NATO’s Counter Hybrid Support Teams gathered in Finland last week for a training session on responses to conventional and non-conventional tools that the alliance’s adversaries use to pursue their hostile objectives.
According to David van Weel, NATO assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges, the NATO Hybrid Symposium discussions “focused on how to better prepare for, deter and defend against this coercive use of political, economic, energy, information and other hybrid tactics.”
NATO has observed that its authoritarian adversaries are increasingly impeding the alliance’s democratic principles and “targeting the security of our citizens through hybrid tactics on a daily basis,” van Weel noted.
The event also featured NATO officials’ meetings with industry representatives for collaboration against hybrid challenges.
The Finnish government earlier announced that over 100 NATO delegates were participating in the NATO Hybrid Symposium at Helsinki’s Santahamina military base. Helsinki is also home to the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, a hub for 35 participating countries, as well as for NATO and European Union members, on enhancing civil-military expertise, resilience and readiness against hybrid threats.