As the Minister pointed out, this event could not have been more timely, with NATO facing an unexpected strategic challenge on its eastern flank. Russian incursions over the past few years, first into Georgia and then into Crimea and east Ukraine, have revealed stratified rather than united attitudes to the problem within the Alliance. This is hardly surprising: north-west European Allies, relatively insulated from the threat, war-weary and pressed by fiscal austerity, are understandably reluctant to engage with Russian provocations; by contrast, for east European Allies, the immediacy of the geopolitical threat is understandably creating anxiety. 

Issues such as energy security were touched upon, with alternatives actively being sought to the vice-grip that Russia currently enjoys over states like Lithuania. One such example is the new power-line running to Sweden, or the increased use of readily-transportable liquid petroleum gas (or LPG), to reduce dependence on Russian fuel imports.