Opening remarks
by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council at the level of Heads of State and Government, with Sweden
(As delivered)
Good afternoon again, welcome to all of you, welcome to this first meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council.
This is truly a historic moment - Allies and Ukraine sitting side by side as equals to address our common vision of Euro-Atlantic security.
And I'm really honoured to welcome in our midst our dear friend Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine. Welcome to you, Volodymyr, it’s great to have you here.
Dear Volodymyr, we stand with you in your courageous struggle for freedom and sovereignty. We are humbled by all the sacrifices that Ukrainians have made in this fight, and we are inspired by your courage.
We need to keep up and further expand our support to help Ukraine liberate its land and deter future Russian aggression.
At this Summit, we have reaffirmed that Ukraine will become a member of the Alliance and we have made decisions to bring Ukraine closer to NATO.
Today we meet as equals. And I look forward to the day we meet as Allies.
This concludes the public part of the meeting.
I thank the media for joining us and we will continue the meeting in just a moment.