Opening remarks

Thank you Petr.

I appreciate you staying late for the press conference.

I appreciated the attendance of the CHoDs today. These conversations are always profitable when we get together.

And I want to express my gratitude for the contributions from across the Alliance to NATO Operations and to the defense of Europe.

I also appreciate how difficult it is in these complex times to meet all the requirements in the light of high demand and continued resource constraints to provide all the forces that we require.

Today, the CHoDs discussed, as laid out during the Warsaw Summit, we must do more to ensure a Europe that is whole, free and at peace.

This includes a change in our posture, in our mindset and our ability to respond at the speed of conflict.

Clearly, NATO is changing; we are adapting the Alliance to respond to different approaches to modern warfare which is extremely complex, potentially vast in scale, scope, and intensity. And we continue to work as Allies to succeed in this significant transition.

To underscore that Strategic Unity keeps NATO strong.

National, bi-lateral, and collective Alliance efforts must be integrated and mutually reinforcing.

This is fundamental to our success and to address the evolving strategic security environment.

And NATO nations are responding, nationally, multi-laterally, and collectively, through the readiness of their own forces, enhanced forward presence, tailored forward presence, the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, Baltic Air Policing, enhanced Air Policing there is a number of activities to just to name a few.

Looking forward, we must maintain a strategic, long-term view. We must have a sense of urgency coupled with a sense of endurance.

Simultaneously we must find the right way to make the best use of our current capacity to secure allies for the challenges we face.

Our instruments need to offer us flexibility. Utility across potential applications is critical, and we must be based on the requirement in terms of both quality and quantity.

This is not simply desirable for the sake of efficiency, it is a requirement that we are adaptable and able to respond at speed.

NATO is charged to be READY and RESPONSIVE to the new and continually, involving, evolving security environment.

We must continue to set the conditions and invest now to ensure European stability in the future.

And with that I’ll hand it over to my colleague, SACT Denis.