NATO Parliamentary President talks with reporters on assembly, Dayton Peace Accords, U.S. relations

“Great dinners, great lunch, great city, great hospitality. I think this is the real Midwest we heard about,” he said.

He also said that he had visited Carillon Park and the Dayton Art Institute, and said that he hoped they weren’t disturbing the city too much.

When asked about the millions spent to host the NATO assembly in Dayton, Perestrello replied, “It’s expensive to be safe, but it’s much more expensive not to be safe.”

He also spoke on the history of the Dayton Peace Accords, which were negotiated at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and ended the Bosnian War 30 years ago.

One lesson that can be taken from the aftermath of the conflict for NATO, he said, was that “through strength, you can get peace and without strength you will be vulnerable,” which he added was a lesson that could be applied to the war in Ukraine.

He lamented that the war had reached such a high level of violence before the international community stepped in.

Speaking on NATO’s relationship with the Trump administration, he said that in the end, the political message was that the U.S. wants is a larger military investment by its NATO allies, in particular Canada and Europe.

“I believe that at the end what the U.S. administration wants, that’s a stronger NATO. And we want the same,” he said.