Opening remarks

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(As delivered)

Good morning, all, and welcome to this meeting of NATO Defence ministers.

We will focus on some key priorities for our summit in The Hague, which is only four months from now, I started to realize it today. So, it's quite soon. Defence spending will be priority number one. To stay safe and to prevent war we need to spend a lot more, especially in Europe and Canada.

All Allies stepped up defence investments in recent years and European Allies carry now a much bigger share of the burden than before. In the last 10 years, European Allies and Canada have added more than 700 billion US dollars for defence. That means that in 2024, NATO Allies in Europe and Canada invested almost 500 billion dollars in defence and that is nearly a 20% increase compared with 2023. But still, it is far from enough. We need to do much, much more. But we can do it, the proof is in what we did in 2023, going into 2024.

The second priority is defence production, and a need to boost the defence industry across the Alliance. Yes, we do have the best industries in the world, from the US, all of Europe, including Türkiye – the proud industry base in Türkiye – but we must produce more, faster and together to outpace our competitors Russia, China, and others.

Third, we will discuss Russian destabilization campaigns against our countries, including the Shadow Fleet and how we respond. You know the Shadow Fleet is a large source of income for Russia. Baltic Sentry is a good example of how we can deter better.

And then finally, when we leave this room, if we go into lunch, we will discuss what more we can do to support Ukraine. Defence Minister Umerov and EU Higher Representative Kaja Kallas will join us.

This concludes the public portion of the meeting. I want to thank that the media for joining us, but please now leave the room.