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(As delivered)

Good morning. Hello, how are you doing?

It's very good that we have this meeting today here in Ramstein.

First of all, because we need to do everything possible to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs in terms of training, in terms of equipment, to prolong the fight and to prevail in this fight, which, of course, started in February 2022 with the massive onslaught of Russia, unprovoked onslaught of Russia on Ukraine.

Secondly, it's important that we're here, because this is all about burden-sharing, making sure that we are in this together with all these countries being represented here today.

Take, for example, our host country, Germany. Germany has so far provided close to 30 billion euros of support in training and equipment for Ukraine.

So, this whole spirit of burden-sharing will be very much to the centre of our talks today.

But there is a third reason why we have to be here today, under American leadership, and I applaud Lloyd Austin and what he has done so far to bring us together. And the third reason is that when we talk about Ukraine, this is not Ukraine only.

We have seen 13 people dying yesterday in Zaporizhzhia, and they were innocent civilians not being active in the war, and they were hit by a Russian attack on the city of Zaporizhzhia.

And this is evidence that it is yes, of course, Russia trying to capture Ukraine. But there's also this global context.

And the global context is that we have to bring Ukraine in the best possible position. That one day, when talks would start, at the initiative of Ukraine, on how to solve this conflict, that they are in the best possible position to do that.

And then when these talks end, it will be looked at, in a sense, whether there's a good deal or not, and if it is not a good deal, it will be watched by the Chinese, North Koreans, Iran, obviously Russia.

The whole world is watching. So, we have to make sure that Ukraine is in the best possible position. And we should not forget that there is this geopolitical context at stake here.

So, thank you very much. I will now get in because I'm late, because of the weather and I hope to see you later today. Thank you.