Secretary Austin just brought together more than 50 countries - more than 50 countries - pledging new commitments, and this is a global effort to support Ukraine: nearly 140,000 anti-tank systems, more than 600 tanks, nearly 500 artillery systems, more than 600,000 rounds of artillery ammunition, as well as advanced multiple launch rocket systems, anti-ship systems, and air defense systems.Īnd again, the United States is leading the way. Allies and partners around the globe are making significant contributions. The United States is rallying the world to stand with Ukraine. And all this is against the backdrop of our response to NATO’s - to Russia’s aggression and to help Ukraine defend itself. Things are changing to adapt to the world as we have it today. In addition, an additional brigade combat team positioned in Romania, and additional rotational deployments in the Baltic countries. We’re stationing more air defense in Italy and Germany more F-35s in the United Kingdom and, to strengthen our eastern flank, new permanent headquarters for the Army Fifth Corps in Poland. We’ll station more ships in here, in Spain. Every inch of NATO territory.įor our part, the United States is doing exactly what I said we would do if Putin invaded: enhance our force posture in Europe. And an attack on one is an attack on all, and we will defend every inch of NATO territory. We - we’ve reaffirmed that our Article 5 commitment is sacred. Together, we’re deploying more assets and capabilities to bolster our Alliances across all domains - land, air, sea, cyber, and space. Poland, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania are doing more than 2.5 percent, some as high as 3 percent. Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands have announced they will also meet their 2 percent commitments. Look, for example, Germany: Germany has committed to spending 2 percent going forward, and announced a special fund for its military of more than $100 billion. They agreed to spend 2 percent of the GDP on defense. A majority of them are on track for the first time to exceed our 2 percent of GDP commitment that they made. And what happened was we got on the phone, and she asked if she could come the next day to want to talk about joining NATO.Īllies across the board are stepping up, increasing defense spending.

I’m getting really anxious here about expanding NATO. We got on the telephone, and he suggested we call the leader of Switzerland - “Switzerland,” my good - my goodness. And he came the next day and said, “Will you support my joining - my country joining NATO?”

Some of the American press will remember when I got a phone call from the leader of Finland saying could he come and see me. Finland and Sweden, two countries with a long tradition of neutrality and choosing to join NATO. And NATO is changing as well.Īt this summit, we rallied our Alliances to meet both the direct threats that Russia poses to Europe and the systemic challenges that China poses to a rules-based world order.Īnd we’ve invited two new members to join NATO. The world has changed, changed a great deal since then. At that time, it characterized Russia as a partner, and it didn’t even mention China. The last time NATO drafted a new mission statement was 12 years ago. This summit was about strengthening our Alliance, meeting the challenges of our world as it is today and the threats we’re going to face in the future. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing today. And we would see democracies in the world stand up and oppose his aggression and defend the rules-based order. And - and in addition to that, we also talked about the G7 taking on additional responsibilities.Īnd before the war started, I told Putin that if he invaded Ukraine, NATO would not only get stronger but would get more united. About a year and a half ago, when the first G7 meeting took place in England, I talked about the need for us to reconsider the makeup of NATO, how it functioned, and come up with a different strategy for the - for NATO and how we work together. Some of the folks have been covering me for a while. I think we can all agree that this has been a historic NATO Summit. Thank you very much for taking the time to be here. You’d think someone else walked in the room.

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