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(As delivered)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte
Thank you very much. And basically, all you said, I can completely agree with. Let me first start with saying that the cooperation we are having is excellent.

From day one, when I started, we completely work together as one team, which is extremely, which is extremely important. And also on the assumption that we have a clear division of labour. NATO is strong at standard setting, at capability targets. And the EU has this enormous power of the internal market, as you said, making sure that the defence industrial base is developed, making sure that the money and the assets are there to support Ukraine, and also when it comes to the drone wall initiative, I think that was an excellent idea. And there was a first meeting last Friday, and NATO was participating, also bringing together the eastern flank states in NATO, working on this big issue.

And why is that important? Because first of all, we have to keep our skies safe. And we have seen over last couple of weeks, what happened with the drones in Poland, the MIG-31s in Estonia, but also what is happening now in Denmark. In Denmark, we are still assessing what is behind it. But when it comes to Poland and Estonia, it is clear it is the Russians. Still, we are assessing whether it is intentional or not. But even if it is not intentional, it is reckless and it is unacceptable.

So, we need to protect our skies. So the drone wall initiative is timely and necessary, because in the end, we cannot spend millions of euros, or dollars, on missiles to take out the drones, which are only costing a couple of thousand dollars. So we need the drone wall.

But also, when it comes to Ukraine, as you said, Ursula, it is our first line of defence.

We are helping the Ukrainians, because this is about our values, but also about, indeed, first line of defence, our collective safety. So, it is crucial that they sustain in the fight, so we keep supporting them. The Americans have opened again the floodgates through the PURL initiative of their lethal, and non-lethal weapons. I think that's extremely important, paid for by Allies.

But everything the European Commission is now doing through SAFE and other initiatives, to bring Ukraine to the best possible place is crucial, both in the fight, but also when it comes to potential peace talks, for them to be then in the strongest possible position.

So for all of this, our cooperation, from day one, we were friends already when I was still Prime Minister and you already President of the Commission. It's really, really wonderful. And we do this at all levels, I can assure you, this is not just the President of the Commission and me, but in NATO and EU at all levels, we work together to make sure that that we make maximum use, leverage each other's strength in this whole endeavour. So thank you again, and also for hosting me today.

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