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TAKE THE TEMPERATURE: Every morning the body temperature of Jens Stoltenberg and everyone who works in NATO is checked as a crown measure at headquarters in Brussels. Photo: NATO
Jens Stoltenberg says NATO will implement strict contingency measures when foreign ministers physically meet in Brussels next week.
Foreign Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide (H) had originally announced her resignation, due to Norwegian crown rules and a foreign debate at the Storting next Thursday.
UPDATE: After this article was published on Wednesday morning, the Foreign Ministry states that she will continue to travel to the NATO meeting and then go into travel quarantine when she returns. Therefore, the article was changed at 08.37 on Wednesday morning, as a result of this information.
– NATO has had strict infection control measures and has not had face-to-face meetings at the ministerial level since February last year. But at the same time we see the value of coming together. That is why we are planning a physical meeting with the foreign ministers next week, the NATO secretary general told VG on Tuesday afternoon.
NATO Foreign Ministers normally meet in Brussels two or three times a year, but in the last year they have only seen each other on screens.
The NATO secretary general has invited them to Brussels, among other things, to continue working on Stoltenberg’s strategic document, NATO 2030, to be adopted at a summit later this year.
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Disagreement
The German news agency DPA previously reported that several NATO countries oppose Stoltenberg’s plan for a different distribution of the costs of operations within NATO.
Several countries do not want reforms as broad as those that Stoltenberg has proposed, according to the news agency.
Stoltenberg does not comment directly on the report on internal disagreements, but says he will develop the proposals further in a close dialogue with the 30 member countries.
NATO makes decisions by consensus. This means that a country’s opposition can stop changes or decisions in NATO.
– NATO leaders commissioned me in 2019 to come up with proposals on how we can renew NATO. I have done it, I have put forward a lot of proposals on how we should handle China’s growth and the consequences for our security, and how we can strengthen our collective defense, Stoltenberg tells VG.
– I discussed the proposals with the defense ministers in February and will discuss them with the foreign ministers next week. When NATO leaders meet in Brussels later this year, I am sure they will agree on an ambitious plan, he adds.
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It will take the tempo of the ministers
On Tuesday morning, Stoltenberg presented NATO’s annual report for 2020. One of his points was that the health crisis has not turned into a security policy crisis. He also said that NATO’s ability to protect member states has remained strong during the year of the COVID-19 crisis.
But now international politics is beginning to shift from digital meeting places to physical encounters.
According to Stoltenberg, EU foreign ministers have already agreed to meet in Brussels on Monday and have announced that they will remain in Brussels to meet with their NATO colleagues.
– But there will be strict measures, in the form of great physical distance, tests and measurement of body temperature, as well as an order to wear a mask, he says.
