Doorstep statement by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte ahead of the meetings of NATO Ministers of Defence in Brussels, 13 February 2025.
🗣 | NATO Secretary General:
Good morning, good to see you all. Just a quick doorstep before we start with today's meetings.
Clearly, a lot happened yesterday in the meeting, but also in the media, and no doubt that will be debated today and over the coming days and weeks. But there's also a clear convergence emerging.
We all want peace in Ukraine rather sooner than later. We all want Ukraine to be in the best possible position when those talks start, to make sure that they can be concluded successfully. And as also Pete Hegseth said yesterday, the new American Secretary of Defence, it is crucial that whatever comes out of those talks, it is durable. It is enduring. No Minsk three, we cannot have that again. We cannot have Putin again trying to capture a square kilometer, a square mile of Ukraine in the future.
Then, of course, we’ll also discuss today's spending. We have to spend more, not only because the US expects that, because they expect Europe to take its and pay its fair share, but also we have to spend more because we know the threat coming from Russia and from other adversaries is increasing, and that will be debated today. And here, I think there is a clear expectation from the side of the US, but also clear commitment yesterday that this Alliance is here to stay for the generations to come.
And we will discuss today the defence industrial base, how to produce more. We are not producing enough. And this is a collective problem we have, from the US up to and including Türkiye, and including the whole European Union, Norway, UK, we have fantastic defence industries, but we are not producing enough. We are producing in three months in ammunition. No, I wanted to say Russia is producing in three months in ammunition, what the whole of the Alliance is producing in the year, and this is simply not sustainable. We have to ramp up the defence industry production.
So these issues will be on the table today in the Ministers of Defence Meeting, and then afterwards, also in the lunch we will have with Minister Umerov of Ukraine, where we discuss the relations between NATO and Ukraine. So thank you very much.
Maybe a few questions.
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