Source: NATO
Thank you so much. Good morning to everyone. Prime Minister, Minister, excellencies. President, Szczerba. Michał, it’s great to see you again. And it’s great to be back in Sofia and to meet with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. As I’ve said so many, many times before, for me it is a privilege to meet with parliamentarians across the Alliance and from partner nations, because I know that at the end of the day, it is parliaments that decide what really matters for NATO. The budgets, that commitment to our collective defence. And also parliaments represent the democratic institutions that NATO is established to defend.
So therefore, I always look forward to this opportunity to engage with you, to say some words about where we are at the NATO Headquarters and then to engage in Q&A sessions with parliamentarians from NATO Allies and partner countries.
Thank you so much for inviting me. Thank you for having me here today. And let me start by saying that I have attended these conferences, meetings, of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly now for 10 years. And in all those meetings, Sweden has been a partner nation, but this is now the first time where Sweden is not sitting here as a partner nation, but Sweden is sitting as a full-fledged member of the Alliance. So welcome to Sweden. It’s great to see you here. And to be honest, it’s great to welcome them as the Secretary General of NATO, but also as a representative from Norway and neighbour country of Sweden, to have now Sweden as a full-fledged member.
So, what I will do today is that I will try to be not too long, so we have time for the Q&A session, but I will go through the preparations for the NATO summit in July, where we will of course celebrate the 75th anniversary of the strongest, the most enduring, the most successful Alliance in history, NATO.
We’ll do that in Washington. We will celebrate the 75th anniversary. But we will do that, reflecting the reason why NATO is so successful. And the reason why NATO is the most successful Alliance in history is partly that we have been able to unite despite our differences. But the main reason why NATO is the most successful Alliance in history is that we have been able to change and adapt when the world is changing. And therefore, at this Washington Summit, we have to not only be able to celebrate, but we have to be able to demonstrate that NATO is changing, that NATO is responding, that NATO is adapting, when the world is changing. And now we live in a more dangerous world and therefore NATO to has to respond to that more demanding and difficult security environment we are facing.
And there are three topics, three issues which we will address at the Summit, where we have to make important decisions and where we need to ensure that we are responding to a changing world. And I will briefly go through the three of them and then I’m more than ready to answer questions on those issues, but also on all the other issues that I don’t mention and the Q&A afterwards.
The first issue at the Washington Summit and we’re working on that as we speak at the NATO Headquarters is deterrence and defence, which is at the core of NATO. Because you have to remember that the main purpose of NATO is not to fight the war. The main purpose of NATO is to prevent war, preserve peace. And we do that by making sure that any potential adversary knows that an attack on one Ally, will trigger the response from the whole Alliance. And by doing that we have been able to prevent any military attack on any NATO Ally for 75 years. So, NATO’s purpose is peace, NATO’s purpose is to prevent war. And we do that by credible deterrence on defence. And we now have a more aggressive Russia, Russia which is using force against neighbours of NATO -Ukraine, but also, we have seen it against Georgia. We have seen how Russia has forces in Moldova, and how they’re threatening other countries. Then of course, we need to do more to strengthen our deterrence and defence.
And that’s exactly what we are doing. We have agreed new defence plans and what we have to do in Washington is to demonstrate that we are delivering on those plans, because plans are important, but plans without the necessary forces do not have any value. So therefore, we need to ensure that by Washington we actually can demonstrate to the whole world, to all of us, that when we have agreed that we need more forces, at higher readiness, new capabilities, that we are actually delivering on that. The good news is that we see that Allies are delivering, they are making more forces available for NATO. They are investing in new modern high-end military capabilities, and they are increasing the readiness of our forces.
And this is not least reflected in the fact that Allies are investing more. You may know all these numbers but I’ll repeat them just so you’re 100% aware of them. When we published our latest report on defence spending in February, 18 Allies spent 2% or more of GDP on defence, and that is significantly more than just a few years ago – two years ago, less than 10 Allies spent 2% or more on defence. And if we compare with 2014 when we made the pledge all NATO Allies to invest 2% of GDP on defence, only three Allies – Greece, United Kingdom and United States spent 2% of GDP on defence. So, in February when we have the latest update – 18.
Then since February, Sweden has joined and they spend 2% of GDP. So, then you can add one more, that’s 19. Then, since then, Norway has announced in the revised budget presented in the beginning of May that they will meet the 2% target, they actually post billions extra for defence. So that makes it 20. And then I expect also a couple of other Allies. I had a very good conversation with the Prime Minister of Montenegro just a few days ago and Montenegro also stated they will be at the 2% this year, and there are also some more. So, I expect that, I will not give you the final number but we will have at least have two thirds of Allies spending 2% of GDP on defence by the Washington Summit. This is very much better than just a few years ago. It demonstrates that we are taking the deterrence and defence seriously. And it demonstrates also that burden sharing is improving within the Alliance.
So, the first topic at the Washington Summit will be that we have to deliver on the defence plans with forces, capabilities, readiness, and also demonstrate burden sharing when it comes to defence spending.
Final numbers we will have within a few weeks, but I’m optimistic when it comes to burden sharing and the ability of Allies to demonstrate that we are stepping up when it comes to deterrence and defence and defence investments.
The second main topic on the summit in Washington will be Ukraine. And we saw the horrific attack on the shopping mall in Kharkiv over the weekend.
Many civilians killed, many wounded. And it’s yet another example of the brutality of this war and why this war has to end and why Russia has to stop attacking a sovereign independent nation. It is simply unacceptable that Russia continues to attack, invade another sovereign independent nation and that was demonstrated yet again by the brutal attack against a shopping mall in Kharkiv.
NATO Allies have provided unprecedented military support to Ukraine. Many partners have also provided support, and I am grateful for that. Providing economic, humanitarian support to Ukraine, but when it comes to the military support, it’s almost only NATO Allies. 99% of the military support provided to Ukraine is provided by NATO Allies.
And this military support has enabled the Ukrainians to liberate 50% of their territory that Russia occupied in the beginning of the war. And we have to remember where we started at the beginning of the war in February 2022, then most experts believed that Russia was going to control Kyiv within days and the whole of Ukraine within weeks. That didn’t happen.
The Ukrainians, with the military support from NATO Allies have liberated 50% of their territory. They have been able to sink many of the ships in the Black Sea, the Russian ships in the Black Sea Fleet, open a corridor for export of grain and other commodities, and they have been able to inflict heavy losses on the Russian invading forces. These are important gains and victories made by the Ukrainian forces and we, NATO Allies, partners have enabled that by our support to Ukraine.
That’s the good news. The problem is that over the last months, we have not delivered to Ukraine what we promised.
The United States spent six months agreeing and new package of aid. European Allies that promised one million rounds of ammunition have not delivered anything close to that number of rounds of ammunition to Ukraine.
And just last month, in April, NATO Defence Ministers met with President Zelenskyy and he underlined, he addressed the urgent need for more air defence, in particular advanced air defence systems like the Patriot systems or SAMP-T, except for Germany that has delivered one additional system of the Patriots, Allies have not delivered what they promised on air defence.
And of course, these gaps, these delays in military support has had consequences on the ground. It’s not the kind of academic theoretical thing. The fact that they don’t get ammunition, they don’t get air defence, they don’t get the supplies we have promised, has made it very hard for Ukrainians to defend the land. Outgunned, not able to shoot down incoming Russian missiles, outgunned on the battlefield – of course it has consequences.
And that’s also reason why the situation now on the battlefield is difficult. We see the consequences will airstrikes, the missile strikes and all the other things we see in Ukraine. And that’s also reason why it is an urgent need for Allies to step up. And of course, I welcome the recent announcements from several Allies. I welcome of course the decision by the US Congress to pass a supplemental with 60 billion more for Ukraine.
These are important decisions, they will make a difference. Support has started to flow in again, but delays and also the fact that not everything is delivered as promised, has caused serious consequences. That’s also one of the reasons why I have suggested that at the Summit, we agree a big NATO role in coordinating and providing security assistance and training for Ukraine.
Because I strongly believe that we need a firmer, stronger institutionalized structure for the support. Ad-hoc, short term, voluntary announcements are good, but in the long term, we need more predictable, stronger support for Ukraine.
And therefore, I think a bigger NATO role in providing that support is the right thing to agree. And we have received a proposal from SACEUR, NATO Supreme Allied Commander, General Cavoli. Allies are now working on that proposal. And I expect that by the Summit in Washington, we will agree a stronger NATO role in organizing, providing, planning, delivering supplies to ensure more stable flows of supplies to Ukraine. But, to make this really effective we also need not only a better organization that provides more accountability, transparency, predictability and the delivery of supplies, but we will also need more long-term financial commitment. And therefore, also this working on that I cannot tell you exactly what the conclusion will be, but I hope that Allies can agree a multiyear financial pledge because the Ukrainians need more long-term knowledge, more predictability to plan and to invest, to ensure that they have the forces they need to defend against the Russian invaders, but also in the future to deter against future Russian aggression. So, what I have suggested for Allies, and I hope that we can agree in July is a stronger organization, a stronger NATO role in providing and coordinating training and support, and a multiyear financial pledge.
If we can get this, then we have a more robust foundation for the continued support for Ukraine. We also have a tool to ensure fair burden sharing when it comes to supplies and support to Ukraine. So, I just count on your support for stronger, more predictable support for Ukraine, because that’s exactly what Ukraine needs.
The third main topic at the Washington Summit will be global partnerships, and in particular, our Asia Pacific partners – Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea. And that reflects that security is not regional, security is global. NATO will remain a regional Alliance. NATO is an Alliance of North America and Europe. But this North Atlantic region faces global threats.
And the war in Ukraine demonstrates that very clearly. Because you have to remember who are actually supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine. The most important suppliers and supporters of Russia’s war in Ukraine in Europe, they are countries in Asia.
China is propping up the Russian war economy delivering dual-use equipment, being the most important trading partner. China has not condemned at any stage, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. China has stepped up economic trade relations with Russia and they are providing 90% of the microelectronics that Russia receives comes from China. And these microprocessors, microelectronics are the equipment that Russia uses to build missiles, battle tanks, planes, which are then used to conduct the brutal war against Ukraine.
So, without this economic support from China, Russia would not have been able to conduct the war in the way they do against Ukraine. In return, Russia is mortgaging its future to Beijing.
Then the other supplier is Iran, supplying drones also help Russia to build a new drone factory in Tatarstan in Russia.
North Korea providing more than one million shells, artillery shells from North Korea to Russia. In return Russia is sharing technology which enables Iran and North Korea to develop their missile and nuclear programmes. So, what we see in Europe, in Ukraine is how Asia matters for the war in Ukraine. And it reminds us of that what happens in Europe matters for Asia and what happens in Asia matters for Europe, and that China and Russia, authoritarian powers, Iran, North Korea, are more and more aligned and therefore we need to not expand the NATO to the Asia Pacific, NATO will remain Europe and North America, but to work with our partners in the Asia Pacific and therefore welcome that the leaders of the Asia Pacific will be at, we have invited them to attend, the summit in Washington. That will be for the third time, reflecting that we are expanding our cooperation with these countries, because we share the same values we believe in democratic open societies, but we also strongly believe in the need to stand together in upholding those values. So, these are the three main topics for the Washington Summit. Let me also mention that when we discuss partnerships of course we discuss partnerships beyond the Asia Pacific. One of the topics will be also our partners in the South. We have just received a report from the expert group that I established some months ago on the challenges, but also opportunities in the South – Africa, Middle East, and how NATO can work and do more on those challenges and utilize those opportunities.
This is about, for instance, what we do in Iraq to help to fight terrorism, to enable the Iraqi Security Forces to ensure that ISIS does not return. We have partnerships in Tunisia, Mauritania. We have partners in the Gulf region.
So, I also look forward to the discussion and to address how we can do more in our Southern neighbourhood, and with our partners more in general. We have the Balkans. We have [inaudible] regions where partnerships are important for what NATO does.
But the three main topics as I said will be deterrence and defence, Ukraine – robust, predictable framework for our support and partnerships, global partnerships in the South, in Europe, but also not least, our Asia Pacific partners addressing the fact that authoritarian powers are more and more aligned.
So, I’ll end by saying that we live in a more dangerous world but NATO has become stronger.
We live in a world with a full-fledged war in Europe, with the new war in the Middle East, with more global rivalry with China, North Korea, Iran or Russia being more aligned, but also then, the need for NATO Allies to be more aligned with our partners around the world. No one can tell with certainty what the next crisis, the next threat will be against NATO Allies. But what we can say with certainty is that whatever that crisis is, we will be able to handle, to ensure that our countries are safe as long as we stand together, because as you all know, together we represent 50% of the world’s economic might and 50% of the world’s military might. So as long as we stand together, North America and Europe we are safe in a more unpredictable world.
Thanks so much. I look forward to the comments on the questions. Thank you so much.