U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow is the highest ranking American in NATO, serving as the Deputy Secretary-General. Before holdign this esteemed position, Alexander Vershbow as the US Ambassador to Russia, as well as the US Ambassador to South Korea after that. In 2009, he was nominated by President Obama to be the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, which oversees US policy toward NATO. In 2012, he then rose to his current position, the first American to have held this position.
In this GLOBALO clip , Vershbow talks about the recent NATO Summit in Warsaw Poland. The key points of his talk were:
- The West and NATO are now in long term competition with Russia, and need to work together
- They need a 2 track approach to Russia:
- Stronger defense and deterrence
- Keep channels of communication open for dialogue
- NATO needs to project stability
- Challenges in the southern region
- Strengthen collaboration with the EU on cyber and hybrid warfare
- NATO needs to take a larger role in maritime security in regards to illegal migrants
- A sense that “we’re all in this together”
The NATO Summit in Poland was a meeting that yielded a lot of results, as Globalo reported earlier in the week.
There was no discussion of the role of Turkey, and any comments about the fact that Turkey is violating the rules of NATO.
This idea of a two track approach is in line with the proposals for a new Harmel II, as a the successful long-time NATO doctrine for communication with Russia that can be read in detail here.