Address to the troops
by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte followed by a press point with President of Estonia Alar Karis
(As delivered)
Good afternoon.
President Karis, dear Alar, thank you and Chief of Defence General Merilo for hosting us here today.
It is my pleasure to be here at Tapa Army Base.
It is where the Estonian 1st Brigade is located, and NATO’s multinational forces are fully integrated.
This is the first NATO battlegroup I have visited since I became Secretary General, and I am already impressed.
With your professionalism, commitment and resolve.
Thank you to the United Kingdom for leading this battlegroup, with its soldiers serving alongside troops from France and staff from Iceland.
I also welcome that troops from the United States are here today, yet another demonstration of US commitment to our shared security.
You stand shoulder-to-shoulder with your Estonian brothers and sisters in uniform.
You all embody the spirit of NATO.
All for one and one for all.
Together we defend Estonia’s freedom every day.
And Estonia will never be alone again.
You are one of eight NATO battlegroups stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea, backed by the full weight of NATO’s fighting forces in all domains, land, air, sea, space and cyberspace.
Every hour of your vigilance reinforces our collective defence.
You deter any aggression and your presence proves that NATO will always defend every Ally.
Your efforts are not just a display of military strength but a clear commitment to preserve peace and prevent conflict.
Let me also welcome that today, the United Kingdom and Germany are signing a new defence agreement that will bring their armed forces and defence industries even closer, further strengthening NATO’s security.
NATO will continue to step up our deterrence and defence.
And increase our support to Ukraine, because Ukraine’s security is our security.
It is a privilege to meet you here today. I was fortunate to speak with some of you earlier.
You are the best of NATO.
Thank you for your service.
TV3
Since you are from the Netherlands, [inaudible] do the people understand the meaning and need to contribute to NATO and keep the troops in place in Estonia where we have Russian borders? The second question would be to the US Presidential elections, how can we resolve [inaudible] European security, and is NATO ready for Trump’s comeback?
Secretary General Mark Rutte
For my country, I can tell you that from the moment the 23rd to the 24th of February. That night, when at three o'clock we got the message, the news that the full Russian onslaught was taking place. Obviously, the war had started earlier with getting Crimea under Russian control, but the full onslaught starting on that February night in 2022 came very close to our feeling of security, our sense of that you do not invade another country, that you cannot recolonize a other country in the world of 2022, 2023, 2024, and this was what I have seen all over NATO.
And yes, I know that Estonia is literally on the East flank of the Alliance, but basically every one of 1 billion people living in NATO territory live on the eastern flank. Maybe not literally, but it is not you alone. You are not alone. We all have to go through this together, and I can only say from the heart that we are in this together. It's one for all and all for one.
And that, including keeping the support for Ukraine going, we are extremely motivated to do that. Then on the US elections, obviously, we have to wait the outcome. I have no intelligence who will win, and I'm convinced that the President, the Prime Minister of Estonia, myself, everyone in NATO will work in a very positive and cooperative way with whoever will be the winner of that election. Also, because both on the Democratic side and on the Republican side, people realise that NATO and the collective defence NATO provides is not only in the interest of Estonia or the Netherlands, United Kingdom, but also for United States, if Russia would be successful in Ukraine, and we will prevent that. But if that would happen, and that would be a security threat, not only to Estonia, but also the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We all realise that. So, this, this is a collective effort, and I know that we will work with whoever will win the elections. And of course, we have no say in this and no opinion, but we have to make it work, whoever will be chosen.
Delfi.ee
De facto, we already have a two speed Europe, where a country can stand aside and others can work on effective cooperation, could this system work for NATO as well? Because we have allies like Hungary, [inaudible].
Secretary General Mark Rutte
Let me absolutely clear, we have a one speed NATO. There is not a two speed NATO. And every NATO country, and I know, for example, on Ukraine, my predecessor flew out of Budapest, had good talks with Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister, and they agreed on the modalities of non-participation in some of the military support for Ukraine. And this is possible. But then Hungary did not block anything. So, everything is going ahead, and Hungary is providing an enormous contribution to NATO, KFOR and many other places. It has well trained armed forces. They are integral part of NATO. So, I will never expect a notion of a two speed NATO, and we should not aim for that at all. This is really different from some of the arrangements in the EU where you have specific modalities to deal with this. But in NATO, it's an Alliance. Article 5, one for all, all for one, stands.
President of Estonia Alar Karis
[Inaudible] but what I can say that, first of all, Europe is multi-speed, rather than two-speed in Europe. But in NATO, NATO is a collective institution, organization that is defence organization, what matters is our collective speed. Just to remind you, when the war broke up in of aggression in Ukraine, you know that some countries were very hesitant and did not give any military help to Ukraine, but now, after two years, two and a half years, these countries are on top list helping Ukraine. That means speed is very relative, and you look at this time scale, so the same applies also to NATO.