Brussels, 11 January 2023
NATO and the EU agreed to create a taskforce on resilience and critical infrastructure protection, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday (11 January 2023) in Brussels.
They were speaking ahead of discussions on security and defence at a retreat of the College of European Commissioners, where Mr Stoltenberg was the first NATO Secretary General to take part. He stressed that resilience and the protection of critical infrastructure are a key part of the joint work between NATO and the EU. He said that, in the wake of President Putin’s weaponising of energy and the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, the focus of the joint taskforce will be on making “our critical infrastructure, technology and supply chains more resilient to potential threats and to take action to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.”
The meeting took place one day after the signature of the third Joint Declaration on NATO-EU cooperation. The Secretary General said this partnership is more important than ever, because Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has fundamentally changed our security. He stressed that the fierce fighting around Bakhmut and Soledar showed the bravery of Ukrainian forces and the vital importance of stepping up military support to Ukraine. “At this key juncture in the war, we must do even more, even faster,” he said.
Source – NATO