President Iohannis: We must establish together what are the threats facing NATO

President Klaus Iohannis has stated after the high-level meeting of NATO, on Wednesday, that it must be established the threats facing NATO, as well as who are the opponents, how NATO relates to the new powers. 

"We must establish together what are the threats facing NATO, who are our opponents, how does NATO relate to the new powers - for instance, what will be NATO's approach regarding China. These are very legitimate questions and these matters should be clarified. How, for instance, we need to clarify how we approach international terrorism, how to approach theaters of war where NATO is not present as such, but our members are present. There must be a correlation between us and, if the mission is not expressly a NATO one, in order to avoid, for example, situations as they emerged in Syria," the head of state showed. 

According to him, the main conclusion following the meeting is that NATO is united. 

"We are united, NATO is strong and we go on together, without any any question. On this occasion, it was reiterated the importance of allocating resources, that "burden sharing" and the majority of the nations which haven't reached yet the 2 percent also took the firm commitment today to speed up the budget allocation procedure, so they too can reach 2 percent. Obviously, also discussed was the refection process or a process establishing some strategies for NATO. However, the discussions were very good and we decided together for such a reflection process to start, under the leadership of the Secretary General," the head of state said. 

The transatlantic relation "hasn't been questioned by anyone," Iohannis added, who underscored, along with many leaders, its importance, but showed that a reflection process is needed. 

When asked about the statement made by French President Emmanuel Macron who described NATO as "brain dead," Klaus Iohannis showed that the statement "shouldn't be taken as such." 

"It was a statement - President Macron also reiterated this thing - meant to shock a little bit, so as to initiate a reflection process. And we all agree that NATO is strong because the NATO members are democratic states. And the discussion is part of democracy. Without a discussion there cannot be a democracy and, in this way, I am convinced that it will further go very well," the President stated. 

The head of state mentioned that the presence of North Macedonia as the 30th member of NATO was welcomed within the NATO meeting. 

"Moreover, we also decided within NATO to endorse Albania in order to overcome more easily the aftermath of the earthquake," Iohannis also said.