Doorstep statement

Okay, good morning, NATO Defence Ministers will meet today and tomorrow and they meet at a critical time. Ukraine has launched a counter offensive. What we see is fierce fighting. It is still early days. But we also see that the Ukrainians are making gains and that Ukraine is able to liberate occupied land.

This is due to the courage, the bravery, the skills of the Ukrainian soldiers. But it also highlights and demonstrates that the support NATO Allies have been giving to Ukraine now for many, many months, actually makes a difference on the battlefield as we speak.

So one of the main issues so we will address is how to sustain and step up support to Ukraine. That will be done in the meeting of the NATO Ukraine Commission, together with Minister Reznikov. And that will be a meeting that will be preceded by meeting of the US lead Contact Group for Ukraine, that will meet earlier today.

And the war in Ukraine just demonstrates the need to stand with Ukraine and then to continue to provide support. We will also address how to further strengthen NATO's deterrence and defence as preparations for upcoming Vilnius summit in July next month, where we will have new regional plans, a New Force Model, new force structure, and also address the need to strengthen our pledge to invest more in defence.

We expect that the leaders at the Summit will agree that 2% of GDP for defence is not something we should strive towards, not a ceiling, but a minimum needed to be invested in our shared security. Then we will also address how to further ramp up production. Because since last fall, it has been obvious that this is now a war of attrition. And a war of attrition is a battle of logistics. And therefore we have engaged with the defence industry. And we will have an event here, an informal event where we will meet a small group of defence industry across the Alliance. And this is part of our ongoing engagement with the defence industry.

We will also agree at the meeting new capability targets for battle decisive ammunition and those targets for each and every nation will be significantly higher than the current ones. Because we have seen that to provide support to Ukraine [inaudible] depleted the stocks, and therefore we need to increase the targets, produce more. Partly to replenish our stocks and partly to be able to continue to provide support.

So the new capability targets for battle decisive ammunition is one important step in ensuring that Allies have the sufficient ammunition. We also in NATO have several ongoing projects of joint procurement. This is something we have done for decades, tried and tested the structures. Many of them are facilitated by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency, NSPA. And just for 155 ammunition we have ongoing projects are facilitated by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency of 1 billion US dollars.

And then we have other projects for other types of ammunition and also air defence ammunition. I expect that ministers also will agree to establish a new center for the protection of critical undersea infrastructure. This center will be at our Maritime Command, MARCOM, in the United Kingdom. And then tomorrow we will also meet in the NATO Nuclear Planning Group to address how to continue to ensure that our nuclear deterrence remains safe, secure and effective and in a more dangerous world. With that, I'm ready to take your questions.

Journalist (Non-specified Outlet)
Secretary General, from your perspective as the counter offensive continues what should be the priority for the Ramstein group meeting today? And what kind of weapons, what does Ukraine urgently need right now? And do you expect new pledges?

NATO Secretary General 
I expect many new pledges. And we have seen just over the last few days, both significant pledges from European allies, but also from North America and the United States. I just arrived from Washington and the United States. President Biden announced just a couple of days ago a significant package with more ammunition, with more air defence, ammunition and other types of military support. And we also have seen from several other European Allies over the last days, announcing more support. So this is an ongoing process where Allies are announcing additional support to Ukraine. Ukraine needs many different types of support, but perhaps most of the focus will be or has been, and continues to be on the importance of sustainment of making sure that all the systems which are already there, are working as they should so meaning that they have the ammunition, the spare parts, the maintenance, the repair capacity to operate, and to be sustained throughout the whole offensive. But we will meet with minister Reznikov, we will be briefed by the military commanders. And then of course, the reason of doing this both in the US-led contact group for Ukraine but also in the NATO Ukraine commission is to have first-hand information and to be able to sit down with Ukrainians to discuss the specific needs.

Journalist (Non-specified Outlet)
Hello Stoltenberg. The Danish Defence Minister will put forward a plan for training of the Ukrainian pilots and the F-16 Program. How close are we actually on delivering F-16s or other Western produced fighter jets for Ukraine? And then secondly, you have just been to the United States, were you asked then if you could be persuaded to take on a little more time as Secretary General, if the member states can't agree on a successor?

NATO Secretary General 
First of all, I welcome the decision by several NATO Allies to provide a training of fighter pilots. This is important and it will enable us to, at a later stage also make decisions to deliver fourth generation fighter aircraft like for instance, the F-16s. And I'd like to commend Denmark for playing a leading role to facilitate this agreement and also to offer to provide training for the Ukrainian pilots. This just shows that Denmark is a country that has really played an important role and continues to play an important role in providing significant support to Ukraine. Exactly when decisions will be taken - it's too early to say but the fact that training has started provides us with the option to also decide to deliver planes and then the pilots will be ready to fly them. I visited Washington earlier this week. And the main purpose of that visit was of course, to discuss the preparations for the Vilnius Summit. This is part of my regular engagement with leaders across the Alliance. And in the meeting with President Biden we discussed the terms on defence, Ukraine, the need to strengthen our defence investment pledge and other important issues for the Alliance. When it comes to my successor, that is an issue to be decided by the 31 Allies. I am responsible for all decisions that this Alliance has to take except for one. And that is about my future. That is for the 31 allies to decide.

Journalist (Non-specified Outlet)
Sweden was negotiating yesterday in Ankara. And at the same time, there were some bitey comments from President Erdogan. So how, how should we understand those comments? And is it still possible to have Sweden as a full member? In the Vilnius Summit?

NATO Secretary General 
I welcome the fact that we had the meeting of the permanent mechanism between Finland, Sweden and Türkiye where also NATO participates in Ankara this week. This was a follow up of the meeting I had with the president Erdoğan a couple of weeks ago, where we had good discussions on how to make progress on Swedish accession into the Alliance. And President Erdoğan and I agree then to convene the meeting of the permanent mechanism that met this week and the meeting took place in a constructive atmosphere, constructive talks, and where they addressed progress and identified also how to continue to make progress and also agreed to continue to work on how to ensure that we are moving forward on a suite that is an accession of Sweden into the Alliance. Sweden has delivered on the commitments Sweden made at Summit in Madrid last year, which is to remove restrictions on arms exports, to strengthen the cooperation with Türkiye in fighting terrorism, as Sweden has changed, amended its constitution and strengthened the anti-terrorist legislation. And all of this demonstrates that Sweden has delivered at that has been my message also. At the same time, we need to realize that Türkiye has some legitimate security concerns. No other NATO Ally has suffered more terrorist attacks. And that's the reason why I also welcome that we are together sitting there and discussing how to further strengthen their cooperation in fighting terrorism. It is possible to get Sweden in by the Vilnius Summit. I cannot guarantee you that that will happen. But I'm still working hard to ensure the accession of Sweden as soon as possible. And therefore also welcome the meeting I had with President Erdoğan and the meeting of the permanent mechanism this week.

Journalist (Non-specified Outlet)
The question is about NATO’s statement on the potential nuclear weapon on Belarus. Lukashenko talks about nuclear weapon in Belarus as if it is a fact. And Putin announced that they will deliver this kind of weapon at the beginning of July just before the summit in Vilnius. What options of reaction to such a step is considered by NATO, in perhaps the deployment of additional defence means to protect Allies in countries neighbouring Belarus, from potential Iskander missiles? Thank you.

NATO Secretary General 
Russia's nuclear rhetoric and messaging is reckless and dangerous. And Russia must know that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. And we are, of course, closely monitoring what Russia is doing. So far, we haven't seen any changes in the nuclear posture that requires any changes in our posture. But at the same time, what we see is part of a pattern where Russia has invested heavily in new modern nuclear capabilities and also deployed more nuclear capabilities, including close to NATO borders, for instance, in the high north. So this is part of a pattern that NATO already has responded to by increasing the readiness of our forces by increasing the presence in the eastern part of the Alliance. And we will continue to closely monitor what is needed and how NATO how Russia is changing their nuclear posture.

Journalist (Non-specified Outlet)
Secretary, you formally stated that you would end your term step down as general secretary after this term. But you're now saying that this decision is not up to you, does this mean that you're willing to continue for six or twelve months if you are asked?

NATO Secretary General 
I'm saying exactly the same, as I've said all the time, I have no other plans and all the intention and I don't have any intention of seeking extension.

Journalist (Non-specified Outlet)
Very briefly, concerning the counter offensive, you mentioned several times that their successful counter offensive will strengthen Ukraine's position at the negotiation table. Do you think that now there is some common ground for the negotiations and or it may appear in case of the counter offense?

NATO Secretary General 
Well, we don't see any signs from President Putin from Russia that they are actually preparing for peace, or any real negotiations. But at the same time, we know that the more ground Ukraine is able to gain through this counter offensive, the stronger their hand will be at the negotiating table. And we also know that the more successful the Ukrainian counter offensive is, the more likely it is that President Putin at some stage will realize that he cannot win this war on the battlefield. He has to sit down, then when that will happen, how it will happen, no one can say that with certainty, but the only thing we know is that if we want a just and enduring peace, then we need to provide military support to Ukraine, because it’s the only way for Ukraine to liberate country land, and to send a clear message to Moscow that they will know that Russia will not win on the battlefield.

Journalist (Non-specified Outlet)
Secretary General, you have been saying that the member states should agree that the 2% of spending should be the minimum. Are you thinking that at some point, the member states will set new targets of spending?

NATO Secretary General 
Part of our preparations for the Vilnius Summit the NATO summit in next month - and also, what will be discussed here at the defence ministerial meeting as a preparation for the Summit - is the question of strengthening our commitment to invest more in defence. In 2014, we made what we call the Wales pledge, where we said that we should move towards spending 2% of GDP on defence within a decade. Now, this decade has almost passed, and the world has become much more dangerous with a full-fledged war in Europe, but also other threats and challenges. So I expect that when leaders meet  in Vilnius next month, they will agree a stronger pledge, an enduring pledge, and a pledge that has to come into effect immediately, and not within a decade. And where 2% of GDP for defence is not some kind of ceiling, but a floor, a minimum, that we have to reach. But of course, these are now ongoing consultations among Allies. So the exact language in that pledge will be agreed at the Summit in Vilnius.