site.btaAdmiral Eftimov: Democratic World Faces Most Unpredictable Environment since Cold War

The Alliance and the democratic world are facing the most dangerous and unpredictable security environment since the Cold War, Defence Chief Admiral Emil Eftimov said on the second day of the annual Chief of Defence Conference.

"It is in the interest of our society to understand that investment in security is fundamental to the functioning of all socio-economic spheres," Admiral Eftimov said. Collective defence is the most effective mechanism to allow fair burden sharing among allies and ensure sustainable development of member states.

Today's new reality is characterized with a heightened strategic confrontation, which brings to the fore many challenges to collective and national security and defence, Admiral Eftimov said.

"NATO's most important and fundamental task of effectively protecting and defending the territory of the Allies, in line with Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, takes on even greater importance. I would like to recall that before Article 5, there is Article 3. It states that in order to more effectively achieve the objectives of the treaty, member states will, individually or jointly, maintain and build their individual or collective capacity to respond to an armed attack," Eftimov said. In this respect the conference discusses the challenges to national planning, conduct and procurement of operations in the context of allied defence plans.

Chief of Staff at NATO Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, Admiral Joachim Ruhle, and will be joined via video teleconference by the Deputy Chief of Staff Support of the Allied Joint Force Command Naples, Major General Wilhelm Grun, and the Commander of the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps – Greece, Lieutenant General Athanasios Garinis.