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wait
i'm being told to wait
you can go ahead and get started we're
going to be talking to a few defense
defense ministers in just a few minutes
but before that
we want to give a little bit of a scene
setter about 20 minutes um so we're here
today to talk about
nato 2030 it's an ambitious agenda
that prepares nato to deal with the most
important security
challenges of the next 10 years so i'd
like to
kick off today's session by coming to
the audience
so if you could go ahead and take a look
at your slido app there's a question
that has been laid out for you
and that question is what do you think
what will be the primary challenge
facing nato in in the next 10 years so
go ahead and answer that question in
about one or two words and while you do
that
i'm going to uh introduce our fantastic
panel that we have with us today
first we have ambassador baiba braza
who's nato's assistant secretary general
for public diplomacy it's nice to see
you ambassador
we also have ambassador christophe
hoysgen who is a permanent
representative of germany to the united
nations
and with us from washington just a few
blocks from from where i live
is ms katrina mulligan who's the acting
vice president for national security and
international policy
at the center for american progress
katrina it is great to see you it's
great to see all of you and thank you
for being with us today
we could go ahead and go back to the the
slido questions so i can go ahead and
see
what the audience well that's very clear
we've got russia china cyber defense and
of course this comes on the heels
of the nato summit earlier this year or
earlier this week
so i'd go ahead i'd like to go ahead and
turn it to ambassador brija who is
coming to us from nato headquarters it's
been a big week
in brussels been a big week in europe
with the u.s eu summit but also the nato
summit
on june 14th so what is your view from
brussels ambassador braja and
how did the vision of nato 2030
specifically
factor into the summit outcomes from
earlier this week
thank you very much globesick for
inviting me and it's
it's great to be back even though this
time virtually in bratislava and next
time in person
promise the nato summit was indeed the
decision-making summit it was not just
the summit of managing differences
or or getting us together so the 30
leaders made an important package of
decisions
uh on nato 2030 initiative which is to
adopt
alliance for the future and when we
think back
the nato is indeed the adaptation
uh in in person uh when we remember 4849
when the alliance was established the
external
enemy was actually germany that was
considered at the time
so look at where we are now and we are
preparing for the future
indeed the the most important uh uh
sort of guiding principle framing
principle is that see allies recognize
that we are in the era of systemic
competition
and that requires a number of practical
practical steps so first to strengthen
international rules-based
order so work with partners like-minded
countries organizations to make sure
that what we agree
at internationally is actually observed
so and
nato has its role to play it's a
regional
political military alliance but of
course we have global partners
and we have values that we've been
founded upon so
its protection of our democracy is one
billion uh citizens
in the modern era so for that we need to
strengthen of course
defense and deterrence to have see the
adaptation also there
which means also not only the uh
hard power and and the hard capabilities
uh that that our militaries need but
also the resilience of all societies
including private sector including civil
societies including every citizen
but also of course adoption of the
emerging and disruptive technologies to
ensure that our
strong military and strong political
unity has the necessary technological
edge
to be able to work among themselves to
be
interoperable but also to be able to
resist
to all external threats whatever and
wherever they
come from and again for political unity
meaning the agility of understanding
what is happening externally what we
need to do internally
the consultations among the allies and
consultations with the closest partners
on
all issues of relevance and finally
again for the partners the enhanced
package for training
and not only training you know as as one
way but
the exchange the understanding and and
the real capability building
for them to address those challenges and
threats that
they require thank you so much
ambassador before we uh turn it over to
katrina mulligan
i'd like to take a look at the word
cloud one more time before before we
move on
so this is really interesting i don't
know that just a few years ago you would
have seen
china as a top answer here when we're
asking what the primary challenge
facing nato will be in the next 10 years
but it tees us up really nicely for our
next question and katrina i'm going to
go ahead and turn it to you
so there are three words that we hear a
lot of the time
when we are talking about today's
strategic landscape and those three
words
are great power competition and that
means nato doesn't have just one
strategic competitor around which all of
the allies can coalesce it means we now
have
two near-peer competitors both of which
for whom nato must have a strategy
so katrina turning it over to you and
ambassador hoisin i i'd ask you to to
jump on
jump in on this as well if you'd like
can nato
handle both russia and china and and
does it have the ability to do both at
the same time and should it well
i certainly hope so i certainly expect
them to
um you know china and russia pose very
different
challenges um for nato and and allied
countries
the the chinese communist party is
actively attempting to shape
the rules and norms of the international
system
and they're taking an increased
leadership role um
or they're trying to within the
international order the russian
government
is is more belligerent they are breaking
rather than shaping global norms and so
you really need to think about them both
um as authoritarian
uh countries that need to be tackled
together but but also
look at the individual um
goals and norms that they're trying to
shape and break
um and and tailor policy responses
accordingly
um on china i really think that nato
should recognize china as a clear threat
to the alliance
based on the word cloud it seems like uh
we're already
there or near there um
but that threat is both in the short
term but but much more so in the longer
term
um that we need to build resilience
short critical weaknesses
um among the allies particularly in
technology
uh and and other areas that the
chinese communist party can exploit on
russia
it's a bit of a different approach the
costs need to be clear and imposed
uh for its belligerent behavior and
gross violations of international law
um but one of the unique
attributes that we need to take into
account as we're formulating policy in
this area is that the china-russia
relationship
has really grown in recent years
including in diplomacy and defense
in economics and russia's strategic
reval
re-evaluation of its relationship with
china
resulted in part from the fallout with
the west as a result of its annexation
of crimea in 2014
and so what we're starting to see is
enhanced military cooperation
and shared political values that have
really driven the countries closer
beijing and moscow largely agree on the
role
of the sovereignty of the state of human
rights and the principle of
non-interference
um and those similarities are aiding in
their cooperation but there are
deep economic structural barriers that
stand in the way of further cooperation
and inner integration between these two
powers um
and russia is going to remain the junior
partner in that relationship
which is a position it doesn't relish
and so there are some real opportunities
i think for nato and allied countries
to unite around a strategy that would
at the strategic level recognize and
counter
beijing and moscow's efforts to fragment
the alliance
um and show and view them as
coordinating their efforts
um to challenge the global governance
system and curb u.s and western power
by considering them together but also as
individual challenges
i think the focus really ought to be on
china um
china is much more interested in russia
in having a stable working relationship
with the united states
albeit on china's terms and the us is
going to need to work better um
to understand the local dynamics within
the borders of its allies and partners
as they as they work through
um the china challenge um and then you
know
with with russia it's going to be really
curbing their
aggressive behavior yep
thank you katrina ambassador hoisin
would you like to jump in on the china
and russia challenge when it comes to
nato
yes happy happy to do so and then i
truly what katrina just said now
you you i don't know it was a mistake or
not you didn't invite the german nato
ambassador but you invited the german
u.n ambassador so
i'm not the nato specialist but i
see how this relationship with
china and russia plays out here here in
new york
and i can only subscribe to what
katrina said before we see
a very close cooperation between russia
and china
um and um within the security council
where he was a member of the last couple
of years um
you couldn't you couldn't you know when
it came to voting
they never parted from each other but
they have a different approach
russia is much more aggressive much more
belligerent that katrina said they
don't actually care about
being in a minority um and getting you
know
voted against them in large margins
china is much more subtle china is
actually trying to
reshape the
basis of the multilateral order and this
is
what i see as a as something very
dangerous and
this is you know when you look at the
basis of the un
this is a rules-based order this is a
order where
um individual human rights play an
important control versus declaration of
human rights is a basis of the internet
community and
china has a new narrative um not that
new but
china has a narrative that um the
the most important is the state the
society
and the national sovereignty and what
countries do within
their borders is up to them there is
nothing from the outside that
you you um intervene so this that you
intervene so we have it of course the
the case the most prominent is about the
uyghurs where we say you know this is
something
we have to engage and we have to protect
the individuals
you know one million people in detention
camps china says no this is none of your
business
um you know we have brought 300 million
chinese into
um into wealth and well-being and the 1
million have to pay price for this and
this is unacceptable we have to fight
for it we have to see
that the values that we stand for that
we stood for there was a basis for nato
for the u.n
that this continues to to work and
to come back um also do it
of course russia are much more
aggressive they invade ukraine they
undercut the chemical weapons convention
in
um in in syria they bomb hospitals china
is much
more more subtle um but
as as dangerous as as i said um
undercutting the values and this is
where we have to stand together
um nato has to stand together but um
with the eu have to have a a global
um a global community where we defend
our
our values and this is something that
has to be done at the u.n
but of course something where nato has
to be strong and
one more point for nato of course the
classical
defense we have to be ready um you know
for situations where
you have the the the aggressor um
trying to invade but um the much more
important i think is
at this stage the the hybrid warfare
what we saw here in the us right now
with this big pipeline or what we have
seen
starting in the early or the mid 2000s
with the
um with the cyber do you remember the
bronze soldier etc
um and what we see now in in in on a
very broad
range um attacks against parliaments um
oh the the also the the disinformation
campaign and all this this is
much broader and this is what nato has
to has to cope with
thank you and i failed to mention at the
beginning that if you have
questions you can type them onto the
slido app
and i i also mentioned that we only had
about 20 minutes so i can't promise that
we'll get to them
uh but if you if you have any please
please send them over and i'll try
um i'd like to pick up on something that
you said ambassador huyskin
to one element in the in yeah
you know nato is a as i said regional
organization it doesn't mean that nato
will conduct operations you know in
in the pacific uh even though china is
very clearly
uh reflected there is a new strong
language in in the communique
however again see today's threats are
completely different
they affect nato's nations nato citizens
our citizens
and of course it's our interest to be
united this transatlantic celebration of
unities that we had on the 14th of june
with president biden and with allies
completely united around these these
understanding of these new threats
in the same time of course also with
china china is rapidly expanding its
nuclear arsenal
its values is not in accordance with
washington treaty
it's its coercive behaviors ambassador
hoisgen said with its uh towards its own
population but also not only
not only towards its own also to other
countries
it all together as a package is is
something that was not there even in
2019
and you you would have seen in in london
communique that language was
quite different having said that of
course as with all countries also with
russia china nato is ready to talk
the dialogue is an important part of who
we are and
uh in that respect also with china china
has to be part of the solution on the
climate change
combat again we are serious about it and
also on quite a number of other
other issues so again we do
recognize it's a it's a challenge the
situation has changed it's systemic
competition but in the same times the
dialogue has to be there and we are open
for it
thank you i'd like to follow up on on
something that ambassador hoist
hoisin mentioned and and you have
mentioned as well um
uh resilience it's an important topic
at nato especially as the alliance deals
increasingly
with these sub-article five level
threats
we've seen you know in september this
year uh the united states will mark one
of the greatest black swan events in our
history september 11th we're just
also coming out of the throes of a
global pandemic so how is nato thinking
about
black swan events and and do you think
there's anything that nato has
overlooked when thinking about them
ambassador raja i'll come to you
uh and can treat katrina and ambassador
hoisin if you'd like to jump in as well
on that
yeah thanks very much for this for this
important question that's what nato is
basically
about we are that's why we are investing
in
in uh adaptation and and forecasting the
future and scenarios
our exercises our whole planning is very
much around it
and i'm pleased to say that actually the
investment has paid back
and and uh again there are issues i
can't talk about very openly here in an
open format
but certainly awareness agility and
ability to respond
for nato is there on cyber obviously
it's more with the nations themselves
even though nato has clearly said that
cyber's operational domain it's played
out in all exercises clearly
understanding that
there's not going to be just a military
type of operation only it will always
come together with all the hybrids
and and in that respect also with cyber
the nations have shown that they can
respond
uh with very concrete measures so the
discussion currently is actually on
response measures and
and uh how to proceed that and again
that's for the
very much around the 30 allies where we
are now thank you ambassador hoiskin to
you and katrina we have about
two or three minutes left
what is very important is that um yes
we have to look at all the challenges um
that we face with the hybrid dwarf
prayer with disinformation campaigns et
cetera we have to do that
on a national level nations are
asked to fight it but i think nato can
do a lot by
coordinating by
together um these are attacks um where
we are all confronted with and and nato
is best placed to
to to really cooperate and see that we
are we are
resilient these are many questions um
this is from
you know energy um transportation
um food and water resources
and um communication systems
there are a lot of things and we just
also have to raise awareness in
in our population and this cannot be
done by
governments alone civil society and
private sector have
all to work to work together thank you
katrina we're right out of time so
briefly thank you
the only thing i would add is that you
know as we look over the horizon we need
to be paying attention to the
investments that the chinese are making
in
european infrastructure which include
things like shipping terminals and
utilities and telecom
networks um you know going forward
looking into the future one of the
things that china's going to have the
ability to do
is potentially weaponize those
investments
in order to frustrate limit or prevent
the us or allied
use of that infrastructure which could
cause its own black swan event in the
future
perfect that's a great note to end on
this was an excellent scene setter we
are going to come up
just right now with the panel of defense
minister so please don't move
and thank you again to our panelists
looking forward to the next panel thank
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you
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thank you so much to rachel and our last
panelist
and thanks to globesec for bringing us
all together for this conversation
and by demonstrating resilience by being
one of the first security fora to open
up
since the pandemic or as the pandemic is
hopefully
waning with a formidable covered testing
site
outside you can't get in here without
passing through that
so before i introduce our esteemed panel
i would like to put that last question
that the last panel dealt with to the
audience
through slido i'd like to ask all of you
as you
find it in your globesec app what is the
next black swan event
that you think nato will have to deal
with
so while you think about that i will
introduce with us
we have the honorable yaroslav nadya the
minister of defense
of the slovak republic
the honorable ramila sekarenska deputy
prime minister and minister of defense
of the republic of north macedonia
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and joining us from vancouver at the
early hour of about
oh for almost 4 30 in the morning
is the honorable harjit singh sajan the
minister of national defense of canada
we appreciate you beating the sun coming
up at 506
in vancouver to be with us so let's see
do we have um has anyone voted on the
slido app
i'm waiting i'm looking let's see we've
got some answers here
turkey blocking nato decision making we
had that long conversation behind closed
doors with turkey on monday which
might have been a little bit of that uh
climate migration
um as uh one of the panelists has said
in the last three days
of discussion we could see up to 150
million people
on the move due to instability from the
climate change
artificial intelligence um if if
anyone saw war games
we also have again climate change so
that's a good jumping off point i'd like
to now turn
to our panelists and let me start with
our host
uh minister nadia so what do you think
could be the next black swan uh you your
parliament just um
passed your new national defense and
security strategy
is there anything in there that is
looking ahead to
um what what you're seeing in your
crystal ball
thank you very much uh first of all let
me start with the expression my
gratitude to my friends from klopsek for
outstanding conference again this year
and uh you know honestly saying
i used to work for them and uh i need to
say that i believe that it was the the
most uh
difficult and tough job that i have ever
had to work alongside robert and milan
until the moment tonight when i became
the defense minister and i said okay
this is more difficult but
yesterday as you can see on my face uh i
learned the lesson that even playing
soccer might be very difficult so
nevertheless uh congress guys for
excellent job this year again thank you
yes uh honestly uh it's difficult to
have a crystal ball but we try to
to find a reflection of current world
together with ivan korchok my my uh very
close friend and colleague minister of
foreign affairs and we try to
to write two documents uh security and
then defense strategies uh
we renewed these documents actually
after 15 years
and uh i believe that we were uh
successful enough in order to to reflect
the the current reality
uh yes there are some issues that are uh
closer to us or we we consider it to be
a more difficult uh challenges that are
in front of us
including obviously situation with
russia including uh
cyber security and then there are issues
that we believe to be very important
uh but uh still you know you have some
priorities but you know things like
climate change uh things like uh
uh situation in arctics uh see things
like uh
uh ecology and uh impacts of arm forces
on ecology uh this is something that we
certainly have to bear in mind and we
need to be focused so we must be focused
uh
on even though uh still
you do priorities and and you do uh what
uh
you you can you what you can pay for
on what your money would you have money
and also uh
what the political situation uh uh
wants from you and they taking this into
account i can say that
yes uh security strategies that we have
uh
together with the money that we spend on
defense is something that uh that might
be uh useful and help us
but if you have uh strategies and you
don't have money i think somebody at
nato summit said that you know if you
have strategies and you don't have money
then it's a hallucination it's not uh
something that
uh that you can do and uh none of us i
believe
uh none of three of us would like to
would like to
do hello senators we would like to do a
real work and i believe
that uh even after this summit in in
brussels uh
we have a we have a path we want to
follow and i think we can manage
so just to put to read between the lines
and kind of put words in your mouth
you're saying that russia is the most
likely origin of the next black swan
and i assume you mean something along
the lines of crimea
not just stopping a plane in the middle
of
european airspace obviously it's not
only about crimea and it's not not only
about the eastern uh or southeastern
part of ukraine but it's also about
reality that we live in every day
here on our soil here in slovakia you
know having uh
hybrid operations very active uh
including cyber uh area but including
also intelligence services being
deployed
uh including uh uh
obviously misuse of of media uh
propaganda fake news you know these
things we focus on and uh
honestly saying and i'm very friendly
and open here especially here on globsex
oil
uh people here in slovakia know very
well that uh we have decided to
send uh six russian uh intelligence
officers with the uh uh
with the cover of diplomats uh back home
from slovakia over the last 12 months uh
you know this is reality we live in and
uh
and this government for sure in slovakia
is very focused on
uh showing to everyone that this is not
a playground
thank you i'd like to go next to
the north macedonian deputy prime
minister um
minister sacranska you represent the
youngest member of nato
and i've heard from some of your
neighbors
um some who are not yet under the nato
umbrella
that they really envy that you now have
article 5
protection do you think other nato
members
who might be dragging their feet on
adding these new countries in
do they understand how it feels for your
people
the fear well thank you uh
globsec for trying to get us more into
what we considered the normal
uh it's it's difficult with masks and
everything but it's much better than
than the year the last year that we
remember um
well thank you actually very much for
the question uh
we have been striving to become a nato
member for 30 years this was the first
time actually
that our parliament expressed the
interest to join nato
and just as we were moving closer i was
amazed especially in the last few years
how many people within the family
take the family and the values
and article 5 for granted and
and they have learned to become a bit
complacent
and i i would always ask them to look
uh towards the alliance uh through the
eyes of an outsider
and to try and appreciate more what they
have so
uh for after almost 30 years of working
very hard to get into the alliance it
was a major victory
it did happen in the midst of the corona
crisis so there was no
celebratory mode in in the country
uh but to have article five
uh and to have membership in
the strongest military and political
alliance in the world
20 years after having nato troops within
the country
first to help us deal with our own
internal problems and
some of the regional instabilities it's
a major transformation
and this is why i think even during the
discussions at the summit
i think we were among the more
optimistic tones
because uh i do remember the times when
we were
uh just waiting for the entry uh
and waiting probably for the entry in
the worst possible moment for the
alliance because back in 2018 when we
got the invitation
many people started asking me how come
you want to get into the alliance and
you know we have fears whether the
alliance will survive
things have changed and i think that the
the
the summit uh showed incredible
uh display of uh not only unity
but awareness of how strategic
the importance of the alliance is and it
was a music to our ears
following up on that do you think the
black swan
could be an entry of russian troops into
ukraine instead of just building up on
the border
would would nato respond would you push
for nato to respond
uh if there is one lesson bad lesson
that we
we we learned expect the unexpected and
uh i when you when i heard you mention
again black swan
i i almost had the idea that some of the
things that happened
back home exactly three years ago
we signed the presby agreement with
greece for many people it was the black
swan
not in terms of of the negative
repercussions of course in terms of
surprise
it was we got used to the dispute with
greece
nobody expected a breakthrough uh nobody
expected follow-up
many people who saw us sign the
agreement with greece i said
okay there is goodwill between the two
governments
but it will never work and thirdly and i
think that this was the big surprise
it was an utterly homemade i would say
balkan made
compromise friends helped with strong
support with strong messages
but genuinely it was the political will
of the two governments
to make a meaningful u-turn and
and this is how we became a nato member
state and
this is why uh i think that when we talk
about black swan events
we should also try to challenge us
sometimes to do
braver things especially politicians
doing something brave
means doing something risky but it's
it's what we are elected to do we are
elected to challenge the status quo
every time we can encounter a problem
and
uh especially when it comes to nato uh
article five is not the only element of
the alliance
we have talked a lot about values but
it's
an elementary part although when i look
at the
the screen uh with the small poll that
we did here
you see the big russia sign you see
relatively big china
but if you combine several other things
that have appeared
on on the on the screen you will see
resilience
you will see uh lost confidence you will
see
vulnerabilities within our own societies
i think that the real black swan
which shouldn't be actually a surprise
to us all
is are the weaknesses of our our
internal democratic structures if we
don't fail
them we won't fail
when crisis calls upon us thank you
and by the way that's obviously a huge
portfolio and i i realize
defense minister and scott i aired in
trying to add
to your already burgeoning portfolio by
also making you a deputy prime minister
so moving on over to vancouver
um minister you have waited patiently
i i know that within your portfolio is
also
uh canada's cryptologic intelligence
agency the communication security
establishment or cse
a la gchq and nsa um
is your black swan possibly related to
that
um no thank you very much uh again for
the question and thank
globetsek for inviting me once again and
alongside my esteemed colleagues
it's great to be uh virtually connected
with you from vancouver
when it comes to a black swan event i
think it's
we look at what is the likelihood of
something to take place
and for example there's climate change
there's many other events that we have
seen in terms of when we
when we talk about russia their uh uh
illegal annexation of crimea what's
happening in the donbass area
uh of ukraine russia's already set a
pattern
so i don't really consider that a black
swan i see that a
pattern and then our actions will
counter that pattern
when i look at black swan events um i do
look at
the cybersphere and i'm very concerned
uh with this
it's not just about cyber attacks and
we've seen
what can happen to democracies when
cyber attacks
are incorporated within a hybrid warfare
context
now when you take things to the next
level which is probably my biggest
concerns
uh in terms of black swan events is when
you
incorporate artificial intelligence the
progress of algorithms have
increased significantly nation states
have already
understood the importance of the
collection of data because as you know
artificial intelligence or or out
good algorithms um cannot work unless
you have significant amount of data
so when you combine those two uh it
gives a significant concern because it
allows
states that who have underlying
uh reasons to take things to the next
level where they may not be
able to get away uh because it would
increase the threshold
of response from other nations the cyber
world
allows you to do things that uh
may not get us enough attention so as um
as i guess from the the previous panel
talked about
uh infrastructure that is being created
around the world we need to be
very mindful of what type of
infrastructure
who is building it does it have that
cyber resiliency
because the last thing you want is all
of a sudden in your nation
that uh uh
something to take place that that
uh with an on and off switch is in in a
different country
we have already seen organized crime
use uh ransomware and hold
multi-million or million dollar
companies to account or even a billion
dollar companies
to account so this is something that we
need to be very mindful and get ready
for
um but something that nato and and it's
uh uh
all the respective nations are taking it
very seriously and bringing our
collective experience together
to making sure that we build not only
look at it from a defense perspective
but look at it as
a building resiliency in your own
nations as well
well i want to move on to the headlines
and and pick up with what minister
sergeant was just talking about
in the nato communique in the the stated
goals of nato
do you think there was enough in there
to dissuade
russia or other malign cyber actors
um from conducting continuing activities
was there enough teeth in there
um one i would say yes
we when it comes to words that
uh we put out as nations and especially
as part of nato
uh words do matter at that level
obviously and what we don't want to do
is escalate
any type of tension but having said this
those words have significant meaning
because those words are backed up by the
30 nations and the resources and the
people
within those nations and i can assure
you from a canadian perspective
we have significant talent to be able to
contribute
so as we build our own uh
not build but enhance our capabilities
went into the cyber world artificial
intelligence and we have significant
uh experience um let's go to the next
level uh when it comes to quantum
computing
uh we have that uh investment but we
also
have now the collective will the
collective
resources the con the collective i want
to talk about resource not
just dollars i'm talking about people
that's
what is needed to making sure that we
take things to the new level
the institutions and and i think no
nation
should uh that wants to
create attention should ever
take that as that their the will is not
there so we will
we want to prevent conflict we need to
get into a place
where we're actually de-escalating but
uh
but as nato's role is to making sure
that we prevent so those words do have
significant teeth i can assure you so
you're talking about
following through with the rattling of
the saber having a real concrete
threat of response so to bring it back
in the room here
president biden told vladimir putin this
week that if there was
a continuing cyber campaign another
solar winds campaign for instance
that he would respond with cyber weapons
uh should nato be issuing similar
threats
if you're asking me uh you know
we've been we've been saying this uh for
a decade already that it's very
difficult to
uh respond uh to adversary
uh while you're limited by law you're
limited by a legal system
and you want to obey you want to obey
and you you act in line with law
uh yes uh harjit already mentioned that
we are capable
we are capable of doing certain things
that you wouldn't even be
you wouldn't be uh it wouldn't be
possible for you to imagine
uh but we don't do that because we are
limited because we are limited by the
law but if somebody is still pushing
hard
and more and more on you then you need
to act
and we need to be you know we need to
face this new situation and uh
and act with adequate way uh you know
the recent situation with
the pipelines in the united states you
know this is something even i think that
president biden already mentioned that
this is the red line you don't do that
russia wouldn't be happy if
if we all focus on pipelines that they
have
this is critical infrastructure and uh
you know
if you allow various actors to state or
non-stand
state but actors from your country to to
to focus and to attack uh the critical
infrastructure
then you need to simply wait for
reaction that's reality
and we are capable the united states is
capable canada is capable and many of us
we're capable also not only on cyber
defense but also on cyber attack
do we want to do that well uh you know
if necessary
uh we should uh really uh
uh consider all options
yet whenever i hear about cyber defense
and especially cyber offense
i hear top security officials say you
know the norms aren't clear
we haven't decided what would trigger
a cyber offensive attack minister
sacransko
what would you think is the threshold
after which um is it disinformation
is it interfering in a a nato country's
elections
or is it critical infrastructure
well if we are open we'll say that all
these three lines
have been crossed already and we have
seen the price
and we have seen how disruptive they
they are
and this is why in my view uh the
scenarios
for a cyber offensive have to be
developed
we all hope that the words will be
enough
we all hope that the message will be
sent
out loud and clear and will be
understood properly
but we also have to prepare for
different scenarios
and in my mind this is why the summit
was so important
the reliability of our alliance
is key in the deterrence are we for real
when we say that actions have their
consequences
are we you know dedicated to article 5
even in this uh
more general form of attacking critical
infrastructure
or attacking our basic tenants of life
like
election process you don't need to
conquer a country
you just destroy the confidence in their
electoral process and you have done most
of the work
this is why in my view one of the
elements that were mentioned in the
summit and around the summit
was the importance of technology and
maintaining the technological edge of
the alliance
it's not just having the technological
means
it's also shaping the technological
regulation
and i think it was president biden who
actually said it before the summit
that the the use and the regulation for
for new technologies have to be dictated
by
our values and not by the interest of
autocratic regimes
i think this is uh practically the new
international order for 21st century
how do we regulate them and how do we
use
our maybe backdated international
rules order in this new environment
uh it's it's uh technological
development
it's uh globalization it's climate
change all these forces
are shaping our world at an
unprecedented
pace and they are a potential for
groups of people that can save the world
but they are a potential
for groups of within the world that can
destroy it uh who will be faster
will prevail well that brings me to
um a frequent mantra of uh general ben
hodges who's now retired but he used to
say the only way
nato is going to succeed is through
speed of recognition
of the problem speed of decision about
what to do about it
and then speed of assembly which uh we
all know is rather difficult
to get from point a to point b across
several european countries because of
things like
roads not being able to take the weight
of the tanks or
different rail gauges etc
but but on that speed of decision
how hard do you think it would be to get
30 countries just
to decide to cyber hack back
against russia and would you call for it
here
well you know whether i i used to work
for our delegation to nato and uh
and have been very open uh sometimes
it was frustrating uh to to be a member
of the committee and
uh to negotiate and negotiate and
negotiate
uh still with one or or two countries
that don't you know
follow uh the majority of countries
around the table
in certain things just because of
national interest
yeah it's not easy uh the question is
whether we should uh
lift up you know the consensus policy uh
you know in defense planning we have
consensus minus one policy and it worked
quite well
uh yeah but it's still alliance right
and you know alliance one one of the
biggest
uh advantages that it's uh consensus
based
uh so yeah it's it's a difficult issue
but yes
uh there were some situations in the
history of nato when
uh the agreement uh even did not come
uh or uh it took very long time
uh so but as you know i still believe
that you know
in situations like uh article five
situations when the
the situation is really uh difficult and
under pressure then i believe that all
countries
would eventually come to a joint
solution and i don't think that if
the situation is really crucial and
difficult then that that did we would
wait for somebody else trying to
push hard for their national interest
and and blackmail others with
their you know national interests uh uh
instead of uh playing the same the same
game with with the others so
uh i don't think this will be a big
problem but yes some
uh some uh bigger or
high quality uh decision making in nato
uh
is a very uh good uh topic for the next
conference
fantastic okay so we have a little over
half an hour left
but before i turn to audience questions
and we've already got some great ones
coming in um
i'll also call on you in the room um i i
did want to talk about
um the uh as our
north macedonian minister has mentioned
technology um
i got the honor of being part of
globe sex outreach to industry on behalf
of nato
where they put members of industry on
chatham house rules panels together
with nato officials and i got the most
unusual instruction i've ever gotten as
a moderator
they said we want people to be blunt we
want
criticism and because it was chatham
house rules i can't tell you what the
criticism was but
but the the industry officials were
blunt um
and uh
one of the things that we all know is a
problem is
speed of implementation and nato's
acquisition program
which um has been described to me as
uh so outdated that often the adversary
is already working on the
third iteration of the nato design by
the time it rolls off the nato assembly
line
so so um i'd like to start with our
canadian uh colleague uh
nato also announced on monday an
accelerator
for industry and new funding for
industry to kind of
try to jump start this process you have
something similar in canada
is it is it a model nato could follow
because it sounds like what they
outlined monday was very
um fluffy not a lot of detail yet
i i think uh one is also to your
previous questions when it comes to
nato and we look at nato consensus and
the work that you do
and it seems cumbersome but these are
the values that are very important
that uh uh that gives us that deterrence
is you have 30 nations who are coming
together
and when they do come together to make
that decision on consensus
it means something but let's not forget
we also
not only as as as as nations but
we work bilaterally uh we on security
issues
there's so many things that are
happening with within the nato context
even though it might be bilateral that
it it
those those initiatives enhance
nato as well so when it comes to
uh innovation this is something that we
took very seriously
and actually had that direct
conversation with the industry when we
created
our defense policy because we knew that
we
in the uh in the military could not
succeed without
uh without industry so we asked them
blunt questions
what what where are we failing what do
we need to do and they were very blunt
and they said we it's easier to work
outside of canada than inside canada so
we wanted to change that
so we started to look at changing
procurement rules we they also said we
don't know
what you're working towards it's all
something so classified
we need predictability so what we did
was one was give greater predictability
and so we put out
not only our defense policy but a
defense investment plan out for 10 years
and we updated every uh three to four
years so they get predictability
but through that from the innovation
side what we wanted to do is
we throw challenges so what we a program
we call ideas innovation for defense
excellence and security
throw out challenges um not just to
industry to academia to anybody
working even in a garage if they have an
idea is here's a challenge that we have
and and they will propose ideas
they will compete with those ideas will
be competed and
it what it goes through a panel and then
we invest
in that idea if that idea shows progress
we will invest greater
uh greater resources and money and then
this helps whether it's a company an
individual academia
take their idea to a new level but we
get to be the benefactor
beneficiary of utilizing it so at the
same time
as canada benefits our nato allies
benefit
uh as well so um so
so in a roundabout way we're all
benefiting together having said this
yes absolutely we need to be able to
share our ideas and this is something
that has worked very well
and we're actually already modifying
things because we have classified things
so often
that sometimes the civilian sector has
already solved that problem
so what i've said to our innovation
folks is get out there
see what what the industry is doing
sometimes
a little tweak here and there with a
product can be of great value
um to us so but we don't just look at it
from a defense from a cyber
or or weapons or defensive weapons we're
also looking at how we manage our people
as well
how we have dealt with the pandemic um
so it has been
very successful um and where we've been
for example invested 1.6 million dollars
over the 20-year lifespan of our defense
policy
just in the ideas program minister
sergeant is there anything like a
specific
product that you've been able to almost
bring to market through this process
um there's many things uh uh that we've
done so for example
um how we uh recreate uh recruit
um uh in greater diversity recruiting a
woman but we also
um uh for example during this pandemic
how
um a certain pro reusable
uh ppe we're also have um
you know smaller challenges and how for
example with people with uh with beards
uh in the military how do you how do you
put a
respirator on we're also looking at
everything from in the cyber domain
so there's many different examples that
can be uh that
that i can utilize and we've
uh have many products that are moving
but probably the most
the beneficial side that i have seen is
that collaboration
that that has taken place those networks
that are creating
because one uh product over here or
discussion
may lead to um other ideas and and what
i've said is this
is putting finding that right talent is
probably the more
even far more important than the one
product it's itself
and we're working very closely with the
us obviously when it comes to the arctic
on what type of uh security challenges
that we see you see
in the north and uh we want to be able
to share a lot of that experience
with with our nato allies as well thank
you
um with that i would like to turn to the
audience i already
gave you a heads up we'd be turning to
questions and we've got some good ones
coming in
but i would like to do to pulse you with
a word cloud
through your slido app and
ask you all what you see it as the
top obstacle to nato modernization and
interoperability
picking up on what mr minister sajin was
just talking about
and as you all think about that i see
some people picking up their apps
i will go to one of the first questions
oh actually i should wait until
i should i should let the the screen
populate a little bit more
i'm rushing people's thought process
consensus
huh the defense industry
ah as an obstacle um
we'll have to have some conversations
over the uh that end lunch about that
um private sector leading that could be
um well one of the complaints i
frequently hear from the defense
industry is
uh they are brought into the process too
late in the game
and then are told to like basically we
need you to produce a solution overnight
and of course classification issues are
part of the problem
as mr sergeant also mentioned
bureaucracy is the one
that is coming up the most so the system
that is supposed to help us
is slowing us down wow a lot lot for
defense industry
sorry guys um north south infrastructure
that's something that we have also heard
about you know
russia was able to get all of its troops
um to where it intended very quickly
during its recent zapad exercises
whereas i understand that nato had some
people that took
days if not weeks to get there because
some of their equipment wouldn't fit on
the right trains or certain trains can
only take
military cargo overnight et cetera et
cetera
so let me turn to a question from
uh matu slovaki from moody's data shows
increased
activity of chinese state-owned
companies buying intellectual property
how can you avoid hegemony of some vital
aspects
things like 5g and quantum computing
so so that's that's some something i i
heard debated a lot in nsa and gchq
circles
people don't understand they would say
that
china is buying their way into your
systems
minister would you like to take that one
oh
well on on 5g we have been rather
bold lately uh based on some
negative experiences uh back home in
north macedonia but also
in the region we have signed a
memorandum of understanding with the u.s
uh saying that we will be very
restrictive
on on technology coming from countries
where there is no democratic control
and there are vested and hidden
interests
it's a document that can be signed but
implementation
lags behind because it requires a lot of
procedural things
and what we have been focusing lately is
of course the discussion about
strategic investments and screening of
strategic investors
we have had some experience with chinese
loans on infrastructure
not as bad as some of the other
countries in the balkans
but we are still waiting for one of the
very expensive highways to be
to be constructed but we saw this as an
element of vulnerability
uh not because infrastructure is only
important for defense as you said
but because it it it undermines the
institutions
so uh i do believe that what we can work
with
is a much better cooperation within nato
on discussing our own internal
regulations
i'm sometimes shocked when you know a
conversation between two ministers can
touch a very sensitive thing on how do
we do
these procurements better how do we
protect ourselves
in these sensitive areas better and
sometimes a 15-minute discussion
actually can be more helpful to us as
ministers
than long discussions and long documents
that haven't
led us anywhere so in my view uh
uh on on mobility it's a shame
that we cannot do better uh we have been
discussing this issue
uh there were movements but because of
national regulations and because
we are used to things moving slowly on
these fronts
uh i think that we are lagging behind we
are dealing with strategic adversary in
countries where
institutions uh private sector and
academia
work under the same umbrella all the
time
and we cannot afford a relaxed
relationship and i think we should go
back to the basis and discuss
some of the our experiences with
regulation
and reconsider some of them i saw the
bureaucracy
looming from the screen but we are
victims of our own successes
i mean the whole procurement uh policy
has been developed
on the premises of transparency
competition and it has brought huge
dividends
now you know there are some costs
attached to it so we should
look at these issues with a fresh set of
eyes and i think that we can we should
reconsider some of these things
uh a discussion with industry is great
but you know uh defense is about huge
acquisitions
huge amounts of money if you talk to the
industry sometimes you are attacked
for liaising with them or or having
vested interest
so how do you go around this maintaining
the confidence of our citizens
while making these procurements
realistic
goals and making them successful i don't
think
it's not an easy equation but i think
that some of the countries were more
successful
in dealing with them and i think eve you
know new countries especially but even
some of the old member states
should not shy away from uh you know
maybe
reassessing the policies thank you um if
anyone in the room would like to stand
up and ask a question raise your hand so
i can um
spot you um but in the meantime i have a
question
um oh uh mister you wanted to add
yeah i just wanted to add a few things
on the three points that were raised
here first of all uh
yeah if you would be asking me on ops on
the biggest obstacle
uh then it's definitely and i and i had
it written
before it appeared on the screen a legal
uh regulation
in public procurement i mean uh
at a certain period of time you you have
to acquire something uh
uh really fast and especially with the
covet situation for example
this is the lesson that we learned uh a
year ago
and uh it took us a very long time in
order to follow all the regulations uh
and realize that actually uh this is
this is a
legal regulation for good times but for
bad times uh you need something else and
i honestly saying now
we had a ballot discussion with my uh
dear colleague
ramila and uh we actually had very
similar positions in terms of
how we can uh fasten the whole process
uh make it uh
make it really fast including things
like nato
supplies and procurement agency that
that works quite well for slovakia for
example
or uh american system foreign military
sales or
for military fund or canadian uh
hardship good
good thing is also your ccc system that
you have uh
for procurement uh on bilateral gtg
basis this is something that we
should use more and you know while
talking about this i also
also mentioned the cooperation with the
private sector which is extremely
crucially important because you know
usually we are users we would like to
have a certain uh capability but
it's actually usually uh the private
sector that comes with solutions
uh and you know i i i'm the one who
is not you know afraid of meeting uh
companies
because for us for defence ministers it
is extremely important to talk to
state sector ngo academia and the
private sector if you want to
if you want to be responsible for whole
defense then the defense sector is
defense industry
it's uh extremely important and last
point on 5g
uh yes very similar to torad mila's
point we have also signed the memorandum
of united states on on
you know being very responsible in 5g
but you know being honest uh
the pressure economic pressure that
comes from countries that uh
might create difficulties for us in 5g
uh
area this economic pressure the
financial pressure is extreme
and it's sometimes it's uh yes it's the
discussion about uh
values about security but it's also
discussion
on the cabinet level about uh labor
about money
about investments and uh this discussion
is not black and white
obviously so you know security on one
side
but new jobs for uh undeveloped areas in
slovakia on other side right
and you need to you need to find a
proper proper balance
before i go to another app question i i
would like to ask
minister sajon i you um especially with
your
um oversight over cse you must
understand
better than most what technical
capabilities
various cyber actors have um including
china
can you a lot of europeans uh nato
members
apparently pushed back behind closed
doors at the nato summit
and basically said to the white house uh
to president biden
you have this jingoistic fight going on
against
china and you want us to cut them off
but they're one of the world's largest
um
manufacturers we can't do that
can you can you come in as a as a
kind of the neutral actor to explain
the threat of china without people
dismissing it
as you know a fight between um
[Music]
two two kids in the schoolyard a
dangerous fight
no absolutely i think extremely
important you want to take canada's
example on this um
i mean our history is known we canada is
a peace-loving nation we've
but we've been uh taking part in every
nato
uh opera operations um uh
and in when we're trying to be a
responsible partner in the in
in the world uh all of a sudden uh a
nation like china
uh uh arbitrarily detains your citizens
um
because uh of uh um
and sorry and that hostage diplomacy
that takes place
all of a sudden changes your perspective
um
on things so we know
that china has obviously a
value and a responsibility in the world
they're growing economic power we all
know that
there is an opportunity for everyone to
benefit from this however
the international rules based order
offers predictability to nations that
predictability
is absolutely essential for nations to
be able to interact with one another
to be able to make sure that our trade
moves because if
if that international rules based order
is undermined
all our nations um uh have an impact and
the last thing you want is to be able to
put
a nation put yourself in a situation
like this right now we have two
canadians that have been
detained for over over two years but
let's not forget other nations we're
talking about 5g
it's not just a decision moving forward
nations have to look at what decisions
were made in the past to making sure
that their infrastructure is prepared
for the future so i'll give you an
example of this
so within cse um we and when it came to
4g technology
we worked very closely with
the telecommunication sector to be able
to take a look at what type of
systems being were being placed across
the country and especially in core
areas and we have an extremely good idea
exactly where
uh uh and what is needed uh to move
forward so our 4g
infrastructure is very solid um and
we've
we have to make some minor changes and
upgrades and working with the
telecommunication companies and we're
going to be strengthening that that as
well
so moving forward our 5g uh
infrastructure will be just a stronger
if not better cse now
has is not just about adding resources
and technology
it has greater authorities so for
example we have defensive cyber
authorities who have offensive
cyber authorities and that provides a
lot of deterrence and we work together
with allied nations already
in calling out nefarious cyber
attacks but one thing is
absolutely certain here moving forward
how do we prevent the problem that we're
talking about right now
which is we should be investing now in
6e technology
and so rather than being in a position
where we're talking about
with 5g technology and how do we get
here and and and an
other nation has uh type of equipment
and coercive
uh authorities and what they're doing in
our nations could be
uh extremely disrupted to our nation's
moving to the future
we need to start investing in the 6g
technology now so that we're not put in
these type of situation
and that is absolutely uh uh critical
here
what that also demonstrates to us is
that we will not allow
nations uh to be able to take hold uh
and and use leverage over smaller
nations as well so moving forward we
we need to be able to work together u.s
ex what's happened in the u.s should be
an example for the rest of the world
on what we need to uh prevent and take
those concerns
very seriously oh two two questions um
is canada already working on 6g and how
fast would my phone go if that
existed and and when you say what
happened in the u.s
doesn't happen again which aspect of
what happened in the u.s
i would say when it came when it comes
to 5g technology
they too have uh uh making a decision to
say that we don't want a certain company
doesn't make you safe you have to take a
look at what infrastructure decision has
already been made
and and so for example certain systems
need to be potentially ripped out to
making sure that systems
are safe but also at the same time this
is not just about one nation or one
company
this is about making sure that any time
you put any technology into core
systems i'm talking about there's cyber
here that it's it's well protected
you can say that well we'll pick uh com
uh company x because company y uh is
part of a a different nation well
company x may not have the expertise
to be a cyber safe and could be easily
hacked
so we have to be very mindful of the
decisions that we make so
working together collaboratively it goes
back to their previous discussion that
we had on
sharing on innovation
with trusted partners is very important
one thing i can assure you in addition
to working as part of nato
canada works bilaterally with many
european nations
on security issues and developing these
things so when it comes to research
on 6g technology i don't even know what
66 technology will be
but let's put it this way we didn't know
what artificial intelligence
uh or machine learning was but
we invested in canada a long time ago in
this that has developed the algorithms
that led to
a lot of the great innovation but then
uh so the question that we really have
to ask ourselves where is technology
going
where do we need to go so that it's a
better meant for
our all our citizens better for trade
but at the same time
prevent and uh as as my colleagues had
stated earlier
we need to make sure that we as nations
come together and have the right
regulations in place
so that nations don't use it as
disruptive technologies
to use leverage over to other nations so
um you heard it here first
members of industry who are attending
globe sec one of the things nato is
going to want
in the future is 6g get on it
so um i'd like to get um go to a very
provocative
question um that has come in on the app
from someone who identifies themselves
only as
s what steps can nato take
if russia decides to annex belarus
and and my corollary to that is what do
you think
of the biden putin summit outcome was
this an unnecessary reward to putin or
will it serve to check
malign activity
so minister nadya okay
difficult to say if russia decides to
annex belarus
um i don't think nato should
you know object
um
in a similar way that uh it objected uh
when uh when russia uh announced uh
crimea
uh because you know the situation of
ukraine and belarus
vis-a-vis nato is completely different
uh
on one hand uh it is uh you know it is
if it is
illegal annexation uh obviously united
nations and other international
organizations including uh
including uh eu or nato should you know
communicate that this is illegal
annexation
but uh i don't expect uh and i don't see
any will of
belarus to to come closer to nato or
european union countries
on contrary it comes very close to
russia
especially in in recent months uh
and with a situation like hijacking the
plane you know
uh belarus is
eleven even it's very non-standard
position of somebody in between uh nato
or european union and russia
it comes closer to authoritarian uh
countries uh
and i don't i don't see any any uh
light in the end of tunnel uh
discussion between biden and putin was i
think
as expected no surprises
uh maybe i was a little bit surprised
this is my personal opinion that uh
president biden was uh
uh after this meeting during the press
conference a little
more tough uh than i expected him to be
uh which is uh good uh which was a good
signal uh for me
especially after for me surprising
decision of
biden's uh uh administration to to give
a green light on uh
nordstrom 2. um you know this was uh
for me it was uh uh rather surprising
even though uh some people said it was
that we should expect that uh because
you know the pressure from germany was
very high and
and president biden didn't want to uh
don't want to
um question their relationship with uh
with germany on this issue but
uh nevertheless for countries like
ukraine and countries like slovakia
uh this uh this north stream program is
our project this something
though if the green party wins in
germany they say they're going to pull
out of it even though they have to pay
cancelled contract costs so before the
election right let's see what they do
afterwards
um honestly saying
this meeting was important for the
strategic stability it was important
for the signals towards russia it was
important uh
and more meetings these two gentlemen
have better
uh on the other hand uh i think the only
thing that
putin is listening to is a strong word
and strong action
uh angela merkel knows that uh she was
able to
to show the way how to deal with
president putin uh previously and i
believe that uh
president biden uh with getting some
experience in his new
occupation uh he will follow this uh
i would say more strict uh
way of communication thank you and
action
minister sergeant if faced with um
the issue uh with belarus
what would you be urging
well first of all what's happening in
belarus is uh
we've been very clear with our allies on
this it's quite
unacceptable but at the end of the day
it comes down
to what is the will of the people of
belarus
um it's what they want to decide where
they want to go
if they choose to be closer to russia
it is their right to do so if they don't
um and there is greater aggression
it is up to us as uh nato allies to be
able to express that
as we uh have been
thank you um and
minister sakarinska from all the black
swan scenarios i don't think that
this is the the ones we should focus
because uh why annex
a country where you have such an
overwhelming influence
it's always uh much much smarter to keep
that extra voice
in the different in the different rooms
but it could be a communication
opportunity for nato if this is how you
treat
if this is how russia would treat their
allies
what would you expect in the future from
an alliance of that kind
nevertheless i think that we should look
at the the broader picture
uh when analyzing russian moves uh uh i
i think that you will see a lot of
rationality
if there is one thing one sentence that
i have still
remembered from my history lessons many
too many years ago
it's an old uh statement by i think
ulysses grant
but don't quote me if i have made the
mistake war
is progressive which means that just as
you think that you have
learned your lessons from the previous
world from the previous conflict
you believe that you can replicate them
that's utterly wrong
because any opponent that is weaker
in your domain will quickly shift to the
other domain
and this is what russia is doing you
know when you when you see the
overwhelming
military power of of nato in many
domains
uh then they start doing this
information and fake news and cyber
attacks and
it's cheaper it's quicker and
it causes more damage than actually the
the typical military move
and we have in the balkans i i have seen
uh at the
at the first poll we did i see the i saw
a lot of balkan
uh references they they were small but
if you take all of them together
actually they were meaningful
i think that we have seen these kinds of
moves throughout the balkans
very visibly and maybe uh when
mentioning what has happened to the us
years ago some of the trailers for this
were visible in the balkans and maybe
these small countries can sometimes be a
good
learning ground for the old established
democracy what
might happen if something goes wrong uh
what we have seen throughout the balkans
is a a a russian scenario in which they
don't
offer anything they just play on the
weaknesses of the west
uh when we first expressed our desire to
move forward with nato after being
elected
for the first time in our history there
was a strong message against it coming
from moscow we were surprised
we never actually had any communication
with moscow
public or or diplomatic on this uh
they have really been very firm on
saying that they will oppose our nato
membership in
various ways and what we have seen is
that they have tried to undermine the
agreement our
agreement with greece everywhere they
could
greece had to expel several diplomats
because
of their uh influence within the greek
society
we have seen less intervention within
the macedonian society but still it was
visible
when we finally became a nato member and
this was
a war that they have lost they didn't
waste
time they switched immediately to the
other goal eu
undermining uh eu accession and sending
this very strong
message throughout the balkans and this
is that the west cannot be trusted
you know nato eu they're very different
but you know when you attack them
you attack them to to the roots and this
is what they have been successful i see
many echoes in belgrade pristina
sarajevo
uh even podgorica from time to time look
at north macedonia
they have done incredible reforms they
have come to an agreement with greece
after three decades of disputes
uh they have entered nato but look at
the eu they're not
they're not delivering on what was
promised so why would belgrade and
pristina be so focused on getting an
agreement while
there is no reliability and this has
been
really a message that was sent not only
from moscow directly but especially
through
social media and the networks that have
been leaning towards towards moscow
and unlike the geopolitical game
the visible geopolitical game that they
have played which was unsuccessful
this is actually where they're winning
so allowing vacuum
is opening the gates to a new type of uh
warfare which is easier than the
traditional one for which we have spent
a lot of money and
a lot of years of preparation thank you
well it sounds like
the best way to deter moscow is for nato
to keep its word and do it as quickly as
possible
well this is this was the message uh
that echoed throughout the balkans uh
nato has kept its word
uh when it comes to accession uh i i'm
really uh satisfied that nato has kept
its word
on reiterating the open door policy even
at at this summit
i think that's very important i do
believe that
on the eu front there will be as the
president of the commission said more of
a geopolitical
uh approach and when it comes to the
balkans it's enlargement
and that has been a recipe that has
worked it has changed
uh the the outlook for the continent and
uh i think that the time has come to
move forward
thank you and with that um i'm going to
thank the ministers for all of your
input and invite you to join the
audience
and thank everyone for listening i
i just wanted to add that one of the
best ways
for us to fight disinformation is to
keep having
amazing forums like this where people
like me can ask tough questions of the
people in charge
and with that i'd like to turn over to
my three and terry
thank you very much for that and it was
such an insightful conversation it's
been an insightful conversation for
three days
but all good things have to come to an
end as does globes act 2021
sadly sadly indeed but i know we've had
an opportunity to have conversations
we've been able to interact in person
and as well as virtually so thank you to
everyone who came
in person and to those who couldn't join
us here thank you for joining us
virtually i think one of the big
takeaways for us
as it is every year is the highlighting
point that central europe is
very very key as we redevelop these
cross atlantic and
ties as we go forward exactly there's
been a big emphasis on reinvigorating
the transatlantic relationship that has
partly to do of course with joe biden
making his first
visit to europe as the u.s vice
president but
there's also a recognition of the at
this conference at least of the
importance of central europe as a
partner
in that relationship and on that subject
i just want to point out
something that one speaker said which i
thought was very relevant for our
discussions that we've had here over the
past
few days he said on that subject that
it's not about the us
doing something in central europe but
rather
with central europe and with europe as a
whole
and i think that's highlighted across
the board when you see the range of
voices that we've heard from we've heard
today for example from the ministers of
defense
from canada slovakia north macedonia
even the deputy defense minister of
japan
we've had uh corporate voices here as
well we've had eriksen represented we've
had the ceo of eset as well
lots more voices and lots more sectors
international institutions very well
represented here of course from the
european union
we uh we had the vice president of the
european union a couple of vice
presidents over the past couple of days
who also had the deputy secretary
general
of nato uh with us today offering his
wisdom and insights
we had seminal thinkers too um i mean
everyone here of course is a thinker in
one way or another but we had some
people who really shaped our
understanding of democracy of liberal
democracy
uh over the past couple of years uh just
want to highlight ivan krastep
who uh who of course is uh the the uh
the light that faded i think is the
title of his book which was so
impactful neelam dio and tori tausig
just among others
and i think it was really interesting to
have a conversation with leonard
volkov right after that biden putin
summit and get his take on what he's
seeing
in dc where he was right now so amazing
voices amazing thoughts i hope you've
all gained quite a lot from these three
days
so i wanted to talk about where we
started off from uh on tuesday
we put up a slido and asked you for the
three or four key words that you were
hoping to get out of the three days and
the the highlight points where climate
security democracy post pandemic
challenges
so again look at look at the fact that
you have the slider right now i would
love to ask you
actually terry asked them the question
okay again we've got these
these words in the word cloud and we
asked you that at the beginning of the
conference what you were thinking about
we're going to come full circle now and
ask you as we're closing
what your main takeaways are from this
conference if you could use your app
if you've downloaded the app also those
at home you can contribute to this as
well
pick up on one two maybe three words and
try to formulate
an idea your main takeaways from this
conference and uh we're beginning to get
some we've got challenges there at the
center networking hope
okay from that i think we can begin to
surmise what uh
what came away what you're coming away
with from this conference
and i think unity hope challenges oh my
networking
i love that i mean that is the key part
of doing a hybrid conference and being
able to meet in person
i think that is critical and as that
builds i would like to
acknowledge and thank um our organizers
at globesac
for making this possible making us feel
safe as they did
even last year in a smaller number so
thank you very much
for that let's see 6g has popped up
60 indeed we're moving on from five
moving along quite quickly indeed
resilience still there hope still being
strong we've got tech disruption
um what else we got moving there climate
security something that was beginning
um that we heard a lot at the very
beginning that has remained a theme
european integration ew enlargement
sustainable democracy
sustainable democracy not just democracy
well
as that work cloud builds um and i know
we will keep
it on as we wrap up this show the one
thing i'm going to say is
i'm glad to see corporation hope and
resilience
up there loud and clear along with the
networking
um i think at this point we should wrap
up because everyone has places to go
people to see it's been a great pleasure
for me to
be with you as mc for both my three and
myself uh it's been
really really good i've learned a lot as
i always do at globe second it's been a
great privilege for me to be
with you for these discussions and
deliberations and
without further ado i think we should
give the floor to
someone whom you all know at this point
who's um
with who without whom globe sec simply
wouldn't exist we're talking about globe
sex founder and president
robert fash thank you
[Applause]
thank you bye trey and terry and you
wrapped it up
extremely well so you made my job very
easy
because all my job now is to thank you
all of you who came here to bratislava
with all the travel restrictions some of
you when
you will travel home you will still have
to go to quarantine and you still came
and it's so refreshing to see faces and
humans and not only virtually through
zoom
everybody was just sick and tired of
this one year of zoom calls
from the morning to the evening and it's
also refreshing to change
you know the home of his pyjamas to to
suits actually
uh we arranged a very good weather for
you as well
uh here in bratislava so i really hope
you all enjoyed uh the discussion and
it's not a coincidence
that the main word that came up was
networking
because that's what is it about you
cannot build
networks and friendships through zoom
you can keep them it's a good as a
crisis
situation but the most important thing
is that you're meeting in the corridors
you're exchanging views
and uh you're building friendships
you're building business
this is uh one of the most important
things of the conference and when
yaro said that it was one of his
toughest jobs to work
for globe's sake i have to say that he's
a fighter
you can actually see it on him you know
also on the
uh on the football field but it was also
a pleasure to work with you
when you were at gopsick but also to
continue working with you
as a minister of defense and thank you
for your support and thanks
for the support of also the minister of
foreign affairs
ivan korchok and all the institutional
partners like the international visual
grad fund
nato pdd wilfried martin center
and many others the corporate partners
media partners
actually we had very strong media
partners hero news was uh
was uh putting uh some of the discussion
live
uh we have afb ap and many many others
coming from
uh 30 countries and actually also
connecting the physical world
and the virtual world made it the
biggest conference because 98 countries
uh were present virtually or physically
here which is excellent i think it's a
record in the last several years
but also we we needed to make sure that
uh and ivan
thank you thank you for your great
support you are coming in the in the
right
uh moment yeah thank you
actually when i look at these two
members of the government i'm so proud
but also making sure that everything
goes smoothly
that um we keep
uh the healthiness and the security of
health uh
actually based on our data 70 of
you who came are already vaccinated
which is tremendous
absolutely absolutely great uh we made
1600 pcr tests uh and thanks to our
partners like multiplex dx slovak
academy
of science uh and other partners uh
without whom this would be absolutely
and absolutely
impossible but we've in globsec went
through very difficult uh
time in the last year we had to scale
down
our core team uh we lost some finances
so it was a
real struggling but we also use this
opportunity to go out stronger from the
crisis
we had we have made a lot of measures
internally
we created a new board of directors
who are here with us a new chairman of
the board willie moterell
but also vasil hudak peter kudil annie
taurban mikhail krupinsk ivanka
and gordon bainai who are helping us uh
to steer
uh the globsec in the right way and also
i would like to thank to our
my uh old friend uh ambassador katria
who always sometimes
comes to globsec and then he leaves for
for some government position or
ambassador but i'm sure that he will
come back
again most of all
i would like to thank to the great great
team of globsec
because without their belief it would be
absolutely impossible
i have to say that creating and
organizing globsec in an environment
where you don't know how the pandemic
will look like when you cannot plan
what will be a months ahead it's a
tremendous
uh challenge physically but also
psychologically because you don't know
you have so many moving things and
moving targets
and i have to say that we all took a
risk
that we will organize it we fixed the
conference for june
and i think we we we did the right thing
but without
their belief in what we are doing
it would be impossible so i would like
to thank to the core team
uh milan uh who is here with us
uh kevin natalia daniel nadya alex
emma adam lucia nicola
the production team uh and the gym
agency
the communication team of lucian her
team
alena and the globsec policy institute
team uh john and the strategic
partnerships team i mean it's a
month of work so thank you very much and
i think you deserve
a great applause
so bratislava 2021 forum is coming to
the end but
it does not really stop us here because
we are already kicking off the
preparations for next year
and we hope that we will not need to
wear these masks
it's so difficult to breathe in that and
i hope that we will be able to
fight kovid together uh and that we will
not face more mutations
and that the vaccination globally will
will speed it up
and for that we need international
cooperation for that we need
international solutions and places like
this globsec
are fostering it and putting also
bratislava and slovakia
on the map so thank you once again for
all those who came here and i wish you
a good trip home we still have a lunch
here so just uh
take some uh maybe uh lunch and wine and
i wish you all the best today and for
the rest of the week thank you once
again and see you
in the future
[Music]
you