Press conference

Thank you so much Prime Minister, dear Andrej. Indeed, our friendship means a lot to me and we are close colleagues for so many years now. And thank you for the warm welcome to Prague today. It is great to see you again and to meet with the team. And it is always good to be in this beautiful city, which has stood at the crossroads of European history now for centuries.

Since joining NATO in 1999, Czechia has been a committed Ally, making important contributions to our shared security. Your troops serve in NATO's Forward Land Forces in Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania. You contribute to KFOR, NATO's peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. And your jets have been part of NATO Air Policing, including to Iceland last year. All this shows Czechia takes its membership of NATO seriously and is committed to collective defence.

In today's security environment, this matters more than ever. We face an aggressive Russia, an assertive China, a threatening North Korea, and a dangerous Iran that has pursued a nuclear and ballistic missile programme now for years. In a more dangerous world, Allies took historic decisions at the NATO Summit in The Hague last year to invest more in defence, increase defence production, and keep supporting Ukraine. The Summit in Ankara this July will focus on how NATO is delivering.

Increasing defence spending is essential so that we have the forces, the resources and the capabilities to keep our people safe. And we know - and this is true for all Allies - there are difficult debates on deciding budgets and allocating more funding for defence. But in the end, security is the foundation of prosperity. And when there is insecurity, societies and economies suffer.

Andrej, with your successful career in business, you know the importance of strong industry. And in NATO, we are working to increase transatlantic defence cooperation and innovation. More defence spending and production provides effective deterrence, promotes economic growth, inspires innovation, and not unimportant, it creates jobs.

On Ukraine, I welcome that the Czech-led ammunition initiative is moving forward.

It is making a real difference. More than 4 million rounds of ammunition have reached Ukraine. And I urge nations, who are now listening in, and the 31 other Allies, to keep funding it so Ukraine gets the ammunition it needs to hold back the Russians.

I was in Berlin yesterday to discuss with NATO Allies and partners how we will continue to ensure that Ukraine gets the help it needs.

I welcome the extra support announced by Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium announced another package of 1.1 billion Euros, and also many other countries were very clear on their commitments.

Last night's missile and drone attacks on Ukraine show how ruthless Russia is. It continues to deliver terror from the skies. Killing and injuring innocent civilians. Ukraine needs our help to deter against Russia today, be in a strong position to secure peace, and also to deter against any future aggression.

Prime Minister Babiš, dear Andrej, I look forward to working closely with you on our shared security. We agree that our citizens must be protected and that Allied territory must be defended, from any threat, from any direction. And we count on a strong Czechia in a strong NATO.

Again, thank you again for hosting the delegation and me here today in Prague.

Question (Czech Television)

I would like to ask both guests, Secretary General and the Prime Minister, did you also touch one of the topics during the meeting, whether or not the Czech Republic will meet the 5% GDP threshold by 2030 and to what extent this is of key importance for NATO's and have you also discussed the Summit in Ankara? Have you also touched on the issue, who will be representing the Czech Republic? What is going to be the government, also the president?

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte

Let me assure you that every visit I make to every Ally we discuss defence spending, it's not different today. This is true for all my visits because it is important that we all deliver on the commitment. And I look forward to the Ankara Summit because it will obviously touch upon the defence spending. It will absolutely also address the key issue of Ukraine but it will also very much, I think, focus on defence industrial production, to make sure that we not only have the money but we also have the defence industrial output. And here Czechia can help because you have your defence industrial base, and what we need from these beautiful companies is even more output, and more production lines, more shifts, not only in Czechia, but this is true for the whole of NATO including the United States, because we need to produce more to maintain our deterrence level.