Stoltenberg

0:28 e 0:58 e 1:28 e 1:58 e 2:28 e 2:58 e 3:28 e 3:58 e 4:28 e 4:58 e 5:28 e 5:58 e 6:28 e 6:58 e 7:28 e 7:58 e 8:28 e 8:58 e 9:28 e 9:58 e 10:28 e 10:58 e 11:14 good afternoon uh today I presenting my annual report for 2023 where we sum up 11:22 all the different activities and uh things that has happened within uh the 11:27 alliance uh uh during last year uh this 11:33 report sums up our main achievements over the last year and there have been 11:38 uh many uh further strengthen our defenses 11:43 robust uh new military plans more forces at higher Readiness and major increases 11:51 in defense Investments the world has become more dangerous but NATO has become uh 11:58 Stronger 12:05 today I can announce uh the results our latest polling condu conducted across 12:11 every NATO Ally the data is clear public support for NATO is extremely strong on 12:18 both sides of the Atlantic if a vote were held today an 12:24 overwhelming majority of citizens across Allied country countries would vote in 12:30 favor of NATO for example in the United States only 12:37 133% would vote against over 80% of our citizens believe 12:43 that North America and Europe must continue to work together for our shared 12:48 security so cross the alliance support for NATO remains Rock 12:54 Solid NATO citizens also continue to express strong solidarity with the brave 13:01 ukrainians across the alliance fully 2third of people want the country to 13:08 continue supporting Ukraine this matters because NATO allies 13:15 provide 99% of all military aid and in 13:21 2023 we continue to provide unprecedented levels of support 13:26 including artillery and ammunition tanks and armored personnel carriers 13:33 Patrol boats air defenses helicopters drones and 13:38 Radars for the first time a number of allies also sent Long Range Systems UK 13:46 Storm Shadow and French scalp scalp missiles and allies agreed to send F6 13:55 aircraft allies also came together to create coalitions for key capabilities 14:01 like air defenses artillery and drones and several allies have now signed 14:07 bilateral security arrangements with Ukraine unprecedented aid from NATO 14:13 allies has helped Ukraine to survive as a sovereign independent nation but Ukraine needs even more 14:22 support and they need it now the ukrainians are not running out 14:29 of Courage they are running out of ammunition together we have the capacity 14:37 to provide Ukraine what it needs now we need to show the political will to do so 14:45 all allies need to dig deep and deliver quickly every day of delay has real 14:51 consequences on the battlefield in Ukraine so this is a critical moment 14:59 and it will be a grave historic mistake to allow Putin to 15:04 Prevail we cannot allow authoritarian leaders to get the way by using 15:09 Force this would be dangerous for us all Putin went to war trying to slam 15:17 NATO's door shut but he failed last year Finland joined the NATO 15:24 family just last week Sweden became the 32nd Ally and Ukraine is closer to Nato 15:31 than ever before so NATO is now bigger and 15:37 stronger and last year we put our defenses on an even more robust 15:42 Financial footing 23 uh 2023 was the ninth 15:48 consecutive year of increased defense investment across Europe and Canada with 15:55 defense spending Rising by an unprecedented 11% in 16:02 2024 NATO allies in Europe will invest a total of 470 billion US do in defense amounting 16:11 to 2% of their combined GDP for the first 16:16 time this year 2third of allies will meet the 2% Target up from just three 16:23 allies in 2014 when we agreed the defense investment pledge 16:30 in uh 2023 we also further deepened our relations with like-minded Partners 16:36 including our friends in the indopacific and the European Union we're also 16:42 working even more closely with our partners in industry in 2023 we agreed a new defense 16:49 production action plan to ramp up production strengthen engagement with industry and increase 16:56 interoperability since then NATO has agreed contracts worth tens of of 17:02 billions of dollars for ammunition and key capabilities this matters for our 17:08 security and for Ukraine NATO's new uh Innovation 17:14 accelerator Diana is also doubling its network of accelerators and test centers 17:21 soon there will be more than 200 worldclass sites on both sides of the 17:28 Atlantic they will focus on solving some of our biggest defense and security challenges 17:34 and sharpening our Tech technological Edge in areas ranging uh from artificial 17:40 intelligence and cyber to 5G hypersonics and autonomous 17:48 systems next month we will Mark the 75th 17:53 Anniversary uh since NATO was founded when our heads of state and 18:00 government meet in Washington in July we will celebrate this important 18:06 Milestone and will continue adapting our lines for the 18:11 future I expect we will take further steps to support Ukraine 18:17 reinforce our resources and defenses and deepen our Partnerships around the world 18:24 in an unpredictable World NATO matters more than ever in our 75th anniversary 18:31 year we will continue to demonstrate our Unity solidarity and resolve and with 18:37 that I'm ready to take your questions we'll go to questions we'll start with the The Wall Street Journal in the third 18:43 row on the far left here please thank you Dan Michaels with the 18:48 Wall Street Journal um first about the spending by members when will you release the 2024 numbers you you said 18:57 2third of members you'd already given the European aggregate um curious when you'll give specifics on that and second 19:04 in terms of increasing industrial production of of weapons and other systems uh this is a common objective of 19:11 both NATO and the EU the EU has a a summit on this next week can you talk a 19:17 bit about the cooperation um there's been you know some friction over the years between NATO and the EU uh are you 19:25 are you coordinating better now and and what do you see the EU bringing to the table in in what they're able to do in 19:32 terms of coordinating and promoting uh military production thank 19:39 you as a first on the numbers we follow the same procedure every year uh when we 19:46 uh uh uh launch or present the annual report as we do today we present detailed numbers for the last year for 19:53 past year because this is the annual report uh uh for 2023 and you can look 19:58 into the report and you will see detailed numbers for defense spending uh uh uh aggregated but also um for each 20:06 and every Ally and development over time in current but also fixed 20:12 prices uh uh then uh what we have now are only our preliminary estimates for 20:19 2024 uh we will have better and more data uh when we publish uh a report um 20:26 ahead of The Summit in July uh so exactly when we publish that report is not yet decided but it's something we 20:32 publish in in the summer and now it will be published at least before the summit mid July in Washington then you will 20:39 have uh and we all will have more detailed numbers um uh partly because uh 20:46 uh then we have all the decisions or at least more decisions in NATO Allied capitals we know that some allies are 20:53 actually now making new uh budget decisions for 2024 we have also more 21:00 reliable estimates for GDP and of course if we are not only looking at the fense 21:06 spending but the F spending as percentage of GDP then what matters is both spending but also GDP and by summer 21:13 we have more credible estimates for GDP so yes we have some preliminary 21:18 estimates uh uh saying that uh that uh we we Al expect two-thirds of allies to 21:26 meet the 2% Target uh in 2024 uh adding it all together also uh 21:33 shows clearly that uh if you put European Alice together they together spend 2% of the GDP on the fence uh but 21:41 we all have to wait until we have more detailed information about each and every country uh to have the detail list 21:48 presented later this year um um and I 21:53 hope that of course the numbers will uh uh further improve by the Washington Summit uh yeah just actually today 22:01 Norway announced uh that they will meet the 2% guideline this year uh uh uh 22:08 that's yet another example of how allies are constantly adding and adjusting 22:13 their budgets uh so by July we have then all these new announcements put together 22:19 in the new report we will present then um then on uh defense 22:26 Investments so first of all NATO has been calling on European allies to increase investments in uh production uh 22:34 for years and of course the only way to increase defense production is to spend more and NATO's kind of main message to 22:42 all allies but in particular European allies is that you have to spend more and in the beginning it was a bit hard 22:47 to convey that message and now I feel that allies understand so allies have really started to increase spending and 22:55 therefore they can also uh uh uh also make orders and uh and and ensure 23:02 that the industry is investing and providing more ammunition more equipment and investing in new production uh 23:08 capacity so we see things are moving in the right direction because they follow the NATO advice spend more uh second I 23:16 welcome all efforts and we are in close contact with the EU I met recently with 23:21 presidenta f we discussed this in detail and our staffs are are also uh engaging 23:28 uh close uh um so we welcome efforts by the European Union when it comes to overcoming the fragmentation of the 23:34 European Defense industry um uh in the United States they have many many battle 23:40 tanks and one type in Europe they have fewer battle tanks and many different types so of course the cost per unit 23:47 goes up uh and becomes uh expensive to to educate to train to to to produce 23:53 spare parts all that becomes so much costly because we have much more fragmented defense industry so all 24:00 efforts by the European Union to overcome the fragmentation of the European Defense industry uh will be 24:06 good for NATO it's something NATO has been calling on and I welcome EU efforts on that what is 24:13 important is that of course NATO is the organization that have to 24:20 set the capability targets you cannot have two systems setting two different 24:26 sets of capab targets for the same countries you cannot have EU and NATO 24:32 presenting uh uh to Germany or to to to to Denmark or to Poland to conflicting 24:39 list of capability targets so defense planning including setting the targets 24:45 for how many battle tanks how many planes how many ships what kind of Readiness and so on has to be set by one 24:50 and only one institution and and that's NATO's core responsibility defense planning and the 24:57 associated capability Target so of course that defines the needs the 25:02 demand uh and with the money you can then turn that demand into real contracts second of course we need only 25:09 one institution setting the standards so NATO standards for 25:14 interoperability for communications for for interoperability for interchangeability of ammunition all of 25:21 that is only one sets of of Standards you can notot have two set of Standards 25:26 then you then then then you achieve the exact OPP opposite uh and of course uh EU 25:33 allies represent 20% of NATO's Total Defense expenditure so so again since NATO 25:40 represent 100% NATO has to set the standards so standards defense planning 25:46 uh is is is core NATO tasks um and cannot be duplicated because then then 25:52 we actually undermine our security and thirdly NATO has also had a very important role to play when it comes to 25:58 to Joint procurement that has been done in many different formats and we welcome different formats but of course the nsba 26:04 the NATO support and procurement agency has for decades tried and tested procedures for big joint procurement uh 26:12 decisions uh reducing the cost aggregating demand and giving the industry the long-term multiair uh uh uh 26:19 demand they need to make the necessary in in investment so uh so um uh so it is 26:27 important that uh of course EU focus on the areas where they actually add 26:34 value to Nato but not compete with NATO when it comes to core responsibilities as defense planning standard setting 26:40 capability targets and uh we still need uh a lot of joint procurement uh 26:46 conducted in the NATO framework go next to uh Ry Italy in the 26:51 second row in front of me here please Secretary General 26:57 Maro what are your expectation on the upcoming elections in Russia and 27:04 especially now because President Putin said that there is a possibility of 27:09 deployment of troops along the border in Finland thank you so much free and fair elections are core to 27:19 any democracy and elections in Russia will not be free and 27:25 fair because we know already that opposition politicians are in jail some 27:32 are killed and many are in Exile and uh actually also some who try to register 27:38 as candidates have been denied that right so we can say actually before the elections that that they will not be 27:45 free and fair because to have free and fair elections you need competition you need you need different lists you need 27:51 you need an open discussion and you need a free and independent press and there's 27:56 no free and independent press in Russia um uh media Outlets are suppressed or 28:07 expelled President Putin has held power in Russia for decades uh no one expects um Russia's 28:15 elections this week to uh bring any change in Kremlin and of course Russia's attempts 28:24 to organize any part of an election in occupi regions of Ukraine are completely 28:32 illegal violating international law and during the last elections in 28:38 2018 the O they uh monitored the elections and 28:43 stated clearly that restrictions on fundamental freedoms and candidate 28:48 registration resulted in a lack of uh genuine competition in the Russian 28:54 elections and there are no reasons to believe that this has improved since 2018 on the opposite it's even less uh 29:02 open and free now than it was in 2018 um so the right to participate in 29:07 Fair and free elections is a fundamental part of any uh Democratic Society but 29:14 Russian citizens cannot count on freedom and fairness uh because uh opposition 29:20 politicians uh are dead in jail or exiled and the Press is not free uh then 29:27 uh briefly on Finland Finland is safer now than before they join the alliance because now Finland is 29:33 covered by our Collective defense Clause Article 5 one for all all all all for one uh almost all the Russian land 29:42 forces are uh engaged in the war aggression against Ukraine so we don't 29:48 see any imminent threat against any NATO Ally uh but of course we will monitor 29:54 follow closer what Russia uh does along NATO borders uh but NATO has been able to protect 30:00 NATO allies for 75 years and continue to do so including with fin as a member go 30:06 next to the uh Ukraine national news agency in the fourth row here please thank you so much diit national 30:13 news agency of Ukraine you mentioned many times strategic importance of the Black Sea area during a year Ukraine 30:21 succeed to destroy around 25% of the Black Sea Fleet how that situation uh 30:27 impact the Strategic stance of the Black Sea area and uh are you going to 30:34 reinforce uh the coastal States NATO members uh to finally get R from Russian 30:41 dominance in the area thank you so 30:46 much one of the big victories that um Ukraine has achieved is actually to be 30:52 able to push back the Russian Black Sea F Fleet um and to destroy remain of 30:58 their ships uh and also uh then ensure uh the open corridor from Odessa and all 31:05 the way to bosis uh also working closely with uh NATO allies literal States 31:11 Romania Bulgaria and Turkey um and this shows the strength 31:16 the skill the competence of the um Ukrainian Armed Forces but also the importance of delivery of advanced 31:24 weapons from NATO allies so some of the missiles some of the systems that has been so cre so so critical in opening 31:32 this Corridor um has been of course provided by NATO allies this is 31:37 important for Ukraine it's important for the Black Sea but is also important for the world because this ensures enables 31:45 the export of grain and other Commodities uh which are extremely important for Global Food uh 31:53 supplies uh we are working uh closely also with our partners not not only of course Ukraine but also Georgia uh NATO 32:01 is uh helping to train uh and develop the Georgian Coast Guard uh so of course 32:07 with uh three NATO literal states around the Black Sea uh then Ukraine and 32:12 Georgia as close partners of course NATO is very much present in the Black Sea and uh the Black Sea is of great 32:19 strategic importance and I welcome uh very much the achievements that the 32:24 brave Ukrainian uh armed forces have achieved in pushing at the Russian Black 32:29 Sea Fleet we'll go next to the telegraph in row three in the middle here 32:38 please hi Joe B from The Daily Telegraph um one of the sections looks at the 32:44 threat posed by Hypersonic uh missile systems and it's listed as one of the nine key emerging and disruptive 32:51 Technologies um we know a patriot system has downed the Russian Kinsel that 32:56 killjoy in NATO speak um but how much further do NATO's 33:02 ballistic missile defenses have to go to ensure full coverage against Hypersonic threats um and then you also in the same 33:08 section list Iran as a particular worry in this um why Iran um do you see them 33:15 picking up production further than they already have um and it seems to be a concern that you share with your partners in the European Union um thank 33:23 you Hypersonic mards is of course uh a real challenge uh and it uh demonstrates 33:29 that Russia has invested heavily also in more advanced weapon systems at the same 33:35 time um I think we have demonstrated that NATO has the capabilities to 33:40 protect and defend against Russian Hypersonic missiles when they were launched the kinal was launched some 33:47 years ago it was a companied by a message from 33:53 President Putin that these missiles was not able to protect against not able that that we were not able to to shoot 33:59 them down uh we NATO Al Ukraine has by 34:05 using Patriots demonstrated that that's possible uh they have been able to shoot 34:10 down uh several Hypersonic Russian missiles um but it demonstrates also the 34:16 need for a layed air defense uh it demonstrates the need for uh air and 34:22 missile defense uh and it demonstrates the need uh for not only high quality 34:28 but Mass uh because one of the strategies we have seen in Ukraine is of course to try to overwhelm the air 34:34 defenses by sending in a lot of uh missiles and drones at the same time so 34:41 um uh that's also reason why as part of our defense plans as as part of uh what 34:47 we do now to implement the biggest reinforcements our Collective defense in decades uh air defense is a a critical 34:56 part of that effort again this is part about spending more if you look at the 35:01 um announcements that allies are making on what they are buying many of them are buying um a lot of a defense uh filling 35:11 up or following the NATO capability targets which have focused a lot on on on air defense Poland made announcements 35:18 U not so far ago for a lot of new uh um air defense systems uh Germany is 35:24 leading the sky Shield initiative where several have gone together uh and uh and 35:30 ensuring that they are um delivering on the NATO capability targets for more air defense so so yes we need to do more 35:37 because we need the quality we need the quantity to ensure that we have uh 35:43 sufficient air defense to protect against missiles and drones and planes 35:48 we have time for a couple more we'll go to EDI TV in row three here please uh thank you very much Mr 35:54 Secretary General you just mentioned Georgia but still can you tell tell us more about the deepening relationship 36:00 with partner Georgia in this context of war and turbulent times and what can we 36:06 expect in July um in the context of future membership thank you very much so 36:11 Georgia is uh Valu NATO partner um uh we 36:17 uh strongly believe that Georgia has the right as all other European countries or countries to to choose their own path um 36:25 I have visited Georgia several times I will visit Georgia in the near future again uh to further uh strengthen our 36:33 partnership and look into how we can work closely to uh together uh my 36:38 message to Georgia is of course that reforms are important and that uh NATO 36:44 is based on some core values democracy the rule of law and it's of course important that Georgia um um live up to 36:52 these standards uh as it moves towards further Euro Atlantic integration time 36:57 for one more we'll go to Reuters in row three here 37:03 please Andrew grief from reuter Secretary General is very struck by the line um that you mentioned earlier that 37:10 ukrainians are not running out of Courage but they are running out of ammunition so really a very simple question why are they running out of 37:16 ammunition given they have the support of so many allies so many powerful economies does this represent a failure 37:24 from NATO allies the NATO allies are not providing Ukraine with enough ammunition uh and 37:31 that that has consequences on the battlefield every day the fact that uh 37:37 the Russians are able to outgun uh the uh ukrainians every day of course is a 37:43 huge challenge is one of the reasons why the Russians have been able to uh make some advances on the battlefield over 37:50 the last weeks and uh and and months and uh uh and therefore it is an urgent need 37:57 for allies to make the decisions necessary uh to uh Step Up provide more 38:03 ammunition to Ukraine uh and that's my message to all capitals of course we all follow very closely the process in the 38:10 US Congress uh because the US is by far the biggest provider um of weapons and 38:17 ammunition to Ukraine at the same time a message to United States is that they they are not alone European isers and 38:22 Canada are also providing significant support uh uh but both uh uh US Canada 38:30 and Europe has to do more and we need long-term commitment um to enable the 38:36 ukrainians also to plan U then this is of course we have the capacity we 38:43 have the economies to be able to provide Ukraine what they need this is a question of political will uh to take 38:50 the decisions and to prioritize uh support for for Ukraine and therefore we 38:56 need the decisions to to uh invest more in defense industry uh uh we need to 39:02 ensure that uh our governments are um agreeing contracts with the defense 39:08 industry so they can make the commercial decisions to scale of production and of course we need the will from all allies 39:15 to then allocate um um support um ammunition but also other types of 39:21 military equipment to Ukraine it has been unprecedented one 39:27 anies have provided but uh but but but but we need to continue and we need to step up and that's the 39:33 message that concludes this press conference I know we didn't get to all the questions but the conversation can 39:39 continue it's now our great pleasure to invite the media to a reception upstairs in The Compass Room the Press team will 39:45 be here to guide you there the Secretary General will join you in a few minutes and we look forward to seeing you thank 39:50 you thank you see 39:56 you 40:25 this is channel one the original Lo 40:56 Deo 41:26 e 41:56 e 42:14 for