The peoples and politicians of the allied countries „have understood the need to invest more in defense” in order to ensure interoperability, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana said on Friday, as he visited the Multinational Brigade South-East in Craiova, write Agerpres.

„Sometimes it’s not easy to be a professional serviceman in our forces. But I also know that our peoples, the public, our politicians have understood the need to invest more in defense, in order to ensure a true interoperability, because we make the transition, for the newer members, from Soviet-style to NATO compliant equipment,” said Geoana.

He mentioned Finland formally becoming a NATO member on April 4, adding that „we hope that Sweden will soon join too.”

Geoana also spoke about the current security situation and the support provided to Ukraine.

„In 1949, when our alliance was founded, we did not anticipate that war would return to the European continent. Last year Russia started a brutal, illogical and immoral war against Ukraine. We help Ukraine, because with our help, the Ukrainians do not defend just their country and sovereignty, they also fight for us.

We will continue to help Ukraine until the end. We also need to adapt as an alliance to the changes in international politics, in geopolitics and the huge impact of technologies on everything we do,” the NATO senior official said.

He also addressed the troops, telling them that „your ambition and the ambition of your commanders to turn this training brigade into a combat brigade is legitimate. I know that your joint activity, with colleagues and friends from Romania, Portugal, Poland, North Macedonia and probably from even more countries in the future, is indispensable for the sustainable success of our alliance.”