Opening remarks

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(As delivered)

Dear Secretary of State Healey, Minister Pistorius, Secretary of War Hegseth, Minister Shmyhal, dear colleagues, welcome back to NATO Headquarters here in Brussels. And John and Boris, thank you again for your leadership. Since its inception, the UDCG has been the backbone of our collective support for Ukraine. This body and the equipment it delivers to the battlefield are a clear demonstration of the international community's support for Ukraine.

I have discussed with Secretary Healey and Minister Pistorius how NATO can best help the UDCG and NATO's staff will provide all necessary support. We will assist across the board, from hosting meetings such as this one to providing the best data and analysis available. And together with Ukraine, the UK, Germany and with your support, we will make the UDCG more effective at delivering what Ukraine needs. So I look forward to working with all of you to ensure our support for Ukraine is as predictable and as impactful as possible. And we all have a role to play here. NATO Allies have committed to increase our defence spending and support to Ukraine.

And we know that the support to Ukraine itself, by the way, will count to their defence spending. And I am particularly focused here on PURL. Secretary Hegseth was also speaking about it and others, because this is the mechanism that supplies US weapons, both lethal and non-lethal, to Ukraine, paid for by NATO Allies. And I hope we can announce further significant contributions today, building on the successful meeting of defence ministers this morning. I want to commend President Trump's leadership here. He has been clear out from day one when he came into office that he wants to end this war. He has been successful in Gaza. It was really staggering what happened this week and the week before under his leadership. And I want to thank you, Pete, for the leadership you are providing from the Pentagon to make all of this possible and to support this programme. It is really critical in getting Ukraine the weapons it really needs quickly and at scale. It will enable Ukraine to protect its people and hold the front line. And again, I am so happy for the US to keep that supply going, and for the Allies that have contributed in the financial sense, ultimately strengthening Ukraine today and putting them in the best possible negotiating position tomorrow.

Let's hope that that day comes soon, that they will sit at one table. This is all in our collective interest, and the outcome of this war will therefore impact us all, be it directly or indirectly, whether we like it or not. So please do all that you can.
Thank you, Slava Ukraini.