Remarks

by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak

  • 09 Nov. 2022 -
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  • Last updated: 10 Nov. 2022 08:39

(As delivered)

Thank you so much, Rishi. 

And it's great to be here together with you and to be invited to visit you and to come back to 10 Downing Street. 

Thank you for your warm welcome but also thank you for your strong support to NATO, to our transatlantic alliance, in the more dangerous world, it's even more important that we have a strong bond between North America and Europe in NATO as we have. 

The United Kingdom contributes to our collective defence in many different ways. 
You lead the multinational battlegroup in Estonia, you keep the skies over our Eastern flank safe with UK air policing. 
And then you also contribute a lot of ships, maritime capabilities to our naval missions and patrols. 
And then, of course, the United Kingdom has been and is a lead nation when it comes to providing support to Ukraine, you have trained the Ukrainian soldiers for many years. 

But now obviously you stepped up after the invasion and as you mentioned, this UK training facility where I met brave Ukrainian soldiers being trained by UK trainers, but also trainers from other NATO allied countries. 

And that shows the leading role you have in the alliance and then I'm absolutely certain that I can continue to count on the United Kingdom in a more contested world and that we all need to invest more in our collective defence and in a world where we are more challenged by authoritarian regimes.

So thank you so much for having me today.