Joint press conference

Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg:

[speaking in Norwegian]

Let me say some word in English. First of all, I thank you for the good cooperation and good meetings we had today and yesterday. And, Sweden as a NATO Ally is contributing in many different ways to our shared security, to our collective defence. Sweden is an Ally that already spends 2% or even a bit more actually, of GDP on defence. You have well trained, well equipped forces, you have an advanced defence industry. So therefore, it is a great privilege to be here for the first time as Secretary General in NATO in Sweden as a full-fledged member.

Swedish membership also helps to strengthen our presence, not least in the Nordic, the High North and the Baltic region. And I welcome the announcement today that Sweden will contribute to NATO's Air Policing. This demonstrates how Sweden is making major contributions to our Alliance just three months after you joined.

We discussed the preparations for the upcoming NATO Summit in Washington.

More support will be one of the main topics, the most urgent task for the Alliance. And we are now working on how NATO can create a better and stronger framework for our support to Ukraine. So, we can play a bigger role in coordinating and providing security assistance and training for Ukraine. We're also addressing how we can provide and agree long term financial pledge for Ukraine. So, we have more predictability and more accountability. And also, that we send a clear message to Moscow that Moscow cannot wait us out in Ukraine. The [inaudible] is that the stronger our commitment is for Ukraine for long haul, the shorter, the sooner this war can end, because then Moscow, President Putin will understand that they cannot wait out NATO Allies and Ukraine.

We will also address at the Washington Summit how we can further strengthen our deterrence and defence to ensure that our new defence plans are fully operational and fully possible to execute. That means more investments and therefore I welcome that more and more Allies are now spending 2% of GDP on defence. But as we agreed at the last Summit in Vilnius last summer, 2% is a minimum to deliver on the NATO capability targets which Allies have agreed. Most Allies will need to spend more than 2% on defence to ensure that they meet those targets.

So, it is always a pleasure to visit Sweden. Again, a great pleasure to visit Sweden as a NATO Ally. Thank you.