NATO to Hold Meeting of Foreign Ministers on December 6-7

NATO is going to hold a meeting of foreign ministers on December 6-7 in order to discuss security challenges the bloc faces.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, alliance's Foreign Ministers will meet and address the most pressing security challenges we are facing and how we are responding.

He said that the ministerial meeting would focus on boosting NATO-EU cooperation, which is a key way to respond to deteriorating security environment.

“We have moved step by step, in a pragmatic way which benefits all our nations, and this week, I expect we will take a significant step forward: by endorsing a package of more than 40 measures to implement the Joint Declaration which I signed together with President Tusk and President Juncker in July in Warsaw,” Stoltenberg said.

The secretary general pointed out that the proposed measures were aimed at deepening EU-NATO cooperation in the spheres of hybrid and cyber threats, joint maritime operations and capability development.

“Tomorrow we will discuss the progress we’ve made in boosting the capacity of our neighbors to the east and to the south, including our support to the Counter-ISIL Coalition, our training of Iraqi officers, and our new Operation Sea Guardian in the Mediterranean,” Stoltenberg said.

On Wednesday, NATO foreign ministers will meet with their Afghan counterpart. The alliance’s ministers are going to reaffirm their commitment to support Afghan authorities’ efforts to ensure the country’s stability and to review reforms.

Stoltenberg also said that on Wednesday a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission would be held adding that the security situation in eastern Ukraine remained “extremely serious”.