Remarks

Good morning, and I really would like to welcome Tony Blinken. I'm so happy that you are here. This is a real honour.
We will have a NAC meeting later on. We just had a bilat meeting.

And can I just say that the US continued over the last four years to help NATO, to do more on burden-sharing, to increase spending, also on the European and Canadian side of NATO.

Two new members have joined the Alliance in the last couple of years.

And maybe most importantly also, thanks to American leadership, Ukraine has prevailed and Russia has not won.
And obviously we have to do more to make sure that Ukraine can stay in the fight and is able to roll back as much as possible the Russian onslaught and to prevent Putin from being successful in Ukraine.

Particularly, this is something we also discussed this morning, because now with the North Koreans being active in [the war against] Ukraine. And this is coming at a cost.

Of course, these North Korean soldiers present an extra threat to Ukraine and will increase the potential for Putin to do harm. 
But at the same time, he has to pay for this, and he is paying for this by technology, for example, missile technology going to North Korea. And that is presenting a threat not only to the European side of NATO, but also to the US mainland, to South Korea to Japan.
And it's not just North Korea being active. We know for some time that China, through sanction circumvention, through dual-use goods being delivered into Russia, is helping the war effort.

And of course, Iran is doing this through drone technology and other deliveries into Russia. And here, Russia is paying in money, and this helps Iran to continue its efforts to destabilise the Middle East and even beyond the Middle East.

So what you see here, and this is what we discussed this morning, that the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific: these are not two separate theatres. This is all getting more and more combined.

And what is happening in Ukraine has an impact now globally. And that means that we have to stay the course, that we have to ramp up defence production on the US side here in Europe. That we have to do more in terms of spending, and that we have to do more to make sure that Ukraine can prevail.

But again, Tony, you have been four years in this role. You have been a huge support for NATO. You have visited many times. You have many friends here. I really want to thank you for your leadership, of course so far, but also over the next two months. We will need you in that role. Thank you for being here and being the man you are.