NATO summit to focus on fight against terrorism

BRUSSELS, May 24 (KUNA) -- NATO leaders will hold a "short and important" summit in Brussels Thursday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said here today.
"It will bring together Allied leaders, all Allied leaders from all the 28 Allied countries, and send a strong message of unity and solidarity," he told a press conference.
He said that one of the two main topics we are going to discuss tomorrow will be stepping up NATO's contribution to the fight against terrorism. "To deal with the root causes of terrorism, training local forces is one of the best tools that we have," said the NATO chief.
Stoltenberg said that "we are still discussing whether NATO should become a full member of the Global Coalition" and added that NATO already contributes to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS and that the Alliance supports the Coalition with information collected by our AWACS surveillance aircraft.
He said that the "other major topic for our meeting is burden sharing. This means meeting the pledge we all made in 2014: to stop the cuts, gradually increase and move towards spending 2% of GDP on defence within a decade." "And we are making progress. After many years of decline, total defence spending by European Allies and Canada rose by billions of dollars last year. But burden-sharing is not just about spending. It's also about capabilities and contributions to NATO missions, operations and other engagements," he said.
NATO leaders will mark the handover of its new headquarters in Brussels from Belgium to NATO with a flag-raising ceremony. This will be a historic milestone: a new home for a modern Alliance, he noted.
"We will also dedicate two memorials at our new headquarters. German Chancellor Angela Merkel will dedicate the Berlin Wall Memorial and US President Donald Trump will dedicate the 9/11 and Article 5 Memorial.
"This fragment of the World Trade Center recalls the first time Allies invoked our collective defence clause. Symbolising solidarity and our common fight against terrorism," said the NATO chief. (end) nk.mt