The NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, said the efforts by Chancellor Merkel and President Hollande to find a peaceful solution to the Ukraine crisis are ‘important and urgent’. Mr Stoltenberg opened the Munich Security Conference on Friday (6 February 2015) with a keynote speech together with German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen and Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger. The Secretary General said there was no contradiction between defence and dialogue: “A strong NATO is essential if we are to engage Russia with confidence. A constructive NATO-Russia relationship would benefit the Euro-Atlantic community. And the entire international order. But international rules must be respected – not rewritten. And certainly not violated.
On the margins of the conference, the Secretary General will hold a range of bilateral meetings including with US Vice-president Joe Biden, US Senator John McCain, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani , Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
On Friday, the Secretary General held bilateral meetings to discuss current security challenges with the President of Slovenia Borut Pahor and the German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen. He also discussed developing NATO’s partnerships with the President of the Republic of Finland Sauli Niinistö and with the Prime Minister of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić.
Source: NATO
By
Karl William
Reporter Section NATO
News24.7WorldPress
