Calls Wales Summit “one of the most important Summits in the history of our Alliance.”
NEWPORT, WALES – NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen today called the Wales Summit “one of the most important Summits in the history of our Alliance” as members grapple with a host of challenges including aggression in Europe’s east and unrest in the Middle East.
“I came of age in a Europe that was divided and dangerous. When everything could end in the flash of a nuclear exchange. Your experience has been very different. You came of age after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In a Europe where conflict had been contained. Where dividing lines were being erased. And where freedom, stability, and prosperity appeared to be the natural state of affairs,” said Rasmussen, addressing delegates to the Atlantic Council’s Future Leaders Summit.
“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has been a wake-up call. It has reminded us – reminded all of us – that our freedom, security, and prosperity cannot be taken for granted. That some are trying to redraw dividing lines in Europe with force, and in blood. A Europe whole, free, and at peace remains a work in progress.”
The Council’s Future Leaders Summit is the premier public diplomacy event alongside the NATO Summit in Wales where leaders from sixty countries have converged to engage in key discussions on major global security challenges.
Representing thirty-four countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, and Asia, the Future Leaders Summit delegates are CEOs and entrepreneurs, civil society leaders, parliamentary staff, senior government advisors, diplomats, and military personnel and veterans. They were selected following a competitive application process and will be granted exclusive access to high-level leaders at the NATO Summit site. See the full list of delegates here.
Secretary General Rasmussen also thanked the emerging leaders for developing a report commissioned by NATO. It provides concrete proposals that support a renewed transatlantic bond.
Watch the video of his remarks here.
The Future Leaders Summit will also feature speeches and panel discussion with other high-level officials including Deputy Prime Minister of the UK and Lord President of the Council Nick Clegg, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation General Jean-Paul Paloméros, Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Philip M. Breedlove, Prime Minister of Estonia Taavi Rõivas, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic Miroslav Lajčák, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia Vesna Pusić, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway Børge Brende, Minister of Defense of Montenegro Milica Pejanović-Djurišić, Minister of Defense of Georgia Irakli Alsania, among other leaders. View the full agenda here.
The Future Leaders Summit is organized in partnership with the Atlantic Treaty Association and the Atlantic Council of the United Kingdom, and is generously supported by Robert J. Abernethy, NATO, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Allied Command Transformation, Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Washington, DC, Airbus Group, The Scowcroft Group, US Mission to NATO, and Julie Finley.