Joint press conference

Mr. President, 
It is a pleasure to be here in Poland. Indeed, we have been working together now for eight years. We have become friends, and I really look forward also, in the remainder of your term, to work together on all these issues of our common security.

Poland is a key security provider for the Alliance.
A steadfast supporter of Ukraine.
And an important contributor to our collective defence.

I want to thank you for being also a leading supporter of Ukraine,
You were one of the first Allies to provide military aid. 
And since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Poland has welcomed over a million Ukrainian refugees and committed 4 billion euros in military aid.
You host the NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis, Training, and Education Centre.
And I would like to personally thank you, for your leadership and steadfast support in these efforts.
I was especially interested to hear about your recent visit to South Korea and your meeting with President Yoon. 

Putin’s increasing reliance on Beijing, Pyongyang and Tehran shows that our security is not regional, it is global.
So we must step up our collaboration with our Indo-Pacific partners. Including South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. 
Today we discussed how to strengthen our support for Ukraine, and fulfil the commitments Allies made at the Washington Summit in July. 

This includes our financial pledge of 40 billion euros of military support in 2024.
And also the new NATO Command in Wiesbaden, which will coordinate security assistance and training. 
Allies, at this moment, including Poland, are working hard to ensure that this command becomes fully operational as soon as possible, which will be crucial to strengthening Ukraine’s defences, now and for the long term.

As we look ahead to the next NATO Summit in The Hague, we are also delivering on our commitments to further strengthen our deterrence and our defence.
We are ramping up our defence industrial capacity. 
Producing more shells, ships, and missiles than we have done for decades. 
But we need to do more, and this was what our discussion concentrated on. We have to do more, faster, and I know that I can count on Poland to lead the way, including with your exemplary defence spending of over 4 percent of GDP. And even next year moving into the area of 4,7%.
Because this sends a clear message not only to our adversaries, but also to the United States. That Europe understands it must do more to ensure our shared security.  And that starts with spending more and also fielding more capabilities. 

Another key priority for us is air and missile defence. 
And today, I was not able to go because of the visit of Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Brussels, but you have been at the official opening of the Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defence base in Redzikowo.  
This site significantly enhances our ability to defend against the growing threat of ballistic missiles from outside the Euro-Atlantic area.
It is part of NATO’s broader missile defence, 
which includes another Aegis Ashore site in Romania, 
U.S. navy destroyers out of Rota, Spain, 
and an early-warning radar in Türkiye.

This new facility is a testament to the strong commitment of both the United States and Poland to our collective defence.

Allies are also enhancing NATO’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence, with new high-end capabilities to defend against threats from all directions, including air defences and modern aircraft.
And we are conducting large-scale air defence exercises, like Ramstein Flag in Greece last month with more than 130 fighter jets and other aircraft from twelve NATO Allies.
So as we face growing threats, we are also strengthening our unity, our capabilities, and our resolve.  

Mr President, dear Andrzej, thank you again for your friendship, for your hospitality and for Poland’s commitment to our transatlantic Alliance.
 

Barbara Erling (Reuters): Mr. President, I will ask the question in English due to the presence of our guest. Both of you, Polish MOD said on Monday that the scope of the shield in Redzikowo needs to be expanded as now it can only be used against the missiles fired from the Middle East. What specific changes are being considered, and will the shield to be able to intercept projectiles from Russian and Belarusian territories in the future?

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte: Yes maybe let me start. So first of all, let me again say that this Aegis Ashore site here in Poland, is a critical component of our collective defence. We have debated this for many years, but this is now a project which is now really coming into practice, into effect. And I'm so happy that today this has taken place, this ceremony.

Again, the already operational Aegis site in Romania makes another important contribution to, let's say, our ability to defend NATO effectively. And the completion of this site here in Poland allowed NATO to declare enhanced operational capability at this Washington Summit in July. And this means that we are implementing what we decide, and that is crucial. Allies remain committed to the full development of a NATO ballistic missile defence.

So we will work on this moving forward step by step. Because, more broadly, NATO must have the means to address threats from any direction, because we cannot only focus on one challenge while ignoring all others. So we will work on this step by step. But this was a really important milestone today.

Natalia Ojewska (Bloomberg): The first one to Secretary General Rutte, so President Elect Donald Trump picked Mike Walz as his National Security Advisor and Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary. I would like to ask you whether you know them personally. What are your thoughts on them as choices for these positions, and how do you plan to work with them?

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte: First of all, let me say I had an exceptionally pleasant phone call last week with President-elect Donald Trump. We know each other since 2016, 2017 when he came first time into office. We have worked very closely together in an extremely open and pleasant way. I always enjoyed my visits to Washington. And we were always able to navigate the relationship in a way that we came to joint positions, because he is a very practical man. He is, of course, putting America first, which I totally understand. But by putting America first, he also understands that NATO and the NATO Alliance is important also for the defence of the US. So I look forward to work with him again, and he looks forward to work again together. So I'm really looking forward to the prospect.

I don't know the two people have been now candidates for both national security advisor and the Pentagon. But I mean, we will work together. We have to. And it will work, I've looked at their resumes and both, of course, has extensive experience also in the political scene, [and Waltz] as being a member of the House, and therefore in the Congress. So I really look forward to that. And at the end, this is about our collective defence.

And today, with the situation of North Korea getting involved in Russia now, helping the Russians in their fight with Ukraine shows you, and the fact that Russia has to pay for this by, as I said in my short introduction, by providing, for example, missile technology to North Korea, which is then presenting a threat to us and to the United States, money to Iran for the drones they are getting out of Iran, which is helping Iran to continue its very negative impact it has on the Middle East and beyond.

But also the fact that China continues with sanction circumvention and dual use goods they deliver to Russia to help with the war effort, it shows you that it is impossible to distinguish the Indo-Pacific from the Euro-Atlantic. We are in this together, in a sense that we have to work together, that the threat of North Korea is not only to us and the US, but also to South Korea, Japan and others. And I look forward to have that debate with Donald Trump, and then to see how effectively we can work here and can help him to move forward on his defence and foreign policy, and also making sure that NATO can be of help there.