‘Drills amid pandemic’: NATO defense ministers to hold secure teleconference on June 17-18

NATO has confirmed it will hold a scheduled videoconference at the level of defense ministers on June 17-18.

The North Atlantic Council (NAC) meetings will be chaired by the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, according to the statement issued by the alliance’s press service on Tuesday.

The official agenda for the videoconference has yet to be disclosed. However, diplomatic sources in Brussels told the TASS news agency that the meetings will focus on “military operations and drills of the alliance amid the pandemic, consequences of the US unilateral exit from the Open Skies Treaty and the alliance’s military expenditure.”

NATO member states are widely expected contract military spending this year due to the economic fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.