NATO Foreign Ministers are meeting today (4 December 2018) to begin two days of talks on critical issues for the Alliance’s shared security. Ministers will discuss NATO’s cooperation with Georgia and Ukraine, transatlantic security, and the Alliance’s approach to the Middle East and North Africa. The Western Balkans and the security situation in Afghanistan will also be high on the agenda.

Doorstep statement by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg ahead of the meetings of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Brussels

So good morning.

Today and tomorrow, NATO’s Foreign Ministers will meet and address a wide range of issues of importance for our shared security.

We will address Russia destabilizing behaviour, we recently saw how Russia used military force against Ukrainian vessels and arrested the ships and the sailors and we call on Russia to immediately release the ships and the sailors.

We are also concerned about the new Russia missile system which puts the INF Treaty in jeopardy.

It’s urgent that Russia ensures full compliance in a transparent and verifiable way. Because the INF Treaty is so important for our security.

We will also discuss the challenges we see emanating from the South. Our partnerships, our work with different countries in North Africa and Middle East.

And also the training mission we have started in Iraq.

We will also discuss the Western Balkans.

And we welcome the progress that Skopje’s making moving towards full membership of NATO.

So this will be a meeting with a lot of substance and many important topics to be addressed.