Joint press point

Prime Minister, Charles,

It is great to have you back here at NATO’s new headquarters.

It’s also a great honour for me to be able to receive you here because Belgium has been so instrumental for constructing and building this building. This is now a modern home for a modern Alliance. And you have been hosting NATO since 1967, but now you are not just hosting NATO but also hosting NATO in this very beautiful and stunning building.

We have implemented or we have conducted the move and now 4000 people, more than 4000 people work in this building. And we are very pleased with the fact that we have been able to move in and start to work in the new Head Quarters.

The space we are in now – The Agora – is the size of two and a half football pitches.

And we have discovered that this beautiful space is the perfect place to watch The Beautiful Game.  After work, staff follow the World Cup here on the giant TV screen just behind us. It is one of the many benefits of being part of NATO!

So Charles, I know that you will watch the game tomorrow and I wish you and the Red Devils tomorrow all the best. Norway, my country, didn’t qualify but 10 NATO Allies are part of the games, have qualified, so there’s actually quite a good chance that a NATO Ally will become World Champion.

We thank you for being the host nation for NATO, but we also thank Belgium for contributing in many ways to our shared security.

Belgian troops are part of NATO's Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, helping train Afghan forces to combat terrorism. Your soldiers serve with NATO’s battlegroup in Lithuania. And Belgian jets keep the skies over the Baltic Sea region safe by participating in the NATO Air Policing Mission there.

During our meeting we discussed the upcoming Summit here next month.

We are going to make important decisions there on deterrence and defence, higher readiness of our forces, we will decide to step up the fight against terrorism, including the training mission in Iraq.

We will also continue with the funding for the Afghan armed forces.

And we will also decide to strengthen our cooperation with the European Union.

I’m planning on signing a joint declaration with President Juncker and President Tusk.

Outlining the mission on how the strengthen the cooperation between NATO and the EU.

And I welcome Belgium’s leadership on all these issues.

Leaders will also discuss burden-sharing. In Wales, at our NATO Summit there in 2014 we decided to stop the cuts, to gradually increase defence spending, and then move to spending 2 per cent of GDP within a decade. And the good news is that European Allies and Canada have turned a corner. All Allies have stopped the cuts, all Allies have started to increase and more Alllies spend 2% of GDP on defence.

And the majority of all Allies have now put forward plans on how to reach 2% within a decade.

I welcome the process we also see in Belgium. Belgium has stopped the cuts in defence spending and we also see some increase. But I encourage Belgium to do more, to increase defence spending and invest in new capabilities, both in new war ships and in new fighter planes.

We must continue to invest more in defence to keep our citizens safe.

So I’m looking forward to the Summit, this is a Summit with a lot of substance, with important decisions on deterrence, defence, the fight against terrorism, cooperation with the EU, and many other issues.

And once again, thank you for all the support you give to the Alliance, both for being host nation but also through your contributions to NATO missions and operations.

Welcome.