Stoltenberg: NATO helped end ethnic wars in Kosovo, Bosnia

Secretary - General NATO Jens Stoltenberg has spoken at the Heritage Foundation, where he stressed the needs for increased and sustainable defence spending throughout NATO's alliance, more balanced burden division and increased defence production to meet the challenges of this key moment.

He has said that with a full battle under way in Europe, with China becoming stronger and stronger, more and more allies understand the value of being together.

For 40 years we controlled the Soviet Union, then suddenly the Soviet Union was gone, and people said NATO must get out of the area, and we came out of the area and helped end two brutal ethnic wars in the Balkans -- in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in Serbia or Kosovo. And then, after (attack) 9/11, NATO did something that no one expected us to do and that was to be on the first line of the war against terrorism and to help the United States”, Stoltenberg said.

He stressed that, after 2014, NATO has adapted again, with more focus on collective protection in Europe, and that is why the Veti-Atlantic Alliance is a success.