NATO Secretary General pre-ministerial press conference at Defence Ministers Meeting, 11 FEB 2026

Pre-ministerial press conference by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte ahead of the meeting of NATO Defence Ministers in Brussels, 11 February 2026. 🗣 | NATO Secretary General: Thank you so much, and welcome. Good afternoon. Tomorrow indeed, NATO Defence Ministers will meet here at NATO Headquarters as we prepare for the Summit in Ankara which is now less than five months from now. When leaders gather in Türkiye in July, we will build on the historic decisions made at the Summit in The Hague last year. It was there that Allies agreed to ensure that NATO is a stronger, fairer Alliance - including by increasing defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 and substantially boosting our defence industries. Tomorrow, I look forward to hearing from Ministers on how Allies are implementing these decisions; how each is delivering to ensure our common security. Investment is up by tens of billions. Take Germany for example. Germany, by 2029, will spend 152 billion euros on defence. That is more than double what they were spending in 2021. So, in eight years, they will double their defence spending, going up to 152 billion euros. Just one example – of course a very big Ally – but still one example from many. We will talk, of course, tomorrow about how Allies are planning further increases to their defence spending ensuring that there is a credible path to our common goal. As Allies invest more, it is crucial that the capabilities we need are available to buy. So we are building our defence industrial base. We need to produce more. This means more air defence, more ammunition, and stronger supply chains across the Alliance. We need to move faster – adopting new technologies, accelerating procurement, and ensuring our defence industry can deliver at speed and can deliver at scale. We need this on both sides of the Atlantic, and we need to work together across the Atlantic. And yes, we are seeing progress. We are also seeing progress when it comes to sharing responsibility for leadership in our NATO Command Structure. Just last week, Allies agreed a new distribution of senior officer posts, with European Allies taking on greater responsibility – including the newest NATO members. And this is good news, we are doing this together. Re-distributing roles in ways that make sense for all involved. Tomorrow we will also discuss our support for Ukraine. I was there last week and saw the impact of Russia’s relentless attacks, including on critical civilian infrastructure, and once again, President Putin is trying to break the people of Ukraine, hoping to weaken their resolve. But Ukraine, and the Ukrainian people, have shown, time and again, that they will not be broken. Still, Ukraine cannot sustain this fight or secure the peace alone. And this is why Allies have backed Ukraine with action – not just words – since the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly four years ago. 99 percent of all military support to Ukraine has come from NATO Allies and partners, and NATO continues to strengthen the coordination and the delivery of that support. Coordination through our command in Wiesbaden, training and lessons-learned at our centre in Bydgoszcz. Political consultation in the NATO-Ukraine Council, and practical support through the Comprehensive Assistance Package. Our PURL initiative continues to deliver vital US equipment for Ukraine, with funding provided by Allies and partners. The support delivered through PURL saves lives in Ukraine every single day. Tomorrow, NATO Ministers will be joined by Ukraine’s new Defence Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov and we will discuss how Allies can enhance their support and also how they can make it more effective. Transcript continues: https://www.nato.int/en/news-and-even... ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ SUBSCRIBE to this channel https://bit.ly/NATOsubscribe SUBSCRIBE to NATO News https://bit.ly/NATONewsSubscribe SUBSCRIBE to NATO History https://bit.ly/NATOHistorySubscribe Connect with NATO online: Visit the Official NATO Homepage: https://bit.ly/NATOhomepage Receive NATO updates via email: https://bit.ly/NATOemails Find NATO on FACEBOOK: https://bit.ly/NATOfacebook Follow @NATO on X/TWITTER: https://bit.ly/NATOtwitter Follow NATO on Instagram: https://bit.ly/NATOinstagram Find NATO on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/NATOlinkedin Find NATO on Flickr: https://bit.ly/NATOflickr #NATO #OTAN #DefMin