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Defense Secretary Jim Mattis highlighted the U.S. commitment to
NATO today, stressing the alliance's importance in regional and
global security while calling on nations to meet their military
funding commitments.
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February 15, 2017 - Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (right) talks with
Britain's Defense Secretary Michael Fallon during a North Atlantic
Council meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels. (DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Brigitte N. Brantley)
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"For seven decades the world has watched NATO become the most
successful and powerful military alliance in modern history," Mattis
said in prepared remarks to a NATO defense ministerial meeting in
Brussels.
He told the assembled defense leaders that NATO,
with its members’ shared commitment, will remain what President
Dwight D. Eisenhower described as a "valuable, necessary, and
constructive force."
Evolving Security Challenges
Mattis, who as a Marine
Corps general served as NATO's supreme allied commander for
transformation, noted how the security landscape has changed in
recent years, to include threats from Russia as well as the Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria.
"The year 2014 awakened us to a new
reality: Russia used force to alter the borders of one of its
sovereign neighbors, and on Turkey's border ISIS emerged and
introduced a ruthless breed of terror, intent on seizing territory
and establishing a caliphate," he said.
While some in the
28-member alliance "have looked away in denial of what is
happening," he said, NATO needs to adapt to meet the changing
security situations.
"For despite the threats from the east
and south, we have failed to fill gaps in our NATO Response Force or
to adapt to modem threats, or increase the readiness of much of our
force structure," he said.
The transatlantic alliance is
built on the common defense of its members, Mattis pointed out. It
arose out of strategic necessity and now must now evolve for that
same reason, he said.
"Our community of nations is under
threat on multiple fronts as the arc of insecurity builds on NATO's
periphery and beyond," he said. "We must act in the interests of our
'democratic islands of stability' if we are to live up to our
responsibilities as guardians for our nations and sentinels watching
for threats."
The transatlantic bond is "essential to
countering Islamic extremism, to blocking Russia's efforts to weaken
democracies, and to addressing a more assertive China," he said.
NATO, he said, must tighten its decision cycle both in
determining the actions of the alliance and in resourcing those
decisions with robust and interoperable capabilities, he said.
Balancing Collaboration and Confrontation: Russia
How the
alliance responds to threats and provocation is "not lost on any
nation, not least the nation to our east, nor on its leader," Mattis
said.
"While the United States and the alliance seek to
engage Russia, we must at the same time defend ourselves if Russia
chooses to act contrary to international law," he said.
The
United States, the defense secretary said, remains willing to keep
open political channels of cooperation and de-escalate tensions.
"We remain open to opportunities to restore a cooperative
relationship with Moscow, while being realistic in our expectations
and ensuring our diplomats negotiate from a position of strength,"
Mattis said.
"We are not willing, however, to surrender the
values of this alliance nor let Russia, through its actions, speak
louder than anyone in this room," he said.
The United States
will stand firm against the threats, the defense secretary said. "We
will buttress this alliance and defend ourselves, even as we watch
for a Russia that lives up to its commitments in the NATO-Russia
Founding Act," Mattis said.
He added, "Balancing
collaboration and confrontation is admittedly an uncomfortable
strategic equation."
Meeting Two Percent Defense Target
Mattis called on alliance members to meet the goal of spending
two percent of their respective country's GDP on defense. Only
Britain, Estonia, Greece, Poland and the United States have done so,
the defense secretary said.
The American taxpayer must not
continue to carry a "disproportionate share of the defense of
Western values," Mattis said.
"Americans cannot care more for
your children's future security than you do," he said. "Disregard
for military readiness demonstrates a lack of respect for ourselves,
for the alliance, and for the freedoms we inherited, which are now
clearly threatened."
Immediate and steady progress toward the
goal of meeting the two-percent target must become a reality, if
NATO is to remain a credible alliance and able to adequately defend
itself, the defense secretary said.
US Commitment in Europe
The United States under U.S. Operation Atlantic Resolve, he
pointed out, is moving armored units into the Baltic States, Poland,
Romania and Bulgaria to support and supplement NATO's commitment to
deterrence.
The United States will soon join the Britain,
Canada and Germany in leading combined and enhanced forward presence
defensive forces in Poland and the Baltic States, the defense
secretary said.
"In so doing our nations are demonstrating
the trans-Atlantic bond, standing up for our values, and recognizing
that the freedoms we hold dear are worth defending," Mattis said.
By Lisa Ferdinando
DOD News
Copyright 2017
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