NATO and S. Korea strengthening shared security in a dangerous and competitive world

(The article has been contributed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg)

I am honoured to welcome President Yoon Suk Yeol to our NATO Summit in Madrid on 29 June, for his first overseas visit since taking office. This is the first time leaders from our four Indo-Pacific partners - Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea - will participate together in a NATO Summit. We will discuss ways to strengthen our cooperation, faced with the most serious security challenges in decades.

President Putin's brutal war on Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe and shaken the global order. The immediate aftershocks of Russia's aggression go far beyond Europe's borders, fueling inflation, and food and energy crises worldwide. Moscow's attempts to tear up the global rule-book and wipe a free and independent nation from the map pose a fundamental and lasting threat to our shared security.

I welcome the fact that Korea has joined the unprecedented sanctions NATO Allies have applied on President Putin's war efforts and regime, and is providing humanitarian support and non-lethal aid to help Ukraine prevail. We welcomed the Republic of Korea to the meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers earlier this year, where we discussed the global implications of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Beijing has joined Moscow's attempts to undermine the international rules-based order and its coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values. We face other growing and interconnected threats, from climate change, cyber-attacks, and disruptive technologies, to terrorism, instability, and nuclear proliferation. NATO is deeply concerned by North Korea's persistent, provocative, and destabilising behaviour, including its ballistic missile tests. We continue to monitor the situation closely with our partners in the region, and call on Pyongyang to comply fully with international law.

NATO has stood firm in the defence of freedom, democracy and the rule of law for more than 70 years. We fully support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations enshrined in the UN charter. At our transformative Summit in Madrid, we will continue to defend our shared values and security, by strengthening our support for our partners, while keeping NATO agile, alert and adapting.

We will agree NATO's next Strategic Concept, to reflect the radically changed security environment, marked by rising strategic competition, the renewed threat of conflict, and persistent instability. We will forge a new policy on Russia, craft common ground on the challenges posed by China, and significantly step up our deterrence and defence, to defend every inch of Allied territory against any threat.

NATO has a unique network of 40 partners across the globe. At the Summit, we will step up NATO's support to Ukraine through adopting a comprehensive assistance package, and increase our tailor-made support to other partners at risk of Russian interference to strengthen their resilience for the long-term. We will also enhance our cooperation with likeminded nations and organizations to defend our democratic values in the face of the authoritarian push-back against global rules.

Korea's participation in the Madrid Summit is a historic milestone in our bilateral relations and in NATO's wider relations with our Asia-Pacific partners. It demonstrates how our security is closely connected and the importance of sharing information on the common challenges the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions face. We may be oceans apart, but NATO and the Republic of Korea have a strong and long-standing partnership. The Republic of Korea was one of our first global partners to sign a tailor-made cooperation plan with NATO, in 2012. Over the last decade, our cooperation has grown from strength-to-strength.

We have stepped up our scientific cooperation, in areas ranging from counter-terrorism to chemical attacks. We worked together to combat piracy off the Horn of Africa and keep international waterways open and secure. The Republic of Korea made substantial contributions to NATO's mission in Afghanistan and in 2020 served as the Afghan National Army's Trust Fund's co-chair. As a leader in the development of many new technologies, I look forward to increasing our cooperation in the field of innovation.

Last year, as part of our ambitious NATO 2030 agenda, we pledged to strengthen relations with our Indo-Pacific partners even further. Earlier this year, as a result, we agreed an agenda for tackling shared security challenges. We are now translating this strong political will into practical cooperation in key areas, including cyber, new technologies, countering disinformation, maritime security, climate change, and resilience.

In this more dangerous and competitive world, we need close friends and strong partners more than ever. In 2017, I was honoured to visit Seoul as NATO Secretary General. What I said then is even more relevant now: the challenges of the 21st century are too complex for any one nation to face alone. Global challenges require a global response.

I look forward to deepening NATO's cooperation with the Republic of Korea, and with all our likeminded partners, to promote peace, protect our shared security, and send a clear message that violence and intimidation will not pay.

*The author has been serving as the 13th secretary general of NATO since 2014. He previously was the 34th prime minister of Norway.

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