MenuPublished on Sep 12, 2014
Did last week’s Wales Summit reaffirm the bond between Europe and North America? As the Afghan government takes more responsibility for its own security, and the NATO operation in the country winds down, the countries in the Euro-Atlantic community are questioning how best to maintain strong capabilities and the seamlessness of interoperability defence. More regular military exercises are part of the answer. What are the other parts? Spending on defence is abysmally low, and even the Ukraine crisis seems to have provided an in insufficient jolt to stimulate much-needed increases. While solidarity amongst the Allies appears to have improved and the Latvian Parliament voted to increase its budget incrementally over a five year period, is it enough, and will other European NATO countries follow?
Speakers:
Raimonds Vējonis, Minister of Defence of Latvia
Ine Eriksen Søreide, Minister of Defence of Norway
James Appathurai, Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, NATO
Dr. Ariel Cohen, Visiting Fellow at The Heritage Foundation, the United States
Moderator: Prof. Julian Lindley-French, Senior Fellow, Institute of Statecraft, London