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Joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the Minister of Defence of Portugal, José Azeredo Lopes - Secretary General's opening remarks

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

26 Jan. 2018

(As delivered)

Thank you so much. And it's a great honour to be here and to once again meet with you.

We have met many many times, but this is actually our first meeting in Lisbon. And for me it is a great honour to be here because Portugal is such a key Ally in our Alliance.

Portugal makes NATO more secure - on land, at sea, in the air and also in cyber-space. We are very grateful for your many contributions.

On land, your troops serve with NATO's multinational brigade in Romania.

In the air, your jets have kept the skies secure over the Black Sea region.

At sea, you are contributing to NATO maritime operations again and again.

And in cyberspace, NATO's state of the art cyber academy is being built here in Portugal. And we just visited the site where the new Academy for communications, information and cyber is now going to be built.

When this Academy is finished, thousands of students will attend courses there every year, which just strengthens the position of Portugal as a key Ally in our Alliance.

Let me also say that we are grateful for the way Portugal is supporting and contributing to different NATO missions and operations, also beyond our borders, not least by the fact that you are supporting our Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan. And also the fact that you have decided to increase your presence in Afghanistan

And it's important to remember that the reason why NATO is present in Afghanistan is that we are fighting terrorism; we have to prevent that Afghanistan once again becomes a safe haven for international terrorism.

NATO is also fighting terrorism in other ways. We support the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. NATO is a full member and we provide support to the Global Coalition by training Iraqi soldiers and officers. And also with our AWACS surveillance planes supporting the air operations of the Global Coalition.

The Atlantic Ocean is what binds our Alliance together. We are a transatlantic Alliance – North America and Europe – and therefore we also focus on the importance of burden sharing within the Alliance.

Burden sharing is not only about spending, but it's also about providing modern military capabilities and contributing personnel, soldiers, to our operations.

But it's also about investing in our defenses. So at our NATO Summit in 2014 in Wales, all Allies made a pledge to stop the cuts in defence spending, gradually increase and move towards spending 2% of GDP on defence.

I welcome that Portugal has stopped the cuts in defence spending and also that we have started to increase.

But I also expect that you will continue because we need more investments from many NATO Allies to make sure that we are delivering on the promise and the pledge we made back in 2014.

So once again, thank you for an excellent day here in Lisbon, where we have had many important discussions and where we have addressed how we together, as an Alliance, can continue to respond and adapt to a new and more demanding security environment.