As some 128 lawmakers from NATO nations and Sweden gather to discuss how to further increase support to Ukraine as its defends itself from Russia’s unjustified, unprovoked and brutal war and to fully implement the historic outcomes of NATO’s 2022 Madrid Summit, Joëlle Garriaud-Maylam (France) President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, launched the 2022 Annual Presidential Report.
The report details how the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) – from day one – demonstrated its resolute stance against Russia’s brutal aggression, its unwavering support for Ukraine and its resolve to deter and defend against any threat to the citizens of the Alliance.
“Vladimir Putin’s Russia is intent on destroying Ukraine whose democratic model has become unbearable to him,” stresses Garriaud-Maylam in her video introduction.
“This is not just a war waged by Russia against Ukraine. It is a war against democracy and the international rules-based order,” she continues. “This is why we must stand firmly with the Ukrainians, and this is why Russia cannot prevail.”
As Allied parliamentarians, “we fully play our part in making sure that our parliaments stand united, condemn this senseless and destructive war with one voice and offer Ukraine the assistance it requires at all levels: political, military, economic, financial and humanitarian.”
The past year has been transformative for NATO. At the June 2022 Summit in Madrid, Allied leaders adopted a new Strategic Concept, which is well in line with the priorities identified by the Assembly. Most importantly, as consistently argued by the Assembly, NATO’s new Strategic Concept places shared democratic values at the very heart of NATO’s response to today’s threats.
Here, President Garriaud-Maylam pays tribute to her predecessor, US Congressman Gerald E. Connolly, President from November 2020 to November 2022.
“Speaking to the Heads of State and Governments of the Alliance, he reiterated the crucial importance for NATO to place our shared democratic values at the heart of our response to the Russian threat, and to any other challenge and risks posed to our security,” she notes.
“I am delighted that NATO heard us, and that the new Strategic Concept adopted in Madrid substantially reflects our recommendations. Today, the time has come to translate this commitment into concrete action by establishing a Centre for Democratic Resilience at NATO Headquarters”, she underlines.
Later today, the annual meeting with the Permanent Representatives to the North Atlantic Council will take place under the joint chairmanship of President Garriaud-Maylam and Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General and Chairman of the North Atlantic Council.
Over the next three days, Assembly members will also discuss a wide range of topics on the transatlantic agenda with NATO, EU and national representatives, including on NATO’s conventional and nuclear deterrence and defence posture, the evolving challenge from China, countering information manipulation and interference as well as Europe and North America’s response to new security challenges, including on climate and energy.
These events are not public. There will be no media opportunity.
