The European Union and NATO have agreed to work closer together to face “new threats” from Russia. The two also plan to adopt new strategies to ease the wave of refugees coming to Europe from Africa and the Middle East, dw.de informs.
Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign affairs head said on Thursday that members of the European bloc needed to closely work with the NATO “at all levels.” The European Union’s foreign policy chief was speaking to NATO foreign ministers at a meeting in Belek, Turkey’s picturesque resort in the south.
“We (NATO and the EU) have challenges around us that unite us. We are different in nature but we share values,” Mogherini said.
Mogherini’s comments came as the EU, together with NATO, planned to tackle human traffickers in Libya who were smuggling thousands of refugees into Europe. The leader said she was “aware we need to increase our capacity to respond to crises,” but that this did not “necessarily mean a military approach.”
However, Mogherini did not “rule out a military aspect” in the cooperation.
The United States said it could provide the EU with information on migrants, but the foreign policy chief refused to divulge details on the EU’s plans in northern Africa. Details on the EU’s policy to tackle migration were to be discussed in a meeting of European defense and foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.
The bloc is struggling to deal with hundreds of thousands of migrants, who have fled conflict in Africa and the Middle East and have arrived in Italy and Greece this year. The EU’s military exercise would involve destroying ships used by people smugglers before they could be used for transporting migrants.