Both sides want to coordinate more closely on “increasing geostrategic competition” with powers such as Russia and China and on “protecting critical infrastructure”.
As a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, NATO and the European Union are striving for even closer cooperation. “As the threats and security challenges we face increase in scope and magnitude, we are taking our partnership to a new level,” they said in a joint statement. The new 14-point cooperation agreement is now the third between NATO and the EU.
The declaration will be signed on Tuesday, in Brussels, by the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the Council, Charles Michel, and is available to the AFP news. In “growing geostrategic competition” with powers such as Russia and China and in “critical infrastructure protection” in particular, both parties want closer coordination, as the text says. Closer cooperation is also needed in space, in the fight against climate change and “the manipulation of information and interference from abroad”.
In the statement, NATO and the EU once again called on Russia to end the war in Ukraine “immediately”. They also reaffirm their support for Ukraine. The US, France and Germany have recently pledged Western-designed Ukrainian infantry fighting vehicles for the first time.
Discussion on new sanctions package against Russia
In the EU, several member states are also pushing for a tenth package of sanctions against Russia, as the Swedish ambassador to the EU, Lars Danielsson, said in Brussels, whose country held the presidency of states in the first half of the year. Von der Leyen and Michel plan to discuss aid for Ukraine with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at a summit in Kyiv on Feb. 3.
NATO and the EU are already the closest partners. However, there are differing ideas about the role of the military alliance between EU states: French President Emmanuel Macron, in particular, is pushing for greater European autonomy from Washington after his “brain-dead” declarations. In Eastern Europe, on the other hand, the US is seen as a protective power against Russia.
The new cooperation agreement should have been signed about a year ago. However, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the text had to be fundamentally revised.
(APA/AFP)