good morning everyone um I really want to start by thanking Secretary General soldenberg for
his friendship this partnership and especially his leadership of our NATO alliance
during one of the most critical times that I can remember in Alliance history because
of his strong and Steady Hand our alliance is stronger and it's more unified than it's
ever been we have the opportunity today and more importantly the Secretary General is the
afternoon president in a short while to talk about our plans for the Vilnius Summit next
month a very very important milestone for the entire Alliance and I think we could say with
conviction that you'll see at the summit the alliance reaffirmed its commitment of course
shared the Article 5 and to defending every inch of NATO territory you'll see us following up
on our commitment to reinforce our defense Investments to strengthening even more the
alliances to turn the defense capacity and to operationalize many of the plans and programs
that will put in place in the Strategic concept elaborated right now in advance of the summer
I anticipate as well that you'll see a robust package of both political and practical support
for Ukraine coming from the the summit we believe as well that it is the time to welcome Sweden as
the next member of Alliance after having had a an important and um I think very appropriate process
for succession to address appropriate concerns of other outlines and we also look forward to
strengthening even more our partnership with countries in the indo-pacific so there's a
broad and deep agenda but of course the details are important we'll continue to to work on those
in the weeks ahead but I think the secretary General's meeting here today but especially with
the president is an important opportunity to make sure that we have good alignment predated on these
events as always possible it's great to be with Hunter thank you so much so secretary and let me
thank you for our friendship for our partnership and for your strong and leadership in critical
time for our security and then I'd also thank the United States and Tristan Biden for everything you
do to strengthen the chance of dumping bomb and of course the the support you provided to to Ukraine
um European allies are also doing their part with tens of billions of economic Military Support to
Ukraine and the support NATO allies and partners are delivering to Ukraine is making difference
on the battlefield as we speak because the ukrainians have launched the offensive they
are making advances they are gaining ground this is still early days but what we all know is that
the more land the ukrainians are able to liberate the stronger their hand will be at the negotiating
table and the more likely it is that President Putin will understand that he will never win this
battle they will never win the war aggression on the battlefield so therefore I'm extremely
grateful for your personal commitment to the continued support to to Ukraine security banking
um as you mentioned we are now preparing for upcoming a NATO Summit in Venus we will there
agree to sustain and step up the support for Ukraine further strength in our deterrence
on defense which includes a more a stronger commitment to increase defense spending and I
expect Our Lives to be that the two percent of GDP for defense should be a minimum of what we should
all uh invest in our defense in our collective security we'll strengthen our partnership with
the india-pacific partners and we all of course look forward to welcoming Sweden as a full a
member of the alliance as soon as possible so once again Tony thank you for our friendship and
thank you for everything you do for the alliance thank you thanks guys thanks everyone foreign