The war in Ukraine has caused a "fundamental shift" in NATO's approach to defense, and member states will have to increase their military spending in an increasingly volatile world. Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of the alliance, stated this.
According to him, the upcoming summit will outline the plan for the alliance in a more dangerous and unpredictable world.
"So Russia has walked away from the partnership and the dialogue that NATO has tried to establish with Russia for many years. They have done so not least by the brutal invasion of Ukraine, a blatant violation, not only of international rule, but also of all the documents and agreements we have signed with Russia to try to establish a framework for a meaningful dialogue with Russia. So the meaningful dialogue we worked for so many years…that's not on the table, that's not working, simply because of Russia's behaviour. They have chosen confrontation instead of dialogue. We regret that, but of course then we need to respond to that reality. And that's exactly what we do with the fundamental shift in our deterrence and defence, and all the other measures we take, not least to provide support to Ukraine from NATO Allies and NATO," he said.
"Then of course, there is a need to still have lines of communications to prevent incidents and accidents. And also at some stage, hopefully, be able to engage in some kind of arms control efforts. But the dialogue and the partnership we strived for… we have to remember that, for instance, in the current Strategic Concept, agreed at the Lisbon Summit in 2010 - and I attended that Summit as the Prime Minister of Norway - at that time, President Medvedev of Russia participated in the meeting and we agreed in the Strategic Concept, which is still the current Strategic Concept, and we will have a new one later this week, we said that Russia is a strategic partner.
That will not be the case in the Strategic Concept we will agree in Madrid. I expect that Allies will state clearly that Russia poses a direct threat to our security, to our values, to the rules-based international order," he added.
