Opening remarks

I've had a very positive, very constructive meeting with Foreign Minister Sikorski and Defence Minister Siemoniak. It's always a great pleasure to visit Poland, a staunch ally.

And let me take this opportunity to thank Poland for her strong commitment to our Alliance, for significant contributions to NATO-led operations, for participation in a number of multilateral defence projects, for hosting one of our future missile defence facilities, for participation in a number of smart defence projects. And last but not least, I would like to thank Poland for demonstrating a good example. When it comes to investment in defence, Poland is pretty close to our 2% benchmark for investment in defence, and that is of utmost importance if we are to make our collective defence credible – that we also invest a sufficient amount of money.

We have discussed Afghanistan and I would like to thank Poland for a long-term steadfast commitment to our operation in Afghanistan. You can be proud of your troops. They have really made a difference in Afghanistan and I pay tribute to their service and sacrifice.

We're now in the process of transferring responsibility for the security to the Afghans themselves, and by the end of 2014 our ISAF combat mission will be completed.

From 2015 we will establish a NATO-led training mission with the aim to train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces and in today’s meetings I have expressed the hope that Poland will be in a position to contribute to that future NATO-led training mission in Afghanistan.

Finally we have also discussed missile defence. The development of the NATO Missile Defence is on track. We have taken the first steps and over the coming years we will further develop the NATO Missile Defence with the aim to provide coverage for the populations in European NATO countries by 2018.

Recently the US changed its approach to Missile Defence, but let me assure you that there will be no change in the implementation of the Missile Defence system as regards the coverage of populations in European NATO countries. The coverage will be as planned and once again, we thank Poland for the offer to host one of the Missile Defence capabilities.

NATO's core task is territorial defence of our populations and societies, and missile defence is modern territorial defence to ensure effective protection of our populations against a growing missile threat.