Source: NATO
Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Admiral Bauer, dear Rob.
Thank you also for your kind words.
It is an honour and a privilege to serve as Secretary General of NATO, not least because I have the privilege of working with first class military leaders like the Chiefs of Defence I meet in this audience.
And therefore I always look forward to these meetings because it gives me an opportunity to update you on what we are working on here at the political headquarters.
And then it’s always useful and very important for me to listen to you, to your reflections on the way forward.
Let me also, as you did Admiral Bauer, welcome General Bydén from Sweden.
It is great to have Sweden as a full member.
You have been in these meetings many times before, but this is the first time as a full-fledged member of the Alliance. So a warm welcome to you too.
Then let me also express my solidarity with Slovakia. Because we are all appalled by the shooting of the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Robert Fico.
I worked with him for almost 20 years. We were colleagues together when we were prime ministers many years ago.
And we are shocked and appalled by the shooting. It violates every idea of democracy.
In democracies we can disagree, we can have different opinions, but violence is absolutely unacceptable.
So our thoughts are with the Prime Minister Robert Fico, his family and the people of Slovakia.