Im the president of George Washington university and im pleased to welcome you. When you do have the opportunity to look outside, we have a balcony here with a broad view of the nations capital. This is an excellent symbol of what it means to be the Largest University in the heart of our nations capital. It affords an end view of our monument, the monument here. We like to think of that as the monument of George Washington university. And this location is extraordinary. If you do a line from the state Department White house, it would intersect where we are sitting now. That tells you a little bit about where we are. It tells you about the importance of this location. And it leads towards events of global significance. I would like to welcome you to todays discussion. A conversation with the secretary general of the nato. We are honored he could make time during his brief visit to washington to come to our campus. Im pleased with knowledge members of the diplomatic unity for being with us today. Particularly, let me acknowledge his excellency to the investing of estonia to the United States. And the ambassador of bulgaria. And an ambassador of georgia. We also have with us the former governor of the commonwealth of virginia, james gilmore. And i would like to welcome kurt walker. He is now the executive director of the mccain is aged or International Leadership at Arizona State university. I have to say that as the president in my 10th year here. Arizona state university. I having lived on campus a block from here. I live in a house called the m street house. I mention that because it is where some of the founding discussions for the creation of the nato took place. So we do have a historical connection here. My other connections to nato include the role as the former Elliott School alumni. Nato supreme allied commander from 19931997. And the honorable who began her ceremony last year, the first woman to hold that post. Now, i would like to introduce his excellency. The secretary general of the nato. He became he 13th secretary general of nato in 2013. A distinguished public servant, he began his career at the Norwegian Ministry of environment after earning his postgraduate degree in economics. He was first elected to his countrys parliament in 1993 and served in a variety of leadership roles. Including that in the minister of energy and finance. He served as Prime Minister from 20002001 and again from 20052013. He led the transformation of norways armed forces and increased the highest Capital Expenditure rates and regularly committed norwegian troops to peacekeeping. Thank you so much for those kind words. And thank you to all of you for having me here today. It is a great pleasure o meet you all. To be here today, it is one of the most recognized institutions when it comes to educating leaders, especially within diplomacy for service. And as you mentioned, in nato, we have several people who have gotten their education from the school. And we work very closely with the secretary general who is a graduate from the Elliott School. And share the debate with me. And he is also a graduate from these schools. So the students at this university and at the Elliott School are the leaders of tomorrow. And therefore, it is a great honor for me to see you and for me to meet you. I have to say that it isnt only because it is this institution that i appreciate to beer, but i am also delighted to be here because originally, my plan was to become an academic. So my plan was to, do research through economics. And i have a thought to teach at the university of oslo in economics. And i did that for two years. I then begin the deputy minister of the environment. I promised myself environment. I promised myself and my wife that i would only tay there for one or two years and then i would go back into academic life. That is a promise i havent been able to keep. Ive stayed in public since 1990. And i feel that my chances for an academic career as been diminished. So therefore, i like to visit institutions like this because it is the closest i come to the any kind of academic life. I will be very rief. The idea is that we will have an interaction. So i will just share with you some brief emarks and reflections and then, we will be available for questions so we can have some discussion. What i will say is that nato is the most successful alliance in history for two reasons. Reason number one we have been loyal to our core value, the core cause. Ever since we were founded in 1949. And that is, we are an alliance we have promised to protect each other. One for all and all for one. If one allied is attacked, it triggers a response from all of the allies. And this strength of he unity of the alliance has been the main reason why the alliance has been so successful. And the strength of nato is not aimed at provoking conflict. But the strength of nato is to prevent the conflict. And by delivering credible defiance, we have been able for close to seven decades to be able to prevent conflict and armed aggression against any Nato Alliance country and that is a great success, especially in europe. Because in europe, we were fighting each other since the end of the Second World War, but since nato there have been no more these conflicts amongst nato allies in europe. No nato ally has been attacked. So. The unity, one for all and all for one. That is the main reason why nato has been such a successful alliance. The other reason is that nato has been able to adapt to change. So when the world is changing, it nato is changing. For almost 40 years, nato was focused on only one task that was to deter the soviet union from attacking western europe. And we were quite successful. The cold war nded without firing a single shot. It ended in a peaceful way. The brazilian the berlin wall came down and people thought to ask whether nato was needed anymore. And the thought was that it either goes out of business or out of area. And we did go out of area after the cold war. We helped and to ethnic wars in the balkans. In the balkans. We also helped fight terrorism in afghanistan. And we did Crisis Management beyond our borders. You did that from the beginning of the 1990s until today. But now, it nato has to change again. Because it has to continue to protect and manage crisis beyond our borders. In north africa and that region but at the same time, we have to come back to europe and focus once again on europe. And that is especially the case after the annexation of crimea and the use of force against russias more assertive behavior especially against the ukraine. Therefore, nato is implementing the reinforcement to the collective defense that a stem since cold war. We are fixing the response force. And were deploying forces both to the altered countries and in the southeast of the alliance. So we are adapting, once again, to a response of a more difficult and challenging security. And again, the message is that we are investing in defense not to promote conflict but to prevent conflict. So what we do is defensive. It is proportionate and it is measured in a way that we dont want to provoke a cold war and we dont want a defensive. It is proportionate new arms race and we base this on the idea that there is no contradiction between strength strength and dialogue. We strongly believe that as long as nato is united, and as long as it is firm and predictable, then we can and should engage in political dialogue with russia because russia is our eighbor. We have to manage the relationship with russia in the best possible way. He does it is in both our and russias interests to defuse the tensions. To find better ways to live together. This was the main issue i discussed with President Trump yesterday in the white house. And his security team. This will be the main issue. We will going to discuss with the nato leaders meet in may in brussels. And this is the main issue i hope to discuss with you and the coming hours. Think you so much. I will not take your questions. . Show less text thank you secretary general. Inc. You for those remarks. Again, im the executive director of the Mccain Institute for International Leadership, part of Arizona State university. And i am a proud alumnus of Elliott School even before it was called the Elliott School. Longer ago than i care to state publicly. It has been a great privilege to have gone here and to have had a career built on that. Secretary general, i will open up the questions and answers with you and then we will turn to the audience here to ask questions. I do want to give riority to students here. So students, think about what you want to ask and get your hands up early. Secretary general, i want to start with the first question. We have heard from resident trump and his administration most during the course of the president ial campaign and since then many want to ask and get your hands up early. Secretary general, i want to start with the first things. Nato is obsolete and nato is not obsolete. Nato allies need to pay their share. We decide to defend them whether they pay their dues. When chancellor merkel was here, it was talked about how much germany owes the United States. Nato needs to reform. We want to Work Together with russia. Russia is a threat. Russia intervened in our states. Nato needs to reform. Election just about everything you can imagine. A you could chart this and say there has been a progression over time, a movement and you have had a lot of interaction with the president. Your bid on the phone with him and ready meeting here with him in washington. You met with secretary mattice at the defense minister meeting. You met with Rex Tillerson and you met the Vice President on the security council. So in your own words, where do you see the u. S. Administration on nato today . How do you characterize u. S. Policy, u. S. Support and interest and concern . The message underneath nato has been consistent. In all our conversations and also with the Vice President of the security and Rex Tillerson and his whole team. At message has been all the time that they are strongly committed to nato. They see the alue and they want to make sure that nato continues to a dad. And both the strong commitment to nato, which was eaffirmed yesterday in the meeting. The president also expressed to me on the phone. I malcolm i welcome the essage about commitment. But resident trump and secretary attis, the importance that nato has to do more. I welcome nato has to do more. I welcome that. When they stress the importance of fair sharing in nato, we need that. We need nato allies to invest more in defense. Allies spend the gdp on defense, you have a country ike which has met the target and they have declared that they will continue. Ext year. So nato is adapting. Nato is changing. There will be a strong focus from other organizations on the need to ontinue. Very good. Do you believe that allies are responding to this call to spend more on defense . In case you didnt hear the answer, he said absolutely, they are going to 2 and beyond. Again, you have articulated the u. S. Support for nato. But part of the question for the u. S. Is are the allies ready to support ato . What we have seen is that after many years of cuts in defense spending, we actually saw in 2016, we suffer the first time a significant increase in defense spending across europe and canada. And that is an increase of 3. 8 . And that is a significant increase to the amount of money or defense. We do still have a long way to go. But the europeans have started to move in the right direction. And some allies already meet the 2 guidelines. So what we discussed with the president yesterday was how we need to keep up the momentum so that we are able to continue. In 2014, they would stop the cuts ith gradual increases and move towards the increase. And my top interest has been to focus n the spending because it is important for the support of the whole alliance. And one more thing, it isnt only about spending. It is about spending more and spending better. To be important for the support of the whole alliance. And one more thing, it isnt only about more efficient. To have the capabilities we need in nato and it is about the contributions to nato operations. So we think about the pledge, about cash capabilities and contributions. In your remark, you said nato wanted to deal with russia from a position of strength but also to have dialogue to Work Together with russia. Does russia want to Work Together with nato . Yes and no. We see areas where theyre willing to work and other areas where it is difficult to establish any kind of understanding or dialogue. But we have to continue to work for dialogue. Because the world is safer when russia and nato re able to speak and to talk nd to strengthen and improve our relationship. And it is hard to predict how they will e in the future. But im certain that we have to do whatever we can to defuse the tension and to work to prevent a new cold war. But so that as we have the approach of russia with defense and dialogue. This is also something that is based on my own experience as a politician. Norway borders russia. To the north. We have a land border and we border in the sea. The continental shelf. And in norway, we were able to develop a working relationship with the soviet union during the cold ar on issues like energy and border to the sea and environment and fishery and military issues where we had the search and rescue teams working together. We were in regular contact with the Russian Armed forces of the north. This coordination takes lace not despite membership in ato but because of the membership in nato. Our membership in nato provided the strengths and the platform to engage with russia. So i strongly believe that we should not be afraid to talk to the russians. They are our biggest neighbor. We can improve all if we improve the relationship with russia. A final question from me. And then we will pull from the audience. Did you and the president discuss ukraine and how does ukraine fit into the discussion of russia relations and giving ukraine a sense of ecurity . We discussed ukraine. And we are concerned about the situation in eastern ukraine. And the fact that russia has illegally annexed a pod annexed a part of ukraine. This s big for ukraine and it underlines the relationship in urope. So nato, the United States, nato allies, we will provide support to ukraine. We rovide support to the defense, different trust funds for cyber and control. Nato allies provide political and practical support to ukraine. At the same time, i think it is important to understand that it isnt only about ukraine. The main reason why we have implemented this is because of ukraine. So ctually, the illegal annexation of crimea at the support of russia in eastern ukraine, it is the main reason why nato has strength in a collective defense in europe, making sure that no allies experience anything like what ukraine has experience with russia since 2014. Returning forces for ukraine itself . It is important for ukraine itself. That we help them with mobilizing their armed forces. Fighting corruption. Helping them command control. So we will work with ukraine. The way o solve the problem with the crisis in ukraine is through negotiations and political cooperation. And agreements. And we are calling on russia omeans respecting ceasefires, which are not respected now. We will withdraw weapons from the ontact lines him and allow the National Service to observe the easefire, because that is a precondition for any effective implementation of the minx minsk agreement. R. Volker students . Given the current governments in poland and hungary, the election in france, as well as the german president s comments on nico as warmongering, do you think there are internal threats to nature going to nato from its members . Mr. Volker one more, to your eft . Since the end of the cold war, what do you think natos biggest mistakes have been in his interactions with russia, and also successes . Mr. Volker and we will stay in the center aisle ow, the blue sweatshirt. Thank you for coming to speak here. I had a question in regards to how nato is going to respond in syria. You spoke about successful interventions in the balkans as well as preventing conflicts in fghanistan. Keep in mind the 2011 nato bombing of libya, how to you propose to respond to syrian use of chemical weapons and the United States missile two days later . Mr. Volker terrific questions. Mr. Stoltenberg this is better than the questions i get from the germans. First, on internal challenges, it is important to remember nato is an alliance of 28 democracies , and in democracies there are different Political Parties, views, open discussions, some are in favor of nato, some against, and in my own country many politicians have been against nato the whole time. When i was young, i was also against nato mr. Stoltenberg the reason i say it is we should not be afraid of open debate. We should not be afraid of people having different opinions, even criticizing up. Us. They are lways wrong mr. Stoltenberg but that is part of living in a democratic society. There are Political Parties organizations in nato countries that are either critical to nato as an institution or to part of what they do. And to be honest, i am not afraid of that. I think that nato has proven again and gain that it is a strength that we are having open debate and different views on we are developing our thinking like confronting different views and then improving our understanding of many different and difficult issues and and different views on we are policies. And nato has proven again that the spice differences, despite the fact that we elect some conservatives or some liberals or some social democrats or christian democrats, people coming from many different political from different parties with different views, they have always been able to agree on natos core task him and that is that we are safer together than alone. We prevent conflict. The best way to prevent conflict is to send a very clear message to any potential adversary that we are so strong, so it is no chance if you try to attack one ally because our allies will be there. Coming from a small country like norway, theres a strength we feel by having the old Alliance Supporting us. It is the reason why europeans feel as safe as they do. So my answer is we should not be afraid of the fact that there are different Political Tendencies in european countries, because that is part of the Natural Development of the process in democratic societies. The next question was russia. Mr. Volker greatest mistakes stoltenberg i am not that kind of person that has a list where i remember my greatest mistakes. I forget mr. Stoltenberg but diane not able to point at one thing which was nato greatest mistake, and that is linked to the first question, because we are and alliance of 28 democracies. Sometimes it takes time to make decisions. That ery often affects the fact that in democratic institutional democracies, it is not always the perfect solutions, but they are sustainable, they are strong because they are nations. I think the tickets success is just the fact that we have been able to prevent war, that we have been able not only to prevent war with 12 and 16 members, which is what we had in the beginning, and now it is 28 members, the enlargement of nato where former countries in the warsaw pact joined nato. And again, europe was traditionally the middle east of the world. We were fighting and fighting each other for centuries, and since the Second World War there has been no conflict at least involving nato countries or attacking us. And in response to syria, syria is a very difficult, very dangerous, and complex situation which affects nato very much, because syria is bordering nato, bordering urkey, which is a nato ally. We support the fight against isil. Nato is on the ground this year, and we have provided planes, we provide them with air pictures, but when it comes to the use of chemical weapons, that is totally unacceptable, it is horrendous, and it is violating international law. And those who are responsible must be held accountable for any use of chemical weapons. Therefore, the airstrikes against the Syrian Air Base a few days ago was a u. S. Operation, military operation, based on u. S. Intelligence, that it has received great understanding among nato allies because they understand it has to have a consequence when omeone is using chemical weapons. Mr. Volker and what is next for nato in syria . Mr. Stoltenberg there has been no call for any nato presence on the ground in syria. Some nato allies are present there. United states is there with special operations fortunes forces. U. K. Allies are they are to fight are there to fight isil. There have been no call for the Nato Alliance to get involved in the conflict in syria. Mr. Volker very good. More questions. We will take this side of the room and we will do that side of the room. Over here, the third row in the middle, glasses and the tie. Good afternoon, mr. Secretary general. My question effects on your opening speech. In recent years we have seen changes in global security. This cyber attack, the lone wolf attacks are challenges. My question, how will nato adjust itself to facing a new challenges in global security, and how will nato working with its members to fight against the Unconventional Warfare that a lot of countries thank you. Mr. Volker thank you very much. We will go to the front row. I am a student here at the school. What is the nato role now in live yet that it has destabilized the country . There are many militias fighting. A certain militia will take care f the country and mr. Volker ok, and we have one further back. Lets go back on the lefthand side there. Send up. There you go. And wait for the microphone. Sorry, i making this easy for the microphone uys. Thank you for coming. My question is, how do you in short countries in nato fund within the ratio, basically . How do you determine the ratio, so one more than mr. Stoltenberg countries paying according to their proportional size or ealth. Proportionality, libya, cleaning up our mess, and yber. Modern threats mr. Stoltenberg and challenges. Mr. Stoltenberg first on whether it is cyber, hybrid, all these new effects, one thing we have to understand is before it was easy to distinguish whether it was peace or war, and nations declared war and were supposed to say now it is war and now it is piece and the war was peace and the war was in a well efined geographic area. Now it is a more blurred line between peace and war, and it is hard to say exactly when the war against isil did start. Of ourse it takes place in syria, but it also takes place in the allied capitals where isil has attacked innocent civilians, and it takes place in cyberspace. It is hard to say other than we do not have an exact date for when it started and when it will end. The new threats are partly why the fact that it is a mixture of civilian and military means of aggression and a much more blurred line between peace and war. Nato has adapted to that, too. The forces, more intelligence, more surveillance, more early warning, all that is aimed at being able to respond to more hybrid threats, which is the phrase you use for those kinds of threats. And also the fact that we are stepping up when it comes to Cyber Defenses. We have declared that Cyber Defense from soviet Cyber Attacks can trigger article 5, which means we regard Cyber Attacks as serious or potentially as serious as a connecticut attack, genetic kinetic attack and it will rigger article 5. We have air, ea, but now we have cyber as a military domain. We have done all the things helping allies in sharing and improving their yber defenses. Nato can do more and we are constantly looking for much more we can do, but nato is adapting to hese new kinds of threats. Sorry. Then libya. It is important video was not a stable country when nato went in there. There was a civil war going on. And we implemented the u. N. Mandate, and we helped to stop the killing of civilians, which the gaddafi regime was responsible for. If there is anything we can learn from the libya operation is one thing is to implement the ilitary operation as we did. But it is important to stabilize the country afterwards. Nato did not have a mandate, but the whole international community, including nato to the u. N. , the e. U. , have a responsibility for not being more present afterwards. And for me that underscores the message of that convention, and the importance of training local forces, enabling them to stabilize the country. So we are in dialogue with the Libyan Government or the government of National Accord on how nato can provide support to build defense institutions to help them stabilize their own country. It is not the easiest situation, but i think that is the best thing to do, to try to work with the u. N. Recognized to vomit and help them stabilize their country. Then burden haring or defense spending. It is a simple rule or guideline, nd that is that every nato ally should spend or invest in defense 2 of gdp, and gdp reflects in a way the income or the wealth of the nation. Rich countries spend more than not so rich countries. And as long as they spend 2 , they have fair burden sharing. The problem is many allies spend less than 2 of gdp camera so therefore, a way to obtain a more balanced burden sharing is make sure that all spend 2 or perhaps even more. And that is exactly what i have been focusing on. That is exactly what has been the main message from President Trump. But that is a very bipartisan message from the United States. Canada and those european allies who spend less have to increase defense spending. We have started. We have a long way to go. But we have started in the right direction. Mr. Volker we will take it from the side of the room now, second row now, woman in the ray sweater. We are seeing the Largest Military buildup since the 1950s. How is the alliance interpreting russias actions . Mr. Volker the military uildup, in russia . Yes. Mr. Volker the gentleman ith the beard, back row . Following the coup in turkey among their our staff on nato so how has this affect nato aily operations and how does native plants respond to teacher up evils or human rights were abuses in his member human rights abuses n Member States . Thank you so much, mr. Secretary general. In your earlier marks you mentioned natos greatest strength is it is able to determine with credibility. And given the actions of russia in crimea in 2014, which you refer to earlier, how will nato reassert their credibility in europe and in what ways should the United States also take action to reassert their credibility within the native organization . Thank you so much. Mr. Volker great. Thank you very much. Over to you, secretarygeneral. Russias military buildup, restoring credibility, and the situation of military officers assigned to nato billets being alled home after the coup. Mr. Stoltenberg we have seen a significant military buildup in russia over many years. Since 2000, they have approximately tripled defense spending. But not only spending more, but also they have eveloped a new and more modern equipment. They are exercising more, and they are having more aggressive patterns of exercises. They have also exercised nuclear and conventional forces. They have a rhetoric which is aimed at intimidating neighbors. And most important, they have been willing to use force against georgia in 2008, against ukraine in 2014, and they continue to use military personnel to support and help to support and destabilize eastern ukraine. And after that, they also are active in the cyber, hybrid threats, and actions against nato allied countries. So this is the reason why nato has adapted. This is the reason why after many years after reducing defense spending we have started increasing defense that, they also are active in spending and have deployed forces to the eastern part of the alliance. It is extremely important that we do not overdo it or overreact, because if we end up with a new arms race, a new cold war, we are risking just increased tensions easing even further, but decreasing our security. That is the reason why nato has been focused on what to do on its proportion and continue to work for a political dialogue with russia. Then turkey. It is great that they recalled staff from the nato command structure after the coup attempt. This proportion and continue to work for a political dialogue with revives that nato activities because they have replaced them. I have underlined that turkey has the right to protect itself. They have suffered errorist attacks. The walls of the National Assembly have been bombed in ankara, and it was impressive to see the damaged building, and the parliament was bombed when parliamentarians were inside the building. Hundreds of people were killed. Those behind this field coup attention be held responsible. The important thing is this is done in accordance with the rule of law. And this is something i have raised in ankara several times because the rule of law is important when you have these kinds of processes after a failed to attempt coup attempt. Then efense. Russia used military orce against ukraine. But it is important not to mix that with nato deterrence, because nato deterrence is about returning any adversary deterring any adversary from attacking a natoallied country. There have been no attacks to nato countries since it was established. We of course condemn that use of military force against ukraine egardless of whether ukraine s a nato member or not because it violated international law, violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of ukraine. We have made sure that it continues to be credible by it violated international law, deploying forces especially in the eastern part of the . Show less text land. Mr. Volker we will start to wrap up a little bit. I would like to engage in a dialogue about a couple of things. One of them, i am not as forgetful as the secretary general because i think of nato mistakes. Mr. Volker one that is current is i think nato was a little slow to recognize that russia ad changed. It was not the rush of the 1990s we were dealing with anymore. We were seeing a military buildup, aggressive behavior, the pressure on georgia, and nato was still playing by the old book. And i think nato has adapted. I think the decision at the summit, their European Reassurance Initiative from the i think the decision at the summit, their European Reassurance Initiative from the United States, i think this has compensated for that tremendously. But i think we were slow. Maybe that is the way democracies behave. Democracies naturally do not want to go there unless they absolutely have to. On the other side of that, i think the greatest thing that nato has done, at least in the last 25 years, keeping the peace is the obvious one, but the other thing that nato has done was to inspire countries to reform, to become democracies, market economies, establish the role of law, protect human rights and to then allow them to join with other countries to share that Common Security in a wider area. This is often referred to as nato enlargement. But i think even that terminology gets it wrong, because what it really is is about widening a space of prosperity and democracy and security in europe. We had here the ambassador of natos next ally, montenegro, the document signed here by President Trump, and we have the ambassador of georgia is here. The ambassador of estonia is here. They joined nato in the prague enlargement round. First off, i wonder if you agree, is that one of the great achievements of nato, and if it is, where do we go from here on the process of inspiring that kind of reform and seeing more countries become part of that democratic and secure community . Mr. Stoltenberg i agree with you. I think i mentioned preserving the peace. But of course, the fact that so many more countries are now part of a family of democratic nations, being a member of nato, and or the European Union has really helped to promote stability, peace, prosperity in europe. And nato enlargement is very much a part of that. So i agree. Second, nato is continuing to expand, meaning that we will soon have montenegro as our 29th member. The United States has finished the application process. So it only remains in the accession protocol to be completed in the netherlands and spain, i think it is, and then we hope to see montenegro a full member in june. Then we are working with georgia. Georgia is implementing impressive reforms, strengthening their democratic institutions, modernizing their defense institutional structures and fighting corruption and all of this is part at least because of the aspirations to join nato. I always underlined that to implement that kind of reforms is good because you move closer to nato. Even if their aim is not to be closer to nato, they should find direction and strengthen democratic institutions. There is a double reason to do it in a country like georgia, which is aiming for nato membership. And we should support them. Nato supports them with this reform process. So natos door is open and we will continue to stress the message that the enlargement or whether nato is going to have more members, it is up to the applicant country to decide and the 28 soon to be countries that 29 are members. No one else does not have a right to intervene that they do not have a right to be accepted. Mr. Volker please join me in thanking the secretarygeneral. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] announcer washington journal, live every day, policy issues that impact to you. Coming up this morning, public citizens president of public tellrs wont join us to about Congressional Republican views of the congressional iew act hurt and tim lynch will join us to talk about Congressional Republican views of the congressional review act. And tim lynch will join us. And then the findings of a sixmonth internal investigation account scandal. Be sure to watch washington journal, coming up some 00 a. M. At 7 00 a. M. Join the discussion. 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