Opening remarks by Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Philip M. Breedlove at the joint press point following the 174th Military Committee in Chiefs of Defence Session

Good Evening and thank you for joining us.  Thank you Petr.

As Gen. Pavel mentioned, our military leaders discussed several important topics during this session.

But I would like to look back for a moment.

Over the past two years, we have focused on rebuilding capacity, strengthening and increasing the speed of our responsiveness, and deepening national and collective resiliency to a wide range of threats.

As a result, we are better, stronger, faster, and more resilient. This contributes to a refocused Alliance that is addressing all challenges to its collective security.

We are more united by a shared understanding that there are no nations unchallenged by today’s threats and there is no substitute for success.

Our unity in the face of these challenges, our commitment of resources, and our prioritization of our efforts to meet these challenges has surprised those who challenge us.  We are not surprised, but our challengers are.

In moving forward, our military activity, posture, assistance, and cooperation will continue to be the formula for successfully strengthening and defending our Alliance.

We must remain focused on our Strategic Goal – Preserving our security system from those who would wish to overwhelm it and those who would wish to undermine it.

This is the foundation of tomorrow’s security.

With that, I will hand it over to my good friend Denis Mercier.

Source: NATO

By

L. J. De Rothschild

Senior Editor

NATO Section