Joint press conference

Good afternoon.

And thank you so much Minister Waszczykowski, for welcoming me once again here to Warsaw. It’s a great pleasure to be back and it’s a great pleasure to be able to sit down with you and to address many challenges we face together.

And especially since Warsaw and Poland is going to host our next Summit in just a few weeks. I think it’s also of great importance for me to be able to have so much together with you. And to sort out and to address the many different topics which we are going to address at the Summit in July.

And the Warsaw Summit is going to be a landmark Summit taking place in a time where we face a new and more demanding security environment. Both with threats and challenges emanating from the east and from the south.

With Russia’s aggressive actions against Ukraine and its military build-up from the Baltic to the Black Sea.

And violent extremism from ISIL and other terrorist groups across the Middle East and North Africa fueling the refugee and migrant crisis.

We discussed NATO’s response, to keep our nations safe we must strengthen our collective defence and we must project stability beyond our borders.

We will take decisions to enhance our forward presence in the eastern part of our Alliance. We will take those decisions at the Summit in Warsaw.

This means more NATO troops in Poland.

Not to provoke, but to prevent conflict.

As we continue to strengthen our defence and deterrence NATO Allies remain committed to political dialogue with Russia and transparency in military affairs.

Because when tensions are high, dialogue, predictability and transparency become even more important. To reduce risks and to avoid incidents spiraling out of control.

This is why Allies have agreed the NATO-Russia Council should meet again before the Summit.

And I thank you Minister for your leadership in putting forward proposals at the OSCE in Vienna to modernize military confidence building measures.

This will help enhance transparency on military exercise and on military activity. I strongly welcome these Polish proposals.

Our message is clear and consistent:

The Cold War is history and we want it to stay that way.

At the Warsaw Summit we will also take decisions on what more we can do to project stability beyond our borders.

To the east, helping partners like Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova to strengthen their defences and increase their resilience. And to the south, supporting Iraq, Jordan and Tunisia to build up their forces and push back against violent extremism.

Training local forces is often our best weapon against terrorism. We have learned this from Afghanistan and our other operations.

So thank you once again, Witold, for hosting me and my delegation. This has been a very useful visit to Warsaw.

Thank you.