Remarks

Good morning. I really want to welcome Pete Hegseth, here at NATO again. You were here in February. You were very clear about the agenda you and President Trump are driving. We heard the message.

Today will be an important meeting, because today we will agree on the capability targets we need going forward to keep 1 billion people safe in NATO territory. From this, we will decide at the NATO summit to the spending. And we already know we need to spend much, much more if we want to fulfill all these targets. And by the way, by doing that, we will also equalise in terms of spending between Canada and Europe and the United States. 

There has been a total commitment by the US to NATO, but also this expectation that European and Canadian Allies will step up spending. And I'm pretty confident we will get there at the summit.

I also want to thank you and the President for what you are doing with Ukraine, driving the peace, engaging with President Putin and breaking the deadlock. And I think that is extremely important. And also today we will discuss Ukraine.

So Pete, thank you for being here. Thank you for your leadership and thank you for being such a staunch Ally.