Opening remarks

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(As delivered)

So good morning. Good morning to you all, and welcome to this Leaders’ Session of the North Atlantic Council.

We meet at a dangerous moment for our one billion citizens.

Russia’s war against Ukraine rages on. An assertive grouping of adversaries seeks to divide and challenge us. There is war in the Middle East. Terrorism poses a persistent threat. And new technologies bring opportunities but also many serious security challenges.

In the face of this, we stand together, united in NATO. The most powerful defensive Alliance in world history.

History has shown that North America and Europe working together is a winning combination. Our adversaries know this.

Our enduring commitment to Article 5 – that an attack on one, is an attack on all – sends a powerful message.

In this meeting, we will take historic, transformational decisions. To make our people safer through a stronger, fairer, and more lethal NATO.

To make NATO stronger, we have a concrete plan for all Allies to spend 5% of GDP on defence. It will go towards core defence, as well as defence- and security-related investments.
This decision is deeply rooted in our core mission, and is required to resource our plans and readiness.

This will also make NATO fairer. To ensure anyone and everyone contributes their fair share for our security.

For too long, one Ally, the United States, carried too much of the burden of that commitment. And that changes today.

President Trump, dear Donald, you made this change possible. Your leadership on this has already produced one trillion dollars in extra spending from European Allies since 2016. And the decisions today will produce trillions more for our common defence, to make us stronger and fairer by equalising spending between America and America’s Allies.

Allies will also agree to further increase defence production, so that our armed forces have everything they need.

That means a huge expansion of our defence industrial base, on both sides of the Atlantic.

That’s good for our security, it’s good for our economies, and good for our jobs.

Our decisions include continuing our support to Ukraine, while also pushing for a just and lasting peace. We all want the bloodshed to stop. We call on Russia to end its aggression against Ukraine.

Let me now turn to Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Dick Schoof, whose government and people are graciously hosting us here.

Thank you to the media for joining us, we will continue our discussions in just a moment, but first and with the media here, please, Dick Schoof, your introductory remarks.