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SECRETARY OF DEFENSE LLOYD J. AUSTIN III: Well, Mr. Secretary General, welcome back to the Pentagon, and it was great to see you in Brussels three weeks ago for the most recent NATO defense ministerial. And it's a privilege to host you here on the eve of NATO's 75th anniversary summit.
You have been a true friend to the United States, as you showed today by your visit to pay your respects at Arlington National Cemetery. And we've got a pretty packed schedule this week, so thanks for making the time to meet before we kick off the official program.
This summit will celebrate 75 years of the greatest defensive alliance in history. The summit will deepen our extraordinary transatlantic bond and strengthen our shared security. I know that President Biden is proud to host this summit, and he looks forward to marking our historic achievements with leaders from our now 32 NATO allies.
We've made outstanding progress in strengthening our deterrence and defense. We built on our progress from previous summits, and we've shown the world that NATO is stronger, larger and more united than ever before. Jens, that unity is a testament to you.
As the second longest serving NATO secretary general, you've provided courage, wisdom and visionary leadership, and you've guided NATO through one of the most challenging periods in its 75-year history. Mr. Secretary, you've done an extraordinary job, and it's been an honor to work with you over the past three and a half years.
And so, I look forward to our discussion today and to our work over the next--over the days to come. And thanks again for being here, and thanks again for everything that you have done to strengthen the great alliance that defends our freedom and security. Over to you, sir.
NATO SECRETARY GENERAL JENS STOLTENBERG: Thanks so much, Secretary Austin. And dear Lloyd, it's great to see you again and great to be back in the Pentagon. And it's great to be here on the eve of the upcoming NATO summit, where we're going to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the most successful alliance in history.
Let me start by thanking you for your leadership, your commitment to NATO, to our transatlantic alliance, but in particular for your leadership on Ukraine and your personal leadership in mobilizing all allies and many partners, more than 50 nations, establishing the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
The Ramstein format has been extremely important, and it really made a difference and enabled us all to provide unprecedented support to Ukraine. So, this would not have happened without your strong leadership on the support for Ukraine.
We will all celebrate our alliance this week, the 75th anniversary, but we will also make decisions for the future on deterrence and defense, ensuring that we have the forces, the readiness, the capabilities we need to continue to deter any aggressor, and also ensure that allies continue to carry their fair share of the burden.
And we have good numbers. 23 allies are now spending at least 2 percent of GDP on defense, up from only three allies when we made the pledge back in 2014. And I'm optimistic when it comes to that allies will continue to increase defense spending, because 2 percent is a minimum. There is a need to continue to increase defense spending across the alliance.
In Ukraine, Russia continues its brutal war. Only today, we have seen horrendous missile attacks against Ukrainian cities, killing innocent civilians, including children. I condemn these heinous attacks. At the summit, we'll make decisions to further strengthen our support to Ukraine, and Russia must understand that they are not able to wait those out. They need to sit down and accept a solution where Ukraine prevails as a sovereign independent nation.
We will also have the leaders of our Asia-Pacific partners, Australia and New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, present at the summit. That demonstrates that our security is not regional. Our security is global. And that's clearly demonstrated in the war in Ukraine, where Iran, North Korea, China are supporting, enabling Russia's illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.
So, I look forward to our conversations, to our meeting. And thank you so much once again for hosting me and my delegation.
MR. AUSTIN: Mr. Secretary General, thanks for being here. We're delighted to have you, and I look forward to our discussion as well. So thanks, everybody.
