It is crucial that Ukraine is involved in all talks on its future, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters ahead of today's meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation defence ministers in Brussels.
"Good morning. It gives me great pleasure to welcome Pete Hegseth back to NATO today.
We had a great dinner last night. We discussed many things, of course, defence spending. Obviously, we need to do more. We have to increase defence spending because we know that if we do not do that, we cannot protect ourselves in four or five years' time.
We also need to increase defence spending, because it is clear that the US is rightly asking us to do more here on the European and Canadian side of NATO.
It's only fair. It's only reasonable.
We will also discuss defence industrial production, because we simply do not produce enough of it. And that includes the U.S. and up to Turkey and everything in between.
We really need to get more production out of our huge defense industrial base to keep up with Russia and China and others.
And then over lunch, of course, we will discuss Ukraine. What happened yesterday, of course, here at the meeting, and also what's coming out of the White House will lead to discussions.
But there is a clear rapprochement emerging, which I am very happy about.
And the consensus is one, we need peace in Ukraine. Two, we need to ensure that Ukraine is in a position of strength. And three, as you said yesterday, Pete, we can never, ever, ever have a situation like Minsk 3.0 where peace is not permanent. So we will work collectively on that. We're going to discuss it among allies. That's what I'm looking forward to. Pete, once again, welcome to NATO. Welcome aboard." Rutte said.
Arriving at the meeting today, Hegseth stressed that President Donald Trump spoke with both sides on Wednesday, the Russian president and his Ukrainian counterpart, and his goal is to "stop the killing and ensure peace". Trump is, according to him. "the best negotiator on the planet."
"We want to ensure that NATO is strong and robust to deter any future aggression," the US minister also said at the alliance's headquarters. In this context, there is a need to increase defence spending and production in the defence industry. It is Europe's responsibility to stop the Russian "war machine", Hegseth added.
NATO/ gnews.cz - RoZ
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