Opening remarks

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(As delivered)

Good morning and welcome to this meeting of NATO Defence Ministers.

This session will focus on how we will make our deterrence and defence even stronger, building, of course, on the historic decisions taken at the Summit in the Hague to massively increase defence spending and defence production.

We will discuss progress on implementing NATO's new capability targets, making sure we have the best armed forces ready to protect our people.

We will also take stock of NATO's missions and operations and our new activity Eastern Sentry, which strengthens our security, starting with the eastern flank, and we will launch further work to tackle the challenges we face from drones.

We will also examine the progress we made to enhance the defence industrial base on both sides of the Atlantic, because military and industrial might go hand in hand.

And we will address our steadfast support for Ukraine and for President Trump's unwavering efforts to secure a just and lasting peace.

NATO continues to help Ukraine defend itself. This includes the most recent NATO initiative that has already channelled $2 billion of US equipment paid for by Allies, into Ukraine. And there is more to come.

Our support is putting pressure on Putin today, and our support to help Ukraine strengthen its own capabilities for the long term will help deter any Russian aggression in the future, and this clearly contributes to our own security too.

This concludes this part of the meeting. I want to thank the media for joining us, and then we will continue in a closed session.

To the media, thank you. We will meet later at the presser.