NATO News

On 16-17 September 2021, the Chair of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, was in Greece to meet with the Minister of Defence, Mr Nikos Panagiotopoulos, and the Chief of Defence, General Konstantinos Floros. He also travelled to Crete to visit the Souda Naval Base, the NATO Maritime Interdiction Operational Training Centre (NMIOTC), the Integrated Air & Missile Defence (IAMD) Centre of Excellence and the NATO Missile Firing Installation (NMFI).

On 21-23 September, the NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, will travel to New York, USA, to attend the High-level Week of the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Republic of Moldova has received twenty ventilators from NATO’s Pandemic Response Stockpile to help the country respond to coronavirus infections. NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre and Hungary coordinated the donation in response to a request by Moldova for COVID-19 assistance.

On Monday 20 September 2021, the NATO Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Mircea Geoană will meet with Mr. Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Managing Director of Operations at NATO Headquarters in Brussels.

Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană and a group of NATO ambassadors visited the Alliance’s fleet of unmanned surveillance aircraft stationed in Sicily, on Thursday (16 September 2021). Addressing senior officers at Sigonella airbase, the Deputy Secretary General thanked Italy for hosting the Alliance’s Ground Surveillance (AGS) aircraft, stressing that AGS is a “premier state-of-the-art capability in the field of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance”.

Over 100 former NATO Afghan employees and family members began their journey to resettlement in the United Kingdom on Thursday (16 September 2021). With the support of NATO’s high-readiness Response Force, the Afghan evacuees departed temporary facilities in Kosovo for the United Kingdom on a chartered civilian airline flight from Pristina.

On 16-18 September 2021, the NATO Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Mircea Geoană will travel to Italy.

On 14 September 20121, the Commander of the NATO-led KFOR mission, Major General Franco Federici, attended a ceremony to mark the installation of new navigation equipment at Pristina airport. These are important steps, which will make the circulation of people and goods easier and faster within the region. They will also contribute to the use of new south-west air routes in the lower airspace over Kosovo, which have been created through the NATO-led Balkans Aviation Normalisation Meetings process.

On Wednesday, 15 September 2021, the NATO Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Mircea Geoană, will participate in the Future of Emerging Europe Summit in Brussels.

The USS New York is a ship like no other: part amphibious transport dock that supports US Navy operations around the world, part living museum that commemorates the victims of the 9/11 attacks. It contains dozens of small memorials – from a firefighter’s helmet to a New York City subway sign – and 7.5 tons of steel recovered from the World Trade Center forged into its bow.

On Saturday, 11 September 2021, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will join U.S. Mission to NATO’s Chargé d’Affaires Douglas D. Jones at the 9/11 and Article 5 Memorial at NATO Headquarters to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

On Thursday (9 September 2021), NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană met Vice President and Foreign Minister of Colombia Marta Lucía Ramírez de Rincón, and discussed the deepening of bilateral cooperation between Colombia and NATO.

On Friday 10 September 2021, the NATO Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Mircea Geoană, will participate in the international conference “The Rule of Law: From its Origins to the Present” organised by the Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University in Bucharest in collaboration with the International Association for the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR). The Deputy Secretary General will deliver a keynote speech on The Power of Ideas - the strategic and ideological global competition.

On 8 September 2021, Joint Support and Enabling Command (JSEC) declared Full Operational Capability (FOC) and marked the occasion with a ceremony presided over by its Commander, Lieutenant General Jürgen Knappe. Distinguished guests included the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Tod Wolters, the German State Secretary, Thomas Silberhorn, and the Director General of the NATO International Military Staff, Lieutenant General Hans-Werner Wiermann.

On Thursday 9 September 2021, the NATO Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Mircea Geoană will meet with H.E. Marta Lucía Ramírez, the Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Colombia.

Taking part in a virtual foreign ministerial meeting co-hosted by the US Secretary of State and the German Foreign Minister on Wednesday (8 September 2021), NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the Taliban must make good on their commitments on terrorism, human rights and safe passage for those who wish to leave Afghanistan.

On the 6th and 7th September 2021, the Chair of the NATO Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer was in Turkey, where he met the Minister of Defence, Mr Hulusi Akar and the Chief of Defence, General Yaşar Güler. The Admiral visited NATO Allied Land Command, as well as the NATO-accredited Centre of Excellence Defence Against Terrorism and the Partnership for Peace Training Centre.

On Wednesday 8 September 2021, the NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, will participate in a virtual meeting of foreign ministers on Afghanistan co-hosted by the US Secretary of State, Mr. Anthony Blinken, and the German Foreign Minister, Mr. Heiko Maas.

The NATO Response Force (NRF) is supporting evacuation and relocation endeavours alongside Allies and the international community. "NATO is committed to evacuating NATO employees and their families, those people we served with in Afghanistan, to a safe and secure environment," said Major General Mead, Allied Joint Force Command Naples' Deputy Chief of Staff –Plans.

On Monday (6 September 2021), NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană welcomed Defence Minister Nitiwul of Ghana at NATO Headquarters. During their meeting, Mr. Geoană and Mr. Nitiwul discussed potential opportunities for cooperation between Ghana and NATO. They also exchanged views on current security challenges.