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(As delivered)

Thank you very much, and good afternoon to the Minister, to you and to all the diplomats there.

Let me start where Kaja Kallas ended, and this is that I also share her regrets that we were not able to be with you in person this time. As a minister of defence of North Macedonia, my first visit to a NATO exercise was in Romania, so I was really looking forward to going back and being able to meet all of you, but I really hope that we can make it this time. And I want to thank the Minister for giving me the opportunity and inviting me to join you this afternoon.

I wanted to discuss with you, and I looked forward to our interaction, also, because Romanian diplomats have great influence across the international community and your voice is not just heard – it is respected. Within NATO, we see how Romania always brings depth, weight and substance to our discussions and also to our decisions. But what is even more important, Romania delivers.

You are really an essential Ally that makes strong contributions to our shared security.

And I can really name several things that you have been helpful with, but I wanted really to focus on some of the key deliverables. You host, for example, the NATO forward land forces, and they're crucial for our deterrence and defence. You're working with other Allies to clear mines that threaten shipping in the Black Sea. And your Airbase, Mihai Kogalniceanu, supports NATO's Air Policing Mission on the eastern flank, and we have heard quite a number of participants mentioning the importance of the eastern flank, but also the importance of Black Sea, which we within NATO really consider of great strategic importance for the Alliance.

So we are grateful for the important leadership role that you play, because we can really count on you, not only on the eastern flank, but also practically in the Western Balkans, in the wider region and throughout the Alliance. And this is why we say that we always count on Romania as much as Romania can also count on NATO.

The Alliance has already reinforced its air defences and surveillance on the eastern flank and the Black Sea, and we have done it as a result of a very changing and challenging security environment. So for example, we recently enhanced patrols with NATO AWACS surveillance aircraft over Romania, and in addition to the robust air defence measures already in place, we are continuously assessing our posture and capabilities to respond.

So in a way, because this is a more dangerous and uncertain world, the 31 Allies across Europe and North America always have your back. As I said, we know that Romania is not just focused on the eastern flank. It's not just focused on the Black Sea, but we have really welcomed your contributions to security beyond your borders, especially the deployments of troops to NATO's KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. And as someone coming from the Western Balkans, I know how important these contributions are, not only for Kosovo, not only for the region, but for the Alliance.

Here, I would also like to stress that we have appreciated very much how Romania stood strong with Ukraine in the face of Russia's brutal war of aggression. So on one side, you have enhanced Ukraine's air defence against Russian attacks by providing a Patriot missile system, as well as training for Ukrainian F-16 pilots, these issues were crucial for Ukraine, and they matter still very much. You have sent military supplies, and you play an important role in the NSATU, the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine – with the logistic hub that is in Romania and helping to get critical aid through to our Ukrainian friends.

We all want this terrible war to end, but we all want this to end with just lasting and sustainable peace for Ukraine, which I think was reiterated in all of your discussions today.

US President Trump has re-engaged in an important effort to bring the war to an end, and what we see now is time for Russian President Putin to show whether he is serious about peace. Last week's meeting in the White House with President Trump, with President Zelenskyy, the NATO Secretary General, but also a number of European leaders, was really an important demonstration of unity.

And now, even in the days after the meeting, more than 30 countries which are part of the coalition of the willing, have been working on robust security assurances for Ukraine. Now, there is work underway with the United States to define more clearly the security guarantees for Ukraine – including the type, the form, the format of a US role.

We do consider that the robust security guarantees are critical to ensuring that Russia never attacks Ukraine again.

But also what we know is vital is the continuous supply of weapons and equipment to Ukraine, so that Ukraine can defend itself today, so that it can deter any future aggression, and so that it can ensure that peace is protected. So on our side as NATO, we provide daily support for Ukraine, not just through NSATU that I have mentioned, but also our joint centre in Poland, where we exchange lessons learned from the war, but also our NATO office in Kyiv that supports all the defence reforms in Ukraine and all other forms where Allies' assistance has been seen as crucial.

So our Allies, the Alliance, is now contributing billions of dollars through the new format of assistance, which is the NATO's new Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List, the so called PURL. So this new list, this new format for support, ensures that equipment and munitions from the United States, financed by America's Allies, get to Ukraine and these are really equipment and ammunition which are considered essential and a priority for Ukraine's assistance. So I warmly welcome the fact that Canada's just announced yesterday a new level of support, but PURL will mean critical equipment and supplies that will strengthen Ukraine's hand as it pursues peace.

So the Alliance is committed to making sure that PURL delivers practically as we speak, throughout this very critical period, but we are also committed to support Ukraine for the long term, and this is because the security of Ukraine, as everyone has mentioned, has an impact on our own security, not please the Black Sea region, but our security as an Alliance.

And it remains clear that even once the violence has ended, NATO cannot afford to let down its guard when it comes to protecting Allied territory. The security of 1 billion people on both sides of the Atlantic depends on us always being ready to deter and defend. So we will continue to hope for the best, but we also have the duty to prepare for the worst, and what we have seen lately, in the last few years, is not really a very optimistic outlook.

What we have seen is that Russia has teamed up with China, with North Korea and Iran, to reshape the global order. Together, they're expanding their militaries and their capabilities, and as a result of this cooperation, Russia was able to reconstitute its forces to produce weapons faster than we thought it could, and it was predominantly because it was enabled by China.

We are focusing and very much analysing what Russia is doing, but we are also keeping a close eye to the developments in China, and what we are seeing is that China is carrying out its own massive military modernization without limits or transparency. And I have very much appreciated the part of the discussion that I've heard and seeing that you have focused very much on Ukraine, Russia, but also on how China is actually making all these developments possible by this type of assistance and support to Russia.

So while others race forward, we cannot stand still, and this is one of the reasons why we took decisions to transform our Alliance just two months ago at the Summit in The Hague to ensure that our deterrence and defence remain credible in the years ahead.

This was really a historic summit, and I'm sure that you have read and heard all the news, but let me just mention that when Allies committed to increase their defence spending to 5% of GDP, this was not just a message to our public. This was also a message to our adversaries. This was also a message to the world that that we are ready to invest in our security, that we are ready to boost our defence industrial production across the Alliance, and also important that we are ready to continue our strong support for Ukraine.

So this is why this new 5% defence investment plan is truly historic because it gives us the possibility, really, to make a quantum leap in our collective defence. We will significantly increase NATO strength, and we will significantly upgrade our war fighting capabilities. Therefore we will have the means and the resources to fully implement our defence plans and to continue to protect all NATO territory, and this is what we kept referring to as peace, through strength.

Out of the 5% you know that the 3.5% of GDP will be spent on core military requirements, which used to be the 2% and this will give us the space and the resources to strengthen our air and missile defence, to have thousands more armoured vehicles and tanks, to have more warships and planes and to have millions more artillery shells.

But while very much discussing this 3.5% and these core military requirements, we have also agreed that we need to spend 1.5% of GDP on defence and security related investments, and this includes several things. It includes, first, infrastructure, because when we talk about military capabilities, when we talk about our land forces, we need also civilian transport networks that can move these militaries.

We need them to get all the right forces to the right place and at the right time. So in a way, our societies and militaries will have to be in this together.

So Allies will spend in infrastructure, but they will also invest more in civil preparedness and go further so that we can protect against cyber-attacks and also other threats like this.

Let me use the opportunity to welcome Romania strong commitment to increase defence spending. We all know, especially those of us who have been active in politics, that investing more in defence requires political will and it requires strong leadership – and it is clear that we can count on Romania for providing both.

We have also discussed an important segment which is connected to industry and production in The Hague. So it was in The Hague where Allied leaders also agreed to focus on increasing defence production across the Alliance. Military might and industrial might go hand in hand.

This has happened in the past, throughout history. It needs to happen now. We must show that we can also out produce and outperform our rivals.

Our call to NATO Allies, to partners and industry was always to unite, to innovate and to deliver better and more.

This is why the discussion focused very much on how to rapidly produce, how to sustain production, how to replenish military equipment, from basic munition to complex weapon systems and drones. So we have worked, and we will continue to work to eliminate defence trade barriers among Allies, and we will leverage our partnerships to promote defence industrial cooperation.

Let me also use the opportunity to thank Bucharest and all our partners and all our colleagues for hosting the NATO Industry Forum just this November, where we will address how to make progress – and how to do this quickly. So the forum in Bucharest will be a great opportunity also for all of you to showcase Romanian industry and innovation with the rest of the transatlantic community, and I really look forward to seeing the outcome of the forum.

Enhancing and expanding the defence industrial base is not just important for our security, it's the main reason why we are doing this. But we are also throughout the Alliance, making the case that it is good for our economies too. And I do believe that this argument will resonate well in Romania during the forum. I'm encouraged that across the Alliance, the defence industry has opened hundreds of new production lines and expanded existing ones. And we are in discussions with different partners from industry. We are in discussions with different Allies, how to make this a more efficient process, how to open up more opportunities, because we need to deliver more.

It is a completely new strategic reality that we are facing. And in this new strategic reality, NATO is needed more than ever. We know that Romania remains a pillar of strength on NATO's eastern flank. And together with all Allies, we will continue to safeguard the peace and security of our nations.

In our motto, all for one and one for all.

I really believe that this will bring benefits for everyone in the Alliance, but it will also bring benefits for European and Euro-Atlantic security.

So thank you for your attention, and I really look forward to your questions and our conversation.

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