Special focus on Black Sea, Western Balkans at NATO Summit in Washington (NATO Deputy Secretary General)

The North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) summit starting July 9 in Washington, D.C., United States of America, is a historic summit and will put special emphasis on the Black Sea region and the Western Balkans, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana said on Monday evening.

"We are celebrating 75 years since the founding of our alliance, an alliance that has ensured peace, stability and security for member states in the past, present and future. It is rightly considered the most important and successful alliance in human history. So, a historic anniversary, but also a historic moment of unprecedented complexity. Indeed, Europe's security is being shaken by Russia's war against Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East remains very complicated, and in the Asia-Pacific region things are not as peaceful as we would like them to be. It is a time of great transformation and this summit in Washington, where our leaders will come together to make truly historic decisions, is trying to respond to the challenges as we have done throughout history. One - defense and deterrence on every square inch of Allied territory, including on the Eastern Flank, including here in Romania. There will be a special focus on the Black Sea, on the Western Balkans in general, on the challenges that the aggressiveness of the Russian Federation brings us and will continue to bring us," Mircea Geoana told private broadcaster Antena 3.

Other topics that will be addressed, according to the NATO Deputy Secretary General, are defense production and the "wise" use of defense funds.

"Times are complicated. We need a strong military, we need top quality national and collective security. We will also discuss what this means for the revival of the defense industry in Europe and, I hope in our country, in Romania, as well, because we have engineering potential, potential for well-paid jobs and it is good to be prepared to take advantage of this inflection point," he added.

Support for Ukraine, backing for the Republic of Moldova, "which is under an extremely vicious hybrid assault from the Russian Federation", and ways in which NATO countries will be able to counter Russian aggression are other topics of discussion.

"Russia has neither the potential nor the intention to attack us militarily, but it will use any kind of tool, from cyber attacks, disinformation, using and interfering in our elections, attacks against critical infrastructure of our alliance, so, an area of maximum attention to the growing aggressiveness of the Russian Federation," the NATO official emphasized.

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Mircea Geoana pointed out that the way European and global security will look for decades to come will depend on how the war in Ukraine will end.

As far as the Romanian Army is concerned, he said "there is still a lot to invest".

"We are on the right track and, as long as we have a political consensus in Romania, beyond the electoral cycles, beyond one president or another, beyond one government or minister or another, we will be able to give our army what it needs from us, what we need from them. We cannot leave it to others to defend us. We also need military power and the rebirth of the defense industry in Romania," Mircea Geoana added.

The North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) summit begins on July 9, 2024 in Washington, D.C., at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, where for three days (July 9-11) the leaders of the organization's member and partner states will discuss the most important issues on NATO's current agenda, marking the 75th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in a historic setting, according to https://www.nato.int.A