NATO Secretary General pre-ministerial press conference at Foreign Ministers Meeting, 02 APR 2025

Pre-ministerial press conference by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte ahead of the meetings of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs, 2 April 2025. 🗣 | NATO Secretary General: Thank you and good afternoon. On Thursday and Friday NATO Foreign Ministers will meet to discuss pressing security issues as we continue planning for our Summit in The Hague. We will focus on strengthening our collective defence. It is the foundation on which NATO was built and it remains our number one priority. We will also meet with our key partners – Ukraine, the European Union, and our partners in the Indo-Pacific. We gather at a particularly crucial time for our shared security. With challenges too great for any of us to bear alone. This week marks a grim anniversary – when the world discovered the tragedy of Bucha. I visited in July 2022 and spoke with some of those who survived. We will never forget that devastation. Three years since the liberation of Bucha, Russia continues to wage war against Ukraine. I commend President Trump for breaking the deadlock and I fully support the efforts undertaken by the US to bring this terrible war to a just and lasting end. As well as the efforts of the UK, France, and others to contribute to ensuring a lasting peace when the time comes. NATO Allies continue our support to Ukraine. In the first three months of this year, Allies have already pledged more than 20 billion euros in security assistance for 2025 and our command in Wiesbaden continues to coordinate the delivery of security assistance and training for Ukraine. The threat we face from Russia remains and Russia continues to work closely with China, Iran, and North Korea in ways that not only harm Ukraine but pose risks across the Alliance and around the world. We see these and other actors working to destabilise our societies with sabotage to undersea infrastructure, cyber-attacks, assassination attempts, and more. We live in a dangerous world and in the face of these and other challenges, we must build a stronger, a fairer and more lethal NATO. That’s why Ministers are here this week. To ensure we are aligned and actively working towards our common goal. We stand together – deploying and exercising to ensure we are ready and able. We are grateful to the men and women of our armed forces for the service they provide every day. And we were reminded of the risks of that service again this week – having tragically lost four brave American soldiers during training in Lithuania. We are profoundly grateful for their service. Our deepest condolences go to their families, friends, and fellow soldiers. We mourn their loss and take heart in the outstanding solidarity we saw during the search and rescue operation with Americans and Lithuanians, Poles and Estonians working shoulder-to-shoulder around the clock. This is the true spirit of the Alliance and in that spirit, we have important work to take forward. We are building a more capable Alliance by investing in what we need to counter the threats we face and we are making major progress. Many Allies are stepping up their spending in ways we haven’t seen in decades and I expect more announcements to follow. This is critical. Ministers will talk about how to ensure we can continue this trend. We will also discuss how we can produce more – on both sides of the Atlantic and make it easier to work together – exchange, innovate, and partner in ways that benefit us all. This is not only a topic for Allies, but one that we will discuss with our Indo-Pacific partners, with Ukraine, and with the EU High Representative, Kaja Kallas, who will join us on both days. Our partners make an essential contribution to our shared security. Sharing insights, experience, and expertise. When we meet in the NATO-Ukraine Council tomorrow evening, we will hear from Minister Andrii Sybiha. He will update us on the current situation in Ukraine as well as his perspectives on the process towards a just and lasting peace. All of this and more will contribute to the new chapter for NATO that we will start in The Hague in June. Our priorities are clear, we are building a stronger, fairer and more lethal Alliance - that’s what we need to secure our future. And with that, I am ready to take your questions. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 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 #ForMin