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00:00NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is about to speak before that NATO Foreign Minister's meeting in Brussels. We can go live to him now.
00:11Then of course we will also discuss today spending. We have to spend more not only because the US expects that.
00:19Because they expect Europe to take its and pay its fair share.
00:24But also we have to spend more because we know the threat
00:27coming from Russia and from other adversaries is increasing.
00:32And that will be debated today. And here I think there is a clear expectation
00:37from the side of the US, but also a clear commitment yesterday that this alliance is here to stay for the generations to come.
00:46And we will discuss today
00:48the Zen's industrial base. How to produce more. We are not producing enough. And this is a collective problem
00:54we have from the US up to and including Turkey and including the whole of the European Union, Norway, UK.
01:01We have fantastic defense industries, but we are not producing enough. We are producing in three months an ammunition.
01:08No, I would say Russia is producing in three months an ammunition what the whole of the alliance is producing in a year.
01:13And this is simply not sustainable. We have to ramp up the defense industry production. So these issues will be on the table
01:22today in the Ministers of Defense meeting and then afterwards also in the lunch we will have with Minister Umarov of
01:30Ukraine, where we discuss the relations between NATO and Ukraine. So thank you very much. Maybe a few questions.
01:39I can only do one question at a time. Yes.
01:41Do you think that Secretary Haxsat Rethrik that we heard yesterday was in any way harmful to NATO?
01:48Just the way he talked.
01:51Secretary Haxsat, but also what later came out of Washington
01:55clearly were big announcements and at the same time this is how an alliance should be governed.
02:00We are an alliance of democracies.
02:02We need to debate and also I see a clear convergence as I said that we want peace,
02:06that the peace has to be enduring, that we have to make sure that Ukraine is in the best possible position and for the Europeans
02:12to step up in defense spending and collectively to step up the defense industrial production. So here there is a clear convergence.
02:22Things have changed here. What direction is this alliance now going?
02:27This alliance is a family.
02:29As Pete Haxsat says yesterday and so many others, it is there for generations to come.
02:34We are there to make sure that we have the best possible
02:37deterrence in place to fight off any adversary now and in the future.
02:42But it means that we have to get to a good deal in Ukraine. We have to ramp up defense spending.
02:47We have to ramp up defense industrial production. These are clear tasks.
02:50We collectively have. We will debate them. We might not always agree immediately, but as always in the end, we come to common positions.
02:59You have said, your mantra has been no decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine, yet yesterday
03:05we saw Donald Trump having a phone call with
03:09President Putin without Ukraine. He's going to meet President Putin without Ukraine.
03:16This looks to many like the beginning of the betrayal of Ukraine.
03:21What we have seen yesterday was the statements coming out of Washington, including, and you'll forget to mention that, his
03:27long phone call with President Zelensky. So we will see how this progresses from now on,
03:32step by step. Of course, this is crucial. We talk about Ukraine, that Ukraine is closely involved in everything happening about Ukraine.
03:40Mr. General, representing the U.S. Press Corps, thanks for doing this.
03:43Do you consider President Trump's phone call with Putin the beginning of peace negotiations?
03:48It clearly gives that impression that it was a successful phone call. We all want peace in Ukraine.
03:55Obviously, we have to make sure that Ukraine is in the best possible position.
03:58It is crucial that when a peace deal is struck, that that peace deal is enduing.
04:03That Putin knows that this is the end, that he can never again try to capture a
04:09peace of Ukraine. So that has to be part of those negotiations, and no doubt that is also on the mind of President Trump and the American team.
04:16And today, and the coming days, and the coming week, obviously, we will closely coordinate between allies.
04:22Final question, and then we'll meet again at the post-ministerial press conference.
04:27So, yes.
04:29This best possible position for Ukraine, would it be even stronger and better if
04:34things like the return of occupied territory and NATO membership would still be on the table?
04:39Well, what I've said before,
04:42I believe we have to make sure that we concentrate on the big issues. And the one big issue, number one, is to make sure,
04:47and talk start,
04:49that Ukraine is in a position that Putin knows he has to come to the table.
04:53It is for him crucial to come to a deal on Ukraine,
04:57so Ukraine has to be in a strong position. And again, as I said before, it is crucial
05:01that when a deal is struck, that that deal will not unravel. We have seen in 2014 what happened with Minsk.
05:08We thought that deal was there to stay. It didn't.
05:12Putin simply continued trying to grab pieces of Ukraine, and then on
05:182022 he started the full onslaught, late February 2022. We can never ever have that again.
05:24So I'm absolutely pro-peace. I am pro-peace talks.
05:28Absolutely, but at the same time we have to make sure that what comes out of those talks is there to stay, and that Ukraine
05:35then is safe. Thank you so much. We'll meet again later today.
05:43And that was a NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte speaking to reporters before the Defence Minister's
05:50meeting in Brussels. And for more on this, we can bring in Yuri Sakh in Kiev.
05:57He is an advisor at Ukraine's Ministry for Strategic Industries.
06:02Good morning, Yuri, and thank you for joining us. Can I first ask you, those comments there by Mark Rutte,
06:09was there anything reassuring for Ukraine in them?
06:14Good morning, Oliver. Many of the things that Mark Rutte has just said are very reassuring.
06:19First of all, it's the common understanding of the threats that we are all facing, not just Ukraine.
06:25Second of all, it's the continued commitment of the European partners and NATO alliance to making Ukraine strong
06:32and ensuring that Ukraine is in strong positions coming into these negotiations.
06:38Thirdly, and very importantly, you know, we in Ukraine, we have not been sitting idly.
06:43We have been ramping up our military base, our defence industry production.
06:51We are now producing our own ammunition. We are producing a lot of different other weapon systems.
06:55And it is very important that Mark Rutte, and I sense that this is the shared confident belief among the European NATO allies,
07:05that everybody has to, you know, step up their efforts in terms of their defence spendings and in terms of their defence industry production.
07:13Because the threats are only growing bigger and we all have to be prepared to, you know, protect our values.
07:20Because I would like to stress that this is still about the largest war since the Second World War, about our protection of shared values.
07:30So this is what it's all about, primarily about freedom, about democracy, about good and evil, about tyranny and democracy.
07:37Now, with regard to that phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin yesterday,
07:42this went ahead without notifying Vladimir Zelensky ahead of time.
07:47In fact, Donald Trump posted about it on his social media before even Zelensky knew about it.
07:53This seems to be going over the head of both Ukraine and its European allies.
07:59What is the attitude towards this in Kyiv?
08:03We have learned in the last almost three years that, for example, in military operations, it is very important to achieve success.
08:11It is very important to have an element of surprise.
08:14So the fact that certain things are not revealed ahead of time is normal and probably smart.
08:20Because in any negotiations to achieve your objectives, and here clearly we know from the two phone calls yesterday,
08:27that the objective is to end the unprovoked aggressive war against Ukraine.
08:33So to achieve these objectives in negotiations, you have to be smart and strong.
08:37And, you know, we have, you know, we're quietly optimistic.
08:41We understand that this is just the beginning of a very, what is likely to be long and complicated negotiating process.
08:49But, you know, we have made it very clear, our president said it to President Trump very clearly that, you know,
08:55for us, it is important to achieve just peace.
08:58It's not just about ending war on any terms.
09:01And there are certain non-negotiable conditions for Ukraine and Ukrainians, such as our independence and our territorial integrity.
09:09And we fully understand that not all of these objectives can be achieved militarily.
09:14This is why it is important that these negotiations have finally started.
09:18So hopefully from now on, the speculations will be over, those that have been circulating for quite some time now,
09:25and the work will begin, the work between the presidential teams, the work on the actual terms and conditions of the future agreement.
09:32Now, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that it's unrealistic for Ukraine to win back all of the land it's lost since 2014,
09:40and that membership of NATO is off the table in any peace settlement.
09:45Now, this would be a major downgrade on Ukraine's stated aims during the war.
09:49And yet, Volodymyr Zelensky suggests land could be traded for Kursk in Russia, part of which Ukraine holds.
09:56Is Ukraine, does it have a strong hand here?
10:02First of all, Pete Heggeth also said very clearly in the same speech that the United States of America are interested in seeing a safe and prosperous Ukraine.
10:14And he also said in that same speech that Ukraine must receive robust, and this is direct quote, robust security guarantees from its partners.
10:24So while we are also realistic and we understand that, you know, and I've already said that,
10:29that it will not be possible for us to achieve, you know, objectives of pre-2014 level by military means at this stage.
10:40But of course, you know, our territorial integrity is in our constitution.
10:46And look, it is in the interest of every European nation and the United States of America as well to ensure that aggressions are not appeased,
10:57that aggressions are not allowed.
11:00And this is what Mark Rutte just said.
11:02So this must not be repeated again.
11:04So let's just hope that these negotiations will be productive.
11:09And, you know, step by step, you know, we just have to be patient and strong.
11:15Thank you very much for that.
11:16Yuriy Sak in Kyiv, an advisor at Ukraine's Ministry for Strategic Industries.