Opening remarks

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Well, first of all, Prime Minister de Wever, beste Bart, congratulations to you and the entire team for hosting this first ever Brussels European Defence Exhibition. Theo, also to you and all the others being involved here. This is a huge event, I'm very excited to be here, because this is first of all a great opportunity for the defence industry in Belgium, across Europe, North America, and also the rest of the world, to get together, to build ties, and also to showcase all the innovations going on.

I'm also excited to see the capabilities and the technologies here at BEDEX and to meet the people behind them. Your work is essential. It is essential for our security. And of course, that's why I'm here today, because this is my job.

The world is more dangerous. So what we are doing at the moment, all over Europe and in the United States and in Canada, we are prioritising defence. NATO Allies are committed to investing 5% of their GDP on defence by 2035 because this is about our security, but not only about our security. Through our security, this is about freedom and it is about our prosperity.

Belgium is stepping up, and again, I want to thank Bart and Theo for their incredible leadership on this. With extra defence investment, we can buy the capabilities our militaries need to keep us safe. And there are so many men and women in uniform, and I also want to salute them for what they are doing in their jobs, day in, day out, keeping us safe. But of course, they can only do that if you, the defence industry, make this possible, because the men and women in uniform need your output, so please make sure you produce what they need.

And I can tell you, yes, we need a lot more capabilities, and that's why it is essential that industry – and this is on both sides of the Atlantic, not only in Europe. You have seen President Trump meeting with the big companies, the big defence industrial companies in the United States, also putting pressure on them to produce more, to innovate faster, to speed up. And the same is necessary in Europe and Canada across the Atlantic. This is truly a transatlantic defence industrial base, and we all need to accelerate production.

I can tell you, to those here from the defence industry, the demand is there. And now the supply needs to be there too. And that is, of course, largely, that is largely in your hands. When I look around this incredible exhibition, I see the best industries, the most innovative technologies, and I see incredible, creative people.

We are unmatched as NATO, unmatched as an Alliance, in our industrial strength and innovation power, and I'm absolutely confident that we can succeed together and we will succeed together.

And to be clear, that's good for your businesses. It's good for our economies because it will add to the overall economic growth, the so-called defence dividend. And of course, first of all, it is good for our security, not only now, but also going forward, our security in the future.

So again, congratulations, and I wish you every success, everybody here at this incredible exhibition. Thank you, and we'll meet each other later today. Thanks.