Brussels, 22 January 2025
Also available in: French
NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska addressed the European Defence Agency (EDA) annual conference “New Horizons in EU Defence” in Brussels on Wednesday (22 January).
She praised the deepening partnership between NATO and the European Union (EU) over recent years and called on even closer cooperation. “At this dangerous time for our security, stepping up our cooperation is essential,” she said, underlining that EU defence is of “great importance to NATO, because it is inextricably linked to transatlantic security”.
Faced with growing strategic competition and destabilising campaigns against our security and way of life, increasing defence investment and boosting defence production are a priority to ensure countries in Europe stay safe, the Deputy Secretary General said. She welcomed the EU’s enhanced efforts to boost European defence industry, acquire much needed capabilities, and enhance resilience.
Moving forward, Ms Shekeinska stressed the importance for NATO and the EU to work hand in hand to avoid the duplication of efforts and to identify more opportunities to leverage each other’s unique expertise, tools and resources. She also encouraged the “fullest possible” involvement of non-EU Allies’ defence industries, which contribute essential technological know-how and provide urgently needed capabilities.
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Speech by NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska at the Annual Conference of the European Defence Agency (EDA) on the topic “New Horizons in EU Defence”
Brussels, 22 January 2025
(As delivered)
Good afternoon everyone, and thank you Chief Executive Jiri Šedivý – also for inviting me to take part in this Annual Conference of the European Defence Agency. It’s really an honour and a privilege to represent NATO here. It is also a great pleasure to be in this beautiful venue, and to join you in reflecting on the ‘new horizons in EU Defence’ – as is the theme of your conference this year.
EU defence is, of course, of great importance to Europe and to European security. But it is also of great importance to NATO, because it is really inextricably linked to transatlantic security.
As someone coming from North Macedonia – and therefore not an EU insider – you might wonder whether I am best placed to talk about NATO-EU cooperation.
But especially having in mind my national background, I do believe that my country shows precisely how important, how valuable and how beneficial could NATO and EU cooperation be.
As you heard from our Assistant Secretary General, Tarja, earlier today, NATO-EU cooperation has come a long way in recent years. Our close partnership is invaluable, not least when it comes to supporting Ukraine, rebuilding the transatlantic defence industrial base and boosting our resilience. So, on all these issues, NATO-EU, cooperation does play a very beneficial role, and these are just some examples. But our cooperation is really broad in nature, in dimension, in DNA almost.
Getting both organisations to work even more closely together is something that I will strive for in my job as NATO Deputy Secretary General. And this is why I am here with you today. To send this message and to say that this NATO-EU partnership is of great importance to Secretary General Mark Rutte. He is in regular contact with his counterparts across the EU institutions.
Just two days ago, he met with Commissioner Kubilius this week, and I heard that the Commissioner addressed this this morning, and also on the same day, the EU Commissioner briefed us at the North Atlantic Council, and we had really an excellent exchange of ideas between different Allies and the Commissioner. Also, just last week, the Secretary General and myself were engaged with a number of activities and an interaction with members of the European Parliament, this shows that the political dialogue between our two organizations is strong, and at this dangerous time for our security, stepping up our cooperation is essential, and this should be our joint goal.
This is becoming even more important as we are dealing with fierce competitors that are challenging both our security but also our way of life.
There’s Russia, which is clearly on a war footing.
And just this year, Russia plans to spend a third, a third of its national budget on defence – and this is really a record high. Its war industry is churning out weapons around the clock.
There’s also China, which is substantially building up its forces.
It is investing heavily in munition and disruptive technologies, and expanding its nuclear arsenal – no transparency, no limitations and no clear intentions.
Meanwhile, many other dangers still persist: from terrorism to nuclear proliferation but also climate change. We are witnessing more and more destabilisation campaign against countries in Europe, including cyber-attacks, acts of sabotage and disinformation.
So, with all this, with all this complicated security environment around us, NATO and the European Union have every reason to work even more closely together. Transatlantic cooperation makes us all stronger.
As a priority, we all need to invest more and better in defence, we need to accelerate production of essential defence capabilities.
NATO Allies have increased defence spending in recent years. So, two-thirds of all members of NATO are now spending at least 2% of GDP on defence. And this is definitely good news.
But the bad news is that 2% is not nearly enough anymore.
Allies will need to spend a lot more than 2% to rebuild our stocks, to get the necessary long-range weapons and air-defence systems, and integrate advanced technologies into our armed forces. We need all of that, and more, to stay safe in the years ahead.
The Secretary General will continue to engage with Allies on this in the run up to the next NATO Summit which will take place in The Hague at the end of June. And this is definitely one of his really big priorities, really important priorities for the Summit.
So, if the first thing was defence spending, the second, equally important aspect is defence production. We have some way to go to get the transatlantic defence industry up to speed. In certain areas it is still too small, too fragmented and too slow – especially in Europe. So, we are not yet where we need to be.
What is even more dangerous is that these things, if they don’t change, if we are not faster, if we are not better, if we don’t spend more and better, we risk lagging behind Russia.
Therefore, we need to do better. And we need to do it fast.
The EU is playing its part. You are redoubling efforts to increase European defence readiness, address military shortfalls and also enhance Europe’s defence industrial base.
At NATO, we really welcome these efforts. They are important for our shared security and they do contribute to better transatlantic responsibility-sharing.
Going forward, it is essential that we work in tandem – so a collaborate effort.
We must avoid duplicating existing structures and creating new barriers between Allies. It will only increase costs, complicate production and hamper innovation. That’s not in our interest, especially when Russia, China, North Korea and Iran are increasing their defence industrial cooperation to really unprecedented levels.
Instead, we need to better leverage each other’s strengths and each other’s expertise.
Non-EU Allied industry contributes essential technological know-how and industrial capacity for urgently needed defence capabilities. Their fullest possible involvement is essential for our security in Europe and across the Euro-Atlantic.
We also need to better leverage the tools we have in our respective organisations and bring together our combined resources. This is when we do much better.
In the area of defence capabilities, there are really good examples. One of them is the Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft fleet. The EDA, the agency that hosts us today, aggregated multinational demand and provided the legal framework. NATO procured and sustains the capabilities. As a result, we have really a world-class air-to-air refuelling, air transport and air medical evacuation capabilities.
These are the examples that we should need, we should use to move forward, because we can identify much more opportunities for these kinds of useful projects for all. This is why I will end my speech today by saying that we should continue. But we should also accelerate the good work that NATO and the European Union do together. This is what matters greatly for our future security.
Thank you very much for the opportunity and thank you very much for the attention.