Speaking at the NATO Public Forum in Vilnius on Tuesday, 11 July 2023, Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană said that it is fundamental for the Alliance to maintain its technological edge. He said that NATO’s “ecosystem of innovation” goes hand in hand with the new NATO Innovation Fund, the “first ever multinational sovereign venture capital fund”, noting the need to put “a little seed money into start-ups” and that NATO is acting as a catalyst for “harnessing the innovation ecosystem across the Alliance”.
Speaking about the war in Ukraine and noting that high-intensity warfare is back in Europe, the Deputy Secretary General said that there is also a need to invest more in conventional and multi-domain forces. He said that NATO is an aggregator and “an organization that sends a demand signal to our governments and to our private sector”.
Mr. Geoană stressed that “security is the foundation of prosperity, security is the foundation of democracy” and that NATO is looking forward to having Sweden as a new Ally.
The NATO Public Forum in Vilnius is organised by NATO, the Eastern Europe Studies Centre, the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Munich Security Conference and the Atlantic Council.
