Markus Preiss [Moderator] [Brussels Bureau Chief, ARD]: a warm welcome again to Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, a Brussels Forum regular.
Since the last Forum, a lot of things happened in NATO. We saw the withdrawal of US troops from Syria. We saw the announcement of the withdrawal of troops from Germany. We saw the interview by Emmanuel Macron, calling NATO ‘brain dead’. And today, the release of the book by a former US National Security Advisor, John Bolton, which touches a lot of questions, really, on questions related to NATO.
Stoltenberg: My message to President Trump has been, and was in that conversation, and also when the defence ministers met in Brussels, or met virtually, last week, is that US presence in Europe is good for NATO, it’s good for Europe, but it’s also good for the United States. Peace and stability in Europe is adding to the security of the United States. And we also have to remember that Europe, the US presence in Europe, is also about not only protecting Europe, but also projecting power of the United States beyond Europe, into the Middle East, into Africa. The Sixth Fleet has its bases . . . their base in Naples, in Italy. The US Africa Command, it’s not in Africa, it’s in Stuttgart in Germany. And we know that Ramstein and all these other bases in Europe, in Germany, they are important for the United States. Läs intervjun