Remarks

It's a pleasure to host my dear friend Tony, the US Secretary of State, again in NATO. And over the last four years, you have been in many NATO meetings. And I really want to thank you for that. You have been a staunch ally and people like you very much. And the fact that you are listening in, participating in the meetings, and that the US, in that sense, is really providing the leadership necessary. And we still need that.

There are two big issues we will discuss today and tomorrow. Today you will very much focus – tonight – on Ukraine. We know that the situation on the battlefield is difficult, and we have to do everything we can to get more military aid into Ukraine. And I want to thank you, the US, but also Sweden and the UK and Estonia and Norway and Germany for making an announcement the last couple of days again of extra military aid going into Ukraine. This is quite crucial, particularly now that the winter is coming and we know the situation with the energy infrastructure in Ukraine.

Tomorrow, we will discuss amongst the 32 the issue of the increasing Russian aggression against NATO Allies, and how to counter that. And this is a very important subject we will spend a lot of time on tomorrow morning. And also here, your leadership is highly valued. So again, thank you for being here, but particularly thank you for being here for the last four years.

We wish you the best after January, but we need you till the 20^th of January every day, and we know we can count on you again