‘How do you know you can trust NATO?’ Oana Lungescu, NATO Spokesperson, explains why being transparent is vital to an Alliance that protects almost 1 billion people.
Synopsis
NATO’s extensive pool of subject matter experts tell you what you need to know about a wide variety of defence and security issues around the world, and what NATO is doing to make you safer and more secure.
From fighting terrorism, to collective defence, learn about the security issues that matter directly from the experts.
“NATO’s job is to protect almost one billion people and that’s why transparency is vital,” says NATO Spokesperson Oana Lungescu. But in an organisation that deals with defence and security, this isn’t always easy. So how does NATO stay transparent?
Transcript
--SOUNDBITE—(ENGLISH) Oana Lungescu, NATO Spokesperson
“How do you know you can trust NATO?”
“NATO’s job is to protect almost one billion people and that’s why transparency is vital.
NATO is an alliance of democracies where all decisions are taken by consensus of the 29 member countries, which also fund NATO.
So people want to understand how their money is spent, what decisions their country takes within NATO and what it all means to their security.
But in an organisation that deals with defence and security, transparency doesn’t come easy.
Our discussions and documents are classified because they contain sensitive information. And even when documents aren’t classified, they can be hard to decipher because they include so many military abbreviations. Check out this thick book. It’s the NATO glossary of abbreviations. That’s why we have to be transparent in what we do and clear in what we say.
Every year, NATO publishes the civilian and military budgets’ totals. NATO also regularly declassifies documents from our archives.
Especially at a time when tensions are high, transparency helps increase predictability and reduce risks.
On our website you can find the schedule of NATO and national exercises.
We live in open societies and more openness makes us stronger.
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