact that weve been able to lift the cooperation between nato in unprecedented levels and we need to continue to do that. And i also believe and welcome the efforts on defense. But at the same time we could not replace nato. We have to remember that almost 60 of the People Living in nato, in the nato country, they live in a none. U. State. 80 of the nato expenditure is coming from none. U. Members and we have to be able to protect 100 of our people. So there is no way to replace nato but as long as we Work Together in a good way we could complement each other. I am very pleased at receiving questions from our viewers on social media. First question, i would like to raise with you is from jay kay, a 16yearold from and we received here question over mail and talking about the future of nato. We also speak about the future of all of the citizens and the young generations an her question relates to that. Where do young people fit into nato both now and in the future . I think that most fundamental answer to that question is that peace matters. Especially for young people. Because it is only by providing peace and freedom, which is the core responsibility of nato, that young people can decide themselves what kind of life they would like to live. Job, education, but also all of the other important issues that we are faced with like climate change. Now the fight against racism. Without peace we will fail in all of those efforts. So peace freedom is so fundamental for Everything Else we do. And i, im not young, but even i take peace in one way for granted because peace had be the way that was normal in europe for nato allied countries since we established nato for more than 70 years. But peace has not been a normal thing in europe. Actually europe and nato allies were ravaged by war for centuries. So the most important thing for young people is to make sure that they could take peace as granted as ive been able to take and the only way to make sure that that happens is that we continue to have nato as a Strong Alliance, preserving peace and freedom. Thank you very much. The second question i would like to raise with you is from terry schultz. From npr who also shared her question over email. What is happening with the troops in germany, her question is how do you comment on u. S. Media reports that the u. S. Is planning to withdraw almost 10,000 troops from germany. So i would never comment on media leakages or speculation. But what i could say is that we are constantly consulting with the United States, with all of the nato allies on the military posture or presence in europe. Of course after the end of the cold war we saw the u. S. Presence in europe. Over the last few years weve seen an increase in the u. S. Presence in it again. And this is not only about germany, but weve seen for instance a new u. S. Brigade that deployed to europe and more rotational presence and u. S. Taking a lead function in the Nato Battle Group in poland, more in the baltic countries, in romania including with a base for Missile Defense and naval presence in the spanish base in spain and even if my own country norway weve seen more u. S. Presence. So in the last years weve seen more u. S. Presence including in investing in peoples equipment and more exercises. Naval presence for the first time, we have the first u. S. Aircraft carrier just a few weeks ago, we had significant u. S. Presence in the north. It was in the mediterranean and so on. So the thing is that european allies in the United States, were doing more together now in europe than weve done for many years. I think that reflects the fact that were able to strengthen the military within the nato over the last years. Thank you very much. Now well have an opportunity to have ow viewers to ask a question directly over zoom. The first question you will hear will about fre victoria. Yes, hello to everyone and im very delighted to participate in this event with mr. Stoltenberg. And thank you very much for your remarks. Which i find very important. And one of them is that we really have to take care of peace and we shouldnt take it for granted. I think this is one of the most important things. But i will get back to question and im here representing or being an alumni of the gmf Marshall Memorial Fellowship Program and this question is also coming from me being in the republic of maoldova and this i a great opportunity. So first of all, we have to acknowledge that this Global Crisis provoked by a covid19 pandemic has forced a trend gaining more and more ground that is National Versus collective. As a result, how do you see the security developing in a way that it meets the individual and collective needs of the countries both members of nato of the alliance but also partners and how do we keep in this circumstances our collective values alive as they are still seen as one of the main premises for peace. Thank you. Well i strongly believe that in Uncertain Times we need strong multilateral institutions. And nato is one of the biggest most Important National institutions we have so i think this is time to strengthen multilateral institutions, corporation, nato. Thats why we have launched the system to make sure we change, adapt as the role is changing. And again sh since we see the global balance of power is shifting, we see the rise of o china. Compared to china, even United States is not the biggest one. Soon, china will have the biggest economy in the world. They are leading and investing in a lot of technologies including artificial intelligence, computing and so on. Then its even more important we stand together. Not america and europe together because we cannot manage this alone. We have to do this together. So my main when things are difficult then its even more important we stand together and that we do that north america and were together. Thank you. Thank you very much and before we come back to social media question, we have the second question from rachel. Over to you, rachel. Hello, secretary general, and thank you so much for your leadership in these turbulent times. You mentioned nato is expected to deal with nonmilitary challenges like disinformation, cyber, energy and climate and that nato doesnt necessarily hold all the tools. In addition to the partnerships nato holds with other countries, how can they update and possibly expand its Partnerships Network to tackle these challenges . Im thinking alopg the lines of private sector partners, other international organizations. How can it expand that network . Thank you. Well the strength of nato is that not only do we represent 30 members, close to 1 billion people, half of the worlds military and economic mooit throumite through the 38 members of nato, but we are also working with 40 different partners around the world and working with other International Institutions like the European Union and again since we li in a world which is constantly changing and we are faced with many different threats and challenges at the same time, the importance of working together with partners has become even more critical for nato and thus thefocusing o. Again, one of the purposes of nato 2013 is how to further strengthen partnerships in many directions. Addressing not at least different nonmilitary threats, we are seeing in cyber, we have seen this information as you mentioned and i strongly believe that the best answer is not propaganda. I believe that the truth will preva prevail. And the facts, the truth is the best way to counter this information. The aim of course of propaganda and disinformation campaigns as we are seeing for instance connected to covid19 is to undermine trust in our democratic institutions, divide allies and abuse our ability to Work Together. The best way to counter propaganda and disinformation that are broad facts. The truth. The best way to do that is to have a free and independent press. Journalists asking the difficult questions. Checking their facts. Checking their stories. The best way to make sure that propaganda and disinformation doesnt succeed. Id li id like to follow up on this question. During the Global Health krcris, have you seen an increase of this information started in nato r or specifically trying to understood mine nato . Well weve seen several examples of stories, propaganda, disinformation, has been used to try the divide those. The trust nato ally countries. We are seeing attempts from russia and china to blame nato allies for the existence of the coronavirus and we have seen stories that the, we are not able to support and help other each. The ability is that allies are helping each other a lot. All allies are affected, but not all in the same way at the same time so weve seen, we have seen in secure our Supreme Commander here in europe, coordinating local efforts of military. We have seen how military has been transporting local equipment, medical, sometimes transporting patients, medical personnel, setting up feed hospitals, thousands of beds. Helping to control borders. So the military supported by nato has been key in making sure that nato allies are helping and also partners. So again, the reality is that we need facts. We need the truth. Thats the best way to counter this information also when it comes to covid19. And have a proactive communication of the facts. Absolutely. And therefore, i try to do that. A lot of excellent people in nato working with communications, messaging every day and they do an excellent job. I know that different capitals, nato allies are doing what they can to counter this information. Which is dangerous because it can undermine trust in our democratic institutions, but again, i strongly believe that the idea of free and open societies, freedom of expression, we need free and independent press. Those institutions are important. Because in the long run, thats the best way to make sure that people have reliable sources of information and that any attempt to spread disinformation false stories are not successful. Very good. I would like took back now to our questions on social media. We received a question over twitter from someone from afghanistan. So natos perhaps longest and most Challenging Mission has been transforming on 1st of june, we welcomed the new nato representative in afghanistan so his question relates to that and hes asking how will the nato 2030 process the future of nato and affect afghanistans future and stability and perhaps wider asia stability in the next decade. Of course its too early for me to predict exact outcome of the process in nato 2030 because we are now launching it, starting it, but i believe strongly that we will have more focus on nato as a training alliance. Our nato can train, build local capacity, enable countries themselves to stabilize their own countries. Because i think the Lesson Learned from afghanistan, iraq and elsewhere is of course nato has to be able to intervene, to deploy a large number of combat troops and big operations but in the the long run, the best weapon we have to fight terrorism and to stabilize the countries is to enavailabble to terrorism themselves. Thats what we do in afghanistan. Weve been there for almost 20 years. The last years has been to focus on enabling the afghans to fight terrorism themselves, to stabilize the country and there are many problems, many reasons to be concern ed about the situation in afghanistan, but theres a huge achievement that we now have a strong Afghan Security force which is able to fight terrorism themselves. And we welcome the agreement between the United States and taliban because that is the first very important step towards a lasting peace in afghanistan and lasting peace in afghanistan, we can only have if theres negotiations, afghan owned process and e we support that and i believe that the best way we can do that is to continue to train and help Afghan Security forces so they can create peace and stability. Talking about the peace and stability in the future where we are also facing new threats or advanced or new challenges, might not be aware of coming from cyber or the use of technology in different ways, we have a question that came over email from marissa and now since the adoption of the strategic concept and we are looking into the next ten years and hopefully beyond as well. His question, is it time for a new concept of nato to address cyber space and hybrid threats on the 2030 horizon. Do we need and should we have a new strategic construct . I think the its a bit too early to say wh the process nato 2030 will lead to a new strategic concept for nato. For me, the most important thing is to change and adapt. One of the main reasons why nato is the most successful in history is that we have been able the to change every time the world has changed and we need to continue to change because the world continues to change. The aim of nato 2030 is to make sure that happens and i think that we are seeing that in the strategic concept nato has today. We have identified three core tasks. Collective defense, Crisis Management and fighting terrorism and corporate security working with the partners all around the world. This was agreed back in 2010. That was before iran, iraq, syria and all the challenges weve faced since then. The realities of nato has been able to implement the biggest a dapation seen in decades with forces, new groups in the eastern part of the alliance, with a new cyber command. The formula command structure. Investing in defense. We have really undertaken huge changes of nato with the same strategic concept. So for me, the most important thing is not whether we have a new strategic concept, the most important thing is that we are able to change nato as the world the is changing. And we think the crisis we are facing today, the Global Health crisis and as you mentioned, there are a lot of nonmilitary threats we are already facing and will be facing in the future and nato has been adapting to facing and count erring these threats. Also the question from another viewer over twitter came in the context of the coronavirus and shes asking if Civil Emergency planning will be prioritized or expand ed in the nato 2030, nex years respective. We are all in the process of working more on resilience of our societies. And we have something we call baseline requirements for resilience or societies. That includes the ability of society or Member States to deal with mass casualties. And we have seen the value of that during the corona pandemic, but also in the le sons we all have to learn. We need to really look seriously into for instance do we have the systems in place to have the necessary equipment in the right time at the right place at the right time. For instance, protective equipment. So we will now, we are now looking into how to update these requirements. We are working on the plan in nato. Both to address a potential second wave of coronavirus or covid19 pandemic and a more longterm plan to cope with pandemics more in general. So again, it underlines that resilience with infrastructure, telecommunicatio telecommunications, 5g or Health Care Access to protective equipment. All that matters for the civilian society, but also matters for nato and military alliance and communities and we have to support our Work Together and have done during the covid19 crisis where weve seen significant military support in coping and dealing with covid19. And while we are dealing with this and using the civilian efforts, another question is about adversaries also beyond the pandemic that might be causing more even exten shl. Shes asking how we link this relationship with russia over the next ten years. Well, natos relationship with russia is based on what we call a dual track approach. We have seen being able to use military force in georgia and ukraine including Nuclear Capabilities deploying a new missile calls ssc 8, a missile which can reach european cities. Reduces the threshold for potential use of Nuclear Weapons in Armed Conflict and the treaty that banned all intermediate range weapons and so theyre heavily modernizing their Nuclear Arsenals and also just doctrines. So we have responded to this. Not by mirroring what russia is doing, but by making sure we have credible defense because thats the best way to prevent the conflict is to remove any room for doubt, any room for miscalculation about natos willingness to protect our allies and as long as we provide that deterrence, there will be no conflict, no attack. So thats one part. What we call deterrence and defense. And make sure that we continue to provide that. At the same time, russia is our neighbor. Russia is here to stay. Russia will not go away and we believe in dialogue with russia. We will strive for a better relationship with russia. We strongly believe in arms control. A new arms race will be dangerous and costly, therefore we continue to work hard for arms control with russia and thats part of what we call dual track dialogue approach to russia and i can just say myself as a former politician Prime Minister for ten years is that i know that its possible to talk to the russians and to actually make agreements with them. We did that for many, many years. On military issues. On energy. On border issues, on many other issues. Environment issues. And, and that was not despite of nato, it was because of nato. Nato tried the platform for us to work with russia. And now of the importance of the cooperation and dialogue, it was a great pleasure for me to lead the conversation with you. We have more questions coming in. Unfortunately, we dont have more time today. Hopefully in the future. Maybe in ten years, if not sooner, and i would like to turn back to washington, d. C. , for concluding remarks, so back to fred. Over to you, fred. Mr. Secretary general, i dont know what the global virtual equivalent is to a standing room only audience but weve had it good today and there are still 100 questions out there or more. We hope to have you back soon again. On behalf of karen and everyone with gmf and everyone at the atlantic council. Thank you for these really important reflections. We look forward to working with you on deepening the political dimension, on the global dimension and of course on the related china dimension. For our guests, thank you for joining us today. We hope you can join us thursday, june 11th, 10 00 a. M. , 6 30 p. M. Kabul for president afgh afghani and have a good week and tell them mr. Secretary general, thank you again for these really important comments to make an constitution stronger that needs to be stronger in these times. Tonight on American History tv at 8 00 eastern, on july 23rd, 1967, detroit erupted in fyfe days of rioting and violence sparked by a police raid on an illegal bar. Wxyz tv, an abc affiliate in the city, was there to record the events. This half hour documentary is courtesy of the archives of michigan. Watch American History tv tonight and over the weekend on cspan 3. Intelligence experts discuss ued disinformation con campaigns and Political Warfare during the coronavirus pandemic. They explored various tools and the best way