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Joint remarks by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, Washington D.C.

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

02 Jun. 2022

(As delivered)

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III

Well Mr. Secretary General, it's great to see you again. It's always a pleasure to welcome you back to the Pentagon. During my short sixteen months of Secretary of Defence, I think we've met virtually or in person some twenty-one times.
And I always looked up for it, to our meetings.
But that really shows the importance of NATO to us.
I want to thank you for taking the time to come here as we look ahead to both the defence ministerial that's coming up, and most importantly, the NATO Summit that will follow later this month.
I especially want to thank you for your firm and principal leadership of this indispensable Alliance during this historic time.
In the face of Russia's unprovoked aggression against Ukraine, NATO has grown stronger and more united. And we've come to reinforce our Allies and we'll continue to do that going forward.
We couldn't have done what's been done, Jens, quite frankly, without your strong leadership.
That's why we got on bended knee and asked you to stay a year longer and we're grateful for you doing that.
You know, but as I think about this, I've never seen NATO more energized, more united.
And so it's a special time for me having been around NATO most of my adult life, but to see us where we are right now is a real treat, but it must be really special for you as well.
You know, Putin wanted to weaken the rules-based international order, but instead he galvanized the world by his actions.
So we continue to look forward to, under your leadership, adopting a new strategic concept at the end of the month, and to working to strengthen our deterrence and making it more combat-credible.
So I know those discussions are on horizon there, and we really look forward to that.
I know that there's a lot of discussion about defence spending within NATO recently.
So let me just say that spending 2% of GDP is a floor and not a ceiling in my view.
And it's also important to increase the amount of common funding so that NATO has the resources that it needs to accomplish the task that our leaders have assigned us.
And we fully support your efforts and applaud your efforts to ensure that NATO has the resources that it needs.
So again, Mr. Secretary General, thanks for making the trip. It's great to have you here. And I know we're gonna have a great discussion.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

Thank you so much Secretary Austin, Lloyd, it's great to be back. Great to see you again.
And thank you for your strong personal commitment to NATO and for your leadership.
And that has really been demonstrated over the last months with the significant increase of US presence in Europe with more troops, more forces, and many more capabilities to demonstrate Alliance unity and our readiness to protect and defend every inch of NATO territory.
And also the way you personally have led the efforts to step up support to Ukraine, convening NATO and partners in a joint effort to provide essential equipment and support to Ukraine.
And again, what has impressed me is not only the magnitude and the scale of the support, but also how swift and quickly you were able to act when Ukraine needed our support.
The good news is, of course, also that also European allies have stepped up, over actually several years, with higher readiness, with more troops in the eastern part of the Alliance and also with increased defence spending.
And I agree with you that 2% is a minimum.
Therefore we need to make sure that we continue to ensure that NATO Allies are investing more.
And across Europe and Canada, we have seen now seven consecutive years of increased defence spending and more and more Allies or meeting the 2% guideline - the guideline of spending 2% of GDP on defence.
I look forward to our meeting today, both to prepare the defence ministerial meeting later this month, but also as part of the preparations for the upcoming summit where we need to ensure that NATO continues to be the most successful Alliance in history, adapting and changing when the world is changing.
And now we are faced with a more competitive world. A world where we see authoritarian powers like Russia and China also working more closer together.
And of course, this matters for our security.
So thank you once again.
I appreciate that we meet so often, both in person and virtually, so I hope that we can continue at this pace to have frequent meetings. So thank you so much.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III

I absolutely agree and Jens, before we transition here, let me just acknowledge the presence of our Ambassador, Ambassador Smith, who's in this meeting. She's the Ambassador of NATO, obviously, and I thank you for what you've done to make it easier for her to do her job and she's got an incredible job. If you couldn't be Secretary General at this point in history, you'd want to be the Ambassador of NATO. Thanks for helping her to quickly get on board and do what she does. And with that, we'll transition so thanks a lot.