RUSI Hosts Foreign Secretary, Rt Hon Lord Cameron to mark NATO75 milestone
On Wednesday 3 April, RUSI Europe held a half-day conference at the British Residence in Brussels, coinciding with the first NATO Foreign Ministers meeting this year, ahead of the Washington Summit in July. The conference focussed on the new and emerging threats facing NATO as it marks its 75th anniversary.
Speakers and delegates considered the priorities for the Euro-Atlantic at the 2024 NATO Washington Summit. They also discussed the challenges of readdressing transatlantic burden-sharing, ensuring consistency in the Alliance’s approach to core threats, and continuing vital military and financial support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.
The conference also reflected on the current state of the conflict, the ways in which Russia’s military is working to adapt and recapitalise its forces, and how NATO should understand the increasingly dangerous and urgent threat which Russia poses to Euro-Atlantic security.
The conference’s two panels, chaired by RUSI Europe’s Executive Director Dr Jonathan Eyal and RUSI’s Director for Military Sciences Matthew Savill, heard from leading NATO and former NATO representatives, alongside RUSI experts, including:
- Ingrid Southworth, UK Deputy Permanent Representative to NATO
- Oana Lungescu, Distinguished Fellow, RUSI
- Ed Arnold, Senior Research Fellow, European Security, RUSI
- Major General Karl Ford CB CBE, Director of Defence Planning at NATO
- Brigadier (Ret’d) Robbie Boyd, Senior Associate Fellow, RUSI
- Natia Seskuria, Senior Associate Fellow, RUSI
- Gareth Williams, Deputy Director, Euro-Atlantic Security Policy Unit
Opening the conference, RUSI’s Vice-Chair and the former UK National Security Advisor, Lord Ricketts, GCMG GCVO said:
Rising defence spending in Europe must be sustained if it is going to be any use. The threat landscape in Europe has changed durably, and [regardless of] whoever is in the Oval Office next year, Europeans need to be showing that they are on a path to take on more of the burden of security in Europe than has been true in the past. NATO also needs to review its own collective defence in the light of what we've learned from watching the first drone-age war in Europe.
The Lord Ricketts GCMG GCVO
Vice-Chair
Closing the conference, the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, the Rt Hon Lord Cameron said:
Fundamentally, the greatness of NATO is it allows countries to choose their own future…and the sort of values they would follow. That is the argument I think we need to make today…that can help us win all over again the backing for NATO that it will need, as we ask our publics to fund and support defence budgets.
Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, The Rt Hon Lord Cameron
