Joint press statement

Thank you for inviting me to this meeting and it is good to meet with you, an old friend but also to meet with all the EU Defence Ministers. I think that the regular meetings I have with the EU Ministers, and also that Frederica participates at our Defence and Foreign ministerial meetings, just illustrates that the cooperation between NATO-EU is now closer than it has ever been before. That is important for the EU, that is important for NATO and I also welcome that we will discuss now how we can follow up and implement the declaration we agreed in Warsaw in July which adds substance to NATO –EU cooperation.

I also welcome the debate which is now taking place on how to strengthen the European defence and European defence cooperation. Because there is no contradiction between strong European defence and a strong NATO. Actually, it reinforces each other.

And as Frederica just underlined, the importance is that we avoid duplication, that it is complimentary, and that the dialogue between EU an NATO is transparent and open, so we make sure that we really strengthen Europe, European defences and our transatlantic cooperation. And this is something I am looking forward to discuss with the EU Defence Ministers in the meeting.