Eurasia Press & News
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited the Pentagon in Washington D.C. on Monday (28 January 2019) for talks with Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick M. Shanahan. Calling US leadership “key” for the Alliance, the Secretary General highlighted the “real results” seen over the past few years, including higher readiness, stepping up in the fight against terrorism, and better burden-sharing. He recalled that since 2016, European Allies and Canada have spent an extra 41 billion US dollars in real terms, and that by 2020, this figure is expected to increase to $100 billion.
Ahead of next month’s meeting of Allied Defence Ministers in Brussels, Mr. Stoltenberg and Mr. Shanahan also exchanged views on a range of issues, including Russia’s violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, and the Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan. They agreed to continue working together to implement the decisions made at the NATO Summit in July 2018.
The implementation of summit decisions, as well as other issues related to Allied security, were also on the agenda of Mr. Stoltenberg’s meetings with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the National Security Advisor of the United States, Ambassador John R. Bolton.
