WEBVTT 00:03.530 --> 00:06.040 Good morning . I'm looking forward to 00:06.050 --> 00:09.940 meet the defense ministers . We 00:09.950 --> 00:11.810 meet at a critical time for our 00:11.810 --> 00:14.700 security . Russia's war of aggression 00:14.710 --> 00:18.200 grinds on against Ukraine . And over 00:18.200 --> 00:20.200 the last weeks and months , we have 00:20.200 --> 00:23.260 seen fierce fighting in and around bomb 00:23.260 --> 00:26.680 mood . And what we see is that Russia 00:26.680 --> 00:28.740 is throwing on more troops , more 00:28.740 --> 00:32.110 forces and what Russia lacks 00:32.120 --> 00:35.350 in quality , they try to make up in 00:35.350 --> 00:38.270 quantity . They have suffered big 00:38.270 --> 00:41.040 losses . But at the same time , we 00:41.050 --> 00:43.290 can not rule out 00:43.290 --> 00:46.740 that Mahmoud 00:46.750 --> 00:50.630 may eventually fall in the coming 00:50.640 --> 00:53.860 days . And therefore , it is also 00:53.860 --> 00:57.270 important to highlight that this does 00:57.360 --> 01:00.610 not necessarily 01:00.750 --> 01:04.460 reflect any turning point of the 01:04.470 --> 01:08.180 war . And 01:08.220 --> 01:10.800 it just highlights that we should not 01:10.810 --> 01:14.710 underestimate Russia . We must continue 01:14.710 --> 01:18.350 to provide support to Ukraine and 01:18.360 --> 01:20.830 NATO allies have over the last year 01:20.840 --> 01:23.900 supported Ukraine with military and 01:23.910 --> 01:26.310 financial and economic support worth 01:26.320 --> 01:28.240 around or close to 01:28.240 --> 01:31.460 €150 01:31.470 --> 01:35.340 billion , out of which €65 billion 01:35.340 --> 01:38.970 Euros is military support . 01:38.980 --> 01:42.620 It is particularly important to ramp up 01:42.620 --> 01:45.250 production of ammunition . This is an 01:45.250 --> 01:47.520 issue that NATO allies have addressed 01:47.530 --> 01:50.740 for some time and we are now going to 01:50.740 --> 01:54.240 agree new guidelines , new 01:54.240 --> 01:56.040 requirements for stockpiles of 01:56.040 --> 01:58.770 ammunition , ensuring that we both can 01:58.770 --> 02:01.850 replenish our own stockpiles . But also 02:01.850 --> 02:05.220 to continue to provide support to 02:05.230 --> 02:08.260 Ukraine and 02:08.270 --> 02:11.650 NATO allies have signed contracts and 02:11.660 --> 02:14.180 welcome that they have signed contracts 02:14.180 --> 02:16.236 with the defense industry to ramp up 02:16.236 --> 02:18.458 production . Given the long term demand 02:18.458 --> 02:20.458 signals and several NATO allies are 02:20.458 --> 02:24.190 also gone into joint projects or 02:24.190 --> 02:26.720 procurement of different types of 02:26.720 --> 02:28.230 ammunition but also 02:28.250 --> 02:31.320 warehousing for 02:31.320 --> 02:34.590 ammunition . Um 02:34.780 --> 02:37.690 I look forward to meet the defense 02:37.690 --> 02:40.020 ministers to discuss these issues and 02:40.020 --> 02:42.131 all the challenges we face together . 02:42.131 --> 02:44.298 And what we've seen throughout the war 02:44.298 --> 02:46.520 in Ukraine is how NATO and the European 02:46.520 --> 02:48.687 Union stand together , complement each 02:48.687 --> 02:50.853 other and work together to protect our 02:50.853 --> 02:53.076 values . Secretary General , there have 02:53.076 --> 02:55.920 been reports that pro Ukrainian group 02:55.920 --> 02:57.920 attacked the North stream pipelines 02:57.920 --> 03:00.240 last year . Can you confirm this and 03:00.240 --> 03:02.510 what knowledge does NATO have in this 03:02.520 --> 03:06.520 respect ? What we do know is 03:06.520 --> 03:09.090 that there was an attack against the 03:09.090 --> 03:11.880 North stream pipelines , an act of 03:11.890 --> 03:15.380 sabotage , but we have not been able to 03:15.390 --> 03:19.350 determine who was behind . There are 03:19.360 --> 03:21.850 ongoing national investigations and I 03:21.850 --> 03:24.950 think it's right to wait until those 03:24.950 --> 03:27.140 are finalized before we send him more 03:27.140 --> 03:30.680 about who was behind . What we 03:30.690 --> 03:33.920 also know is that is 03:33.920 --> 03:37.750 that it demonstrates the importance 03:37.760 --> 03:40.230 of protecting our critical undersea 03:40.230 --> 03:42.210 infrastructure because we have 03:42.220 --> 03:44.460 thousands of kilometers of gas 03:44.460 --> 03:48.440 pipelines of oil pipelines of 03:48.450 --> 03:51.720 power grids . And also of course all 03:51.720 --> 03:54.140 the internet cables and all of these 03:54.150 --> 03:56.400 infrastructure is critical for our 03:56.410 --> 03:59.040 societies has addressed this for many 03:59.040 --> 04:01.370 years . But after the attacks against 04:01.370 --> 04:03.630 the north pipelines , we have stepped 04:03.630 --> 04:05.890 up . We have established a cell at the 04:05.890 --> 04:08.112 NATO headquarters to coordinate efforts 04:08.112 --> 04:09.960 among NATO allies to share more 04:09.960 --> 04:12.127 information , to work with the private 04:12.127 --> 04:13.830 sector that often owns this 04:13.840 --> 04:17.310 infrastructure and to do more to 04:17.540 --> 04:19.760 minimize the risk and increase the 04:19.760 --> 04:21.980 protection of critical infrastructure 04:24.920 --> 04:27.320 coming back to ammunition . You 04:27.320 --> 04:29.470 yourself have repeatedly warned that 04:29.480 --> 04:31.647 Ukraine is running out of ammunition . 04:31.647 --> 04:34.300 Are you satisfied with the pace of eu 04:34.300 --> 04:37.480 countries and NATO countries in ramping 04:37.480 --> 04:40.150 up production capacities ? This is now 04:40.150 --> 04:42.520 a war of attrition which is a battle of 04:42.520 --> 04:45.350 logistics . This is about getting the 04:45.360 --> 04:47.582 supplies , ammunition , the fuel to the 04:47.582 --> 04:49.650 front lines to the soldiers and this 04:49.650 --> 04:51.730 was clear all the last fall . And 04:51.730 --> 04:54.050 that's the reason why I stepped up its 04:54.050 --> 04:56.690 efforts on working with the industry 04:56.690 --> 04:58.857 and ramping up production and also why 04:58.857 --> 05:02.000 we started the work of developing new 05:02.000 --> 05:04.320 requirements for stockpiles as part of 05:04.320 --> 05:06.360 the defense planning process , our 05:06.360 --> 05:09.370 capability targets and allies NATO 05:09.370 --> 05:11.570 allies have all the design contracts 05:11.570 --> 05:14.920 which have enabled increased production . 05:14.940 --> 05:16.884 This is good . This is something I 05:16.884 --> 05:18.829 welcome , but there is an enormous 05:18.829 --> 05:22.520 demand out there . The current rate 05:22.520 --> 05:25.530 of consumption compared to the current 05:25.540 --> 05:28.490 rate of production of a mission of 05:28.490 --> 05:30.450 ammunition is not sustainable and 05:30.450 --> 05:32.783 therefore we need to ramp up production . 05:32.783 --> 05:35.900 And I welcome that the European Union 05:35.900 --> 05:37.733 is stepping up . NATO allies are 05:37.733 --> 05:39.844 stepping up and we already have joint 05:39.844 --> 05:42.720 projects among NATO allies to provide 05:42.720 --> 05:45.310 both more ammunition for artillery , 05:45.320 --> 05:48.040 more ammunition for air defense systems 05:48.300 --> 05:51.890 and also better infrastructure where 05:51.890 --> 05:54.112 housing for the ammunition . So this is 05:54.112 --> 05:56.370 something we're working on . We have 05:56.370 --> 05:58.630 seen important steps have been taken , 05:58.700 --> 06:01.350 but we need to do more because we need 06:01.350 --> 06:05.120 to ensure that Ukraine gets diminishing . 06:05.120 --> 06:07.740 It needs to defend itself against 06:07.750 --> 06:10.890 Russia's war aggression and we need to 06:10.890 --> 06:13.790 replenish our own stocks because so far 06:14.220 --> 06:16.970 our support to Ukraine has mainly come 06:16.970 --> 06:20.260 from depleting stocks . And of course , 06:20.260 --> 06:21.871 in the long run , that's not 06:21.871 --> 06:24.080 sustainable . That's the reason why we 06:24.080 --> 06:25.990 always started work on ramping up 06:25.990 --> 06:29.790 production from the new round of 06:29.790 --> 06:32.910 talks among Turkey . Finland and Sweden 06:32.920 --> 06:35.280 Thursday . Will there be any 06:35.280 --> 06:37.280 breakthrough or will nothing happen 06:37.280 --> 06:40.710 until the election in Turkey ? First of 06:40.710 --> 06:42.932 all , we have to remember that all NATO 06:42.932 --> 06:44.932 allies also Turkey made an historic 06:44.932 --> 06:48.320 decision at the NATO summit last June 06:48.320 --> 06:52.100 in June last year when they all agreed 06:52.100 --> 06:54.267 to invite Finland and Sweden to become 06:54.267 --> 06:58.080 a NATO allies . Since then , we have 06:58.090 --> 07:00.680 integrated Finland Sweden into civilian 07:00.680 --> 07:03.210 and military structures and Sweden and 07:03.210 --> 07:05.266 Finland has totally different status 07:05.270 --> 07:08.170 being now more and more closely 07:08.180 --> 07:10.630 integrated into NATO and several NATO 07:10.630 --> 07:12.980 allies have also provided security 07:12.980 --> 07:16.350 assurances to Finland and Sweden has 07:16.350 --> 07:18.630 increased its presence in this region . 07:19.130 --> 07:22.230 And altogether this means that it's 07:22.240 --> 07:24.300 inconceivable that there will be any 07:24.300 --> 07:26.560 military threat against Finland and 07:26.560 --> 07:29.500 Sweden without reacting . So Finland 07:29.500 --> 07:32.030 and Sweden are much safer , much better 07:32.030 --> 07:34.590 position now than before they applied . 07:34.660 --> 07:36.827 That's good for Finland and Sweden but 07:36.827 --> 07:40.440 is also good for second . I 07:40.450 --> 07:42.940 met with president a couple of weeks 07:42.940 --> 07:46.280 ago . That was a good meeting . I was 07:46.280 --> 07:48.391 there to express my condolences after 07:48.391 --> 07:50.613 earthquake but also to discuss how NATO 07:50.613 --> 07:53.900 could provide support to Turkey after 07:53.900 --> 07:55.980 the earthquake . But we also discuss 07:55.980 --> 07:58.036 the way forward on membership and we 07:58.036 --> 08:01.250 are making progress . President Erdogan 08:01.250 --> 08:03.440 agreed to restart the talks 08:05.090 --> 08:07.840 and to have a meeting Finland Sweden 08:07.840 --> 08:10.860 and Turkey at the NATO headquarters 08:10.870 --> 08:14.280 tomorrow . And that in itself is an 08:14.280 --> 08:16.510 important thing after a long period 08:16.510 --> 08:19.600 without any talks . This is a process 08:19.600 --> 08:21.656 and I don't expect the process to be 08:21.656 --> 08:24.300 concluded tomorrow , but I'm confident 08:24.300 --> 08:27.720 that financing will become NATO allies . 08:27.730 --> 08:31.300 This is a top priority and we are 08:31.310 --> 08:33.820 going to continue to integrate 08:33.820 --> 08:36.870 financing into our alliance . Thank you . 08:36.880 --> 08:37.780 Thank you .