thank you so much and going over to the nato summit in washington dc. >> thank you very much. this is .

>> good morning everyone. in a few days ti we will nato's, celebrity streth, ity and growth and also critically, forward to make sure nato is fit for purpose for the challenges ofmorrow. makinge alliance continues to do what it has done effectively for the last 75 years, protect our people. i think it's an opportunity as well to remind all of our citizens about the power of collective defense. the power of collective defense is the best way to prevent

r aggression and war. at the heart of mate -- nato is a commitment from each ally to come to the dense of an ally that may be the victim of aggression and that■á means an aggressor consideringq[ action knows that if they pick a fight with one, they pick a fight with all. that's the most effective, powerful way to do what we all want to do, which is prevent war from occurring in the first place. these investments we are making in our defensive alliance are the best possible investments we can make in preventing conflict, avoiding conflict, deterring aggression. secretary general and i were together in prague with all of ago, working through key decisions ahead ofhe and critice t biden yesterday working to help finalize these details and very important ones, we continue that conversation today.

we have very ambitious commitments we areakalliance go. we are to mistreating our support for ukraine and providing a strong bridge to ukraine's membership in the alliance. we area nato command,security systems, equips transfwe are strengthening our elective deterrence and plummetn allies agreed to robust plan for defense and deterrenceinmeeting the challene that r transatlantic alliance and to security. -- meeting the challenge that russia poses and critically, you are president biden and the secrvsetary-general to this yesterday, we are boosting our burden sharing, making sure that up and carrying the weight of our

collective defense. 23 allies out of now meet the 2% 32 target. the target of spending % of gdpd 2014 at the wales summit when president biden took office in 2021 nine allies were meeting that mark. now it is 23. and we have also seen as the secrterday an 18% increase in defense , spending across the alliance . that is the largest in a decade. and it to meet the challenges of this time. we're also making sure our alance is strengthening partnerships with including cous out of the transatlantic area, rtindo-pacific, at the summit, s well as withi the transatlantic community with the european union. a critical partner. the alliance recognizes that of the world impact another and

vice versa. so what is happening in the space has real consequences and implications for the indo-pacific, and indo-pacific space has implications for our allies. there is recognition of that and that is turning into concrete and strong partnerships. prime minister kishida may have said this best in the context of g in ukraine today may well be happeningwe are also add buildingthreats, also somethingl see underscored at the summit. cyber, hybrid attacks and threats, as well as other challenges to security that we have seen manifest themselves in different ways in recent years including things like pandemics. nato has to be fit for purpose to deal with all of this. want to make

before quickly turning it over to the secretary-gon bolstering ukraine's long-term success. from day one, asield has evolvkp, so, too, has our support for ukraine. the alliance, the united states a with what it had to deal with in terms of warding t. thanks to the■passed congress ay months, and it passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, we have now been working these recent weeks to speed all of that assistance to the front lines to make sure tha ukrainians have what they need. we have seen that would be very effective in terms of stabilizing the frontlines and making sure that the russians uld their offensives so we can make a big difference. of course as we haveaialong, whg difference is that extraordinary courage and the residents of the ukrainians themselves with

dealing with the challenges in khv in the east, but also taking the fight as necessary to russia and crimea as well as in the black sea. the bilateral assistce agreement of the u.s. and a few days agoent president zelenskyy, march the 17th bilateral security agreement ago.d since by that amount of by the time of the summit,nato o countries and many more will have completed their bilateral security agreements with the ukraine. this is clear proof that all of r the long haul. and tt if mr. putin is counting on outlasting ukraine or any of us,he is wrong. i think you will see in the summit, further emphasis on that. we are also, as necessary,

imposing new sanctions on russia to keep the pressure on so that the aggression ultimately endsae looking■ countries supporting russia's defense industrial base, which is allowing russia toi@ c including china. as president biden has made clear, we have a concern not with weapons being supplied by china to russia, that is not what they are doing. what they are doing as you have heard me discuss many times, is providing critical support to russia's defein . some 70% of the machine tools that russia's importing are coming from china. 90% of the micro electronics coming from china and h defense industrial base going and the war machine going. that has to stop. holy as well are doing everything we can to provide the necessary support to ukraine yo the supplemental. the use partners come together

across the g7 and beyond tuse ie of the russian sovereign assets that are pma europe and that now are being leveraged to provide some $50 billion to ukraine in additional assistance and we will continue to look at that. we had a very effective recovery conference just a few days ago as well looking at other forms of enduring support for sector. bottom line is this,hed and that we have been acting on individually and collectively now for nearly two and a half years iswing effective results in making sure that aggression. it has done that remarkably. keep in mind, which includes objective from day one was to erase ukraine from the map and end its existence as an independent country. ■!that has failed. but going forward, we are going that ukraine is a

success. let it feet militarily, economically and de what we are enabling ukraine to do. that is the mark of success going forward. again, the decisions made at the summit will further that effort. and more is to be said in a few weeks time. the 75th summit, we have an alliance that is stronger,t is more fit for purpose than at any time in recent years, that is thanks to the effort every ally 4 it is also fundamentally thanks to of one individual, the person standing beside me. secretary-general of nato for the past decade, ianjens, you he results are there for everyone to see. this would not have your leader.

and it has truly been extraordinary. now some of you know that secretary-general is particularly fond of numbers, he likes to recite them. i understand he even told one interviewer that if you could bring just one book to a desert island, it would be a book of statistics. [laughter] s i could say about that, but i will not. cs, because they do showfew what has happened over the remarkable decade under the secretary-gera of leadershipfoue alliance -- north macedonia, montenegro, finland, sweden. multinational battle groups in eight countries and him think. 75% of the citizens in allied nations say that nato is these numbers speak powerfully

for themselves. at everydr step, the secretary-general has set the tone. 32 countries.consensus among his vision, his achievements will pay dividends for this alliance far into the future so . yes, his contributions ultimately can't beully allies. to you, mr. secretary-general. sec. gen. stoltenbergsecretary blinken, thank you for your kind remarks and thank you for your suq?ort in different ways. thank you also for your strong commitment to the nato transatlantic alliance and thank you for your tireless effortsnan 75 years ago. si has been the ultimate security guarantee for all our members.

standing together, we prevent war and preserve peace. being nato, the u.s. has 31 frs together, allies represent f 's economic and half advancing u.s. interests and multly america's power. nato makesmeri syesterday, as y, with president biden, i nato alg major increases in defense spending. this year, defense spending across europe and canada is up 18%. the biggest increase in decades. 23 allies will meet the targe■tt east 2% of gdp on defense. this is more than twice as many as just four years ago.

since 20 14, the love and canada have added over $640 billion extra in defense spending. this demonstrates an historic improvement in burden sharing within nato. it shows that the united states does not need to shoulder the burden alone. alliance in which allies are steppingd ch is found right here in the united states. over the past two years, european allies has signed contracts with american companies worth 140u.s. dollars. since 2014, nato has undergone the most significant transformation in our collective defense in a generation. we have plus since

the cold war. we have 500,000 troops at high readiness. we have le the number of battle groups in the eastern part of the alliance. and with sweden and finland as members, we are stronger than ever. russia's war in ukraine a this war is propped up by china, north korea, and iran. fail.ant to see the united they want to seek n fail. if they succeed in ukraine, it will because more vulnerable and the world more dangerous. so our support not charity, it is in our own security this war to end. about that? efficient of ukraine

offers no peace,lation to putino security. the stronger our support, the sooner the war will end. which is why i welcome the 10 year bilateral security agreement between the united states and ukraine. europe is also doing its part, matching u.s. efforts in ukraine. and at the nato summit this july here in washington, i expect european allies and canada come forward with more financial and military support, andnato takes the lead icoordinating the security assistance and training for ukraine. all of this wresecretary blinkeu in the u.s. for hosting the summit, which we are looking forward to attend

at the summit, we will celebrate the 75th anniversary most successful alliance in history, but also make important for the future. thank you. fst question with reuters. reporter: thank you for the secretary, mr. secret you like numbers. i have a number of questions in true washington fashion. [laughter] multiparty questions. sec. blinken: number one is a very good number. [laughter] reporter: let me start with gaza d ■$i will t■3urn to the news. mr. secretary, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu posted about an hour ago conveniently timed for this press conference, a video talking about u.s. causing some weapons to israel, and said you assured him last week that u.s. is working to removeho bottlenecks. is this an accurate characterition of what y told him? ifm?

will the u.s. remove its holds these bombs? and have the cease fire since last week? are you more or lesoptimistic today about the prospects of a deal? russian president vladimir putin is gng tnorth korea, a first in 24 years, and the partnership of russia, china and north korea seems to be solidifying and against the western rules-based water from w concerned are you about this partnership? mr. secretary nato role to contain this emerging front and back to both of you again what buting !oto russia's war machine? and, what is your understanding that what muska is giving pyongyang in return? ■, and gaza,

first, it is important to remember that i was sury relationship with israel goes well beyond gaza. israel is facing: challenges, including in the north from hezbolla from iran, from the houthisn the red sea, from the various groups aligned against israel and in many cases, beholden to iran. so t one that he will do everything he can to make sure that israel has what it needs to effectively defend itself■@ against these threats. ■,and a big part of that, as wel is making sureha in providing that assistance to israel, it has a strong deterrent which is the best way to avoid more conflict, to war, to avoid what we are already seeing in gaza spreading to other beenr objectives from day one. we are committed to that. as you know, we are continuing to review one shipment thes aboh

regard to thousand pound bombs because of our their use in a densely populated area like rafah, that remains under review. but everything it normally would. and with the perspective of making sureng it means to defend itself against this multiplicity challenges. with regard to cease-fire negotiations, you heard me talk about this in length during our truths, i will once again, that the entire world came together behind the proposal president laid out. the entire world with one exception, hamas. hamas came back after everyon israel, reconfirmed to me by prime minister netanyahu, with no conditions, new demands included demands and conditions

eyond what it had already previously accepted. so, we are working to see if we can bridge the gaps hamas has created by not saying yes to the proposal everyone else agree to that was endorsed■/ by the unitd nations and countries around the world. ave mediators -- egypt and qatar particularly, working on it to see if we can bridge the gap. as i have said before and i will repeat again based on what you have sn in recent days, i believe th g but it doesn't mean it will be bridged becaustimateasdecide toe goalpost. to move the line up. if it continues to do that, the end result will be that people will continue to suffer horrifically, every single day. and you have to question whether on individual living, we

eds of feet underground, relatively safe, is interests had of the interests of the needs of the people he purports to represent. there could be a cease fire right now if they had said yes. i week ago. so we will continue to workxq ts with urgency, determination, to see if we can bridge the gapconu with we will because hamas continues to hold the line, withtin and his traveh korea, you have seen, as you said,/s try and get permission to develop and strengtherelatiot can provided with what it needs and continue the war of aggression it centered against ukraine. you heard theal reference this. north korea is providing significant munitions weapons ty

been used against civilians and vindman infrastructure and as i mentioned, the concerns we have about shanette not just in terms of providing weapons but in providing what russia needs to keep its industrial base going and to more tanks, missions and missiles, these are the countries of concern. and with regard to china in , as i said before, it can't on the one hand say it once better relationships with countries in europe while at the same time fueling the bit security threat to europe as a whole since the end of the cold war. the president heard that himself, president biden, from our europeanare part of the g7 last week. so we areabout this because it g the war going. and the fastest way to end the war is for putin to vtotion than outlast ukraine and ukrainebut s

fuel he needs for his war be there anymore. so is china in particular, which professes to have a strong interest ending the war, if it means it, it will stop fueling e g it can to cutffs like iran and north korea are providing. sec. gen. stoltenberg: sec. gen. stoltenberg: i very much agree with the secretary and what he has stated. which includes visits to south irmed up close alignment between russia and ultra-authoritarian states like north korea, but also china and iran. not regional,ns in europe matters in asia and what happens in asia matters for us. it is clear in■n ukraine where

iran and north korea and china are propping up in fueling russia's war of aggression against ukraine. so these -- we can divide security intoio theaters. it doesn't work anymore. , therefore, we need to address these challenges together. we are, of course, also concerned about the potential support that russia provides to north korea when it comes to their missile and nuclear programs. we much military support russia gets from north korea but this is also one of the reasons why at the nato summit next further strengthen our partnershipith

our partners in the asia-pacific zealand, south korea and japan, also to address the fact that see in asa and the asia-pacific are directly linked to the challenges that we face in europe. i also fully agree that china■o cannot have it both ways, they can't continue toj■ have normal trade relationships with countries in europe and at the same time, fueled the biggest war that we have seen in europe siso at some stage, this has to haveonsequences for china. both of you. question gto norway today still has a continued fish in cooperation with russia. i am wondering how we should approach ts ving are -- or if ye

concerned about them take advantage of this cooperation■t sec. gen. stoltenberg: sec. gen. sttenberg: which country? reporter: norway. fishing cooperation. [laughter] sec. gen. stoltenberg: what i can say is that i expect all i to fully implement the functions that we have agreed within the e.u. framework and also individual. beyond that, i cannot comment on how the implement the sanctions. sec. blinken: i agree with the secretary-general. thank you. reporter: abc. th0ank you very much. let's s the inspector general. we have the secretary -- attacks against nato front-line countries, issues you have party in prague, and a few that need

■rnato would respond with collectively as is appropriate. response look like? perhaps you can elaborate on there is a response already or is this something that you think should take in the future? do you retaliate or try prevent deterrence? i am interested inand is there h action could create deterrence? and mr. secretary of state, a was -- amos hochstn been in the region over the last few days in the middle east. can you report any progress on de-escalating tensions between israel and hezbollah? on gaza, an investigation by the associated press this week identified 60 palestinian families in which at least 25 members have been killed, some of family, many with more than 50 family members killed, and in one, 173 family members killed. i interested to understand that

am for palestinians who hear conflict for just cause, that to them it feels like a war that seeks to destroy palestinian soy, what do you say to those people and how do you recognize those positions? nato allies in8■u■ europe, let e say that what we have seen in the last weeks and months is a surge in hostile actions by russia against nato allies and that includes seral times, cyberattacks, also trying to use migration as a tool to coerce nato allies. and we n to react to this in a comp up assured way, butt

the it very seriously. that is also why■f have agreed response options that allies can take both individually and collectively. t, this is about increasing awareness, sharing intelligencemaking allies indit a link, this is a pattern of russianme. and i welcome also the u.s. sharing intelligence with our nato aing our critical infrastructure including undersea infrastructure and we are taking several steps to increase the protection of critical infrastructu.and then, of coursf these actions are met by individual in the

individual member states. so there have been ss across thn the united kingdom, in poland and germany and the baltics. we have seen those behinis sabotage actions being arrested and there are legal process is going on. so there isective action by nato and individual allies, tang the necessary legal steps to protect u.s. -- us against this russian behavior. sec. blinken: on lebanon, as i mentioned earlier, one of our objectives from day one since october 7th has been to prevent this conflict from spreading, including in the north. and as you mentioned, mr. hochstein is in■8■j the region working on this and we all collectively have been working on this from any -- for

many months intently. no one was to see the conflict spread. one of the■g paradoxes at this moment is i don't think any of p to see a war or confli spread, i don't believe israel does, lebanon certainly doesn't because itfer the most. i don't believe iran does. and yet you momentum potentially in that direction beus with the back-and-forth that goes on every day, there is always the possibility of a miscalculationonde not fully seeing what the other is doing. and its ve important to do everything we can to address that and fina resolution to thet exists for israel, as well as l. in israel they are something or 70,000 israelis that have been forced from their homes and basiy depopulated a big part of northern israel because of the threat from hezbollah and because of

hezbollah launching rockets■ñ■ú. there are many lebanese in lebanon also not abltheir homes. so we are working diplomatically to find a resolution to this so that people on both ses of thee able to live in■ their homes and go back to where they live. now, here again, so much cease-. the most to empower our diplomacy and be able to reach an agreementurn tr homes with sec■jurity uld be to a cease-fire in gaza because hezbollah has tied the actions is committing against israel to gaza. think that would make it more likely that we can find a diplomatic resolution to the crisis in the north.

with regard to the palestinian families that you■v discussed. fami level, the sufferingssed. of l children, men,, is horrific. and we see it every single day. people who are caught in the crossfire of hamas's making as a result of a war that h and for , this is profoundly a human tragedy. i have met with palestinian americans who have lost multiple members of their own families in ga, who shared with me the pictures nephew or brother orr

or parent or grandparent who has and it is profoundly motivating in the lake of this suffering, we want to possibly can to bring this to an end. the fastes way to do that, and this has been the case now for weeks, for months, is through the cease fire that we have been working to achieve. and obstacle to achieving that cease fire, remained hamas and remains the decisions of perhaps one man believe, hundreds of feet underground in relativeafety while the people he put forth to represent our suffering every single day -- while the people he purports to represent are suffering every single day.

so we have to put the interests of these many, many innocent israel has civilians, to make sure they get the y need. but first and femost means that hamas has to make a decision. is it actually looking out for the interests of palestinian people? is it looking out for its n interests at the expense of the are suffering every single minute in gaza? éfthe fastest way to bring thiso a conclusion from the tomorrow, is through this cease fire. that's what we are looking to achieve. >> [indiscernible] sec. blinken: yeah. on that, again, we have been on

this as well from day one in press israel to do everything it can to avoid sitting in because of toíñ a greater premium on civiln .,protection. and yes, we see this, too,. it is without justifying any particular airstrike -- and certainly, we ourselves as the government and as the state department haveorted on numerous incidents go where civilians have been killed orjug through the air strikes. but as he also said, t natalie , it m uniquely difficult because i, again, you have hamas that not only isls while the people>>

reporter: ■b-- andat you will nd to ask mr. stoltenberg to extend his term as secretary general

? and i didn't quite hear your answer to my's es enough's characterizaonsaid about that ym last week? mr. secretary general, china can't have it both waysd of cond china -- should be on china? and,ou w■ ■o■ant secure the long-term health to ukraine, you have been talking about the fund , if i understand it correctly, the alliance has been lukewarm aid fund. what is your next step and if you soon get to read some more statistical books what can you say about your possible successor? thank you. sec. blinken: thank you.

withegd first it is important to note that the u.s. signed our agreement last week, president biden and president zelenskyy signed it together. but we are not alone. dozens of countries have either concluded or will conclude bilateral security agreements with ukraine. same thing, that we are says committed individually as well as through the work be formalized at the nato summit to supporting ukraine in building a deterrent force for theession ad is necessary -- and, if necessary, deal with it. each of these agreements is projected over over a decade to , again, send a very strong message that each of u.s. is in this for the long haul. determination and commitment of the united states. i think the fact that ultimately the pplemeal funding bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support iin, is

indicative of that depth and strength of the suppo ie united states. and poland continues to show strong support in the united states for helping ukraine making sure that it can stand on its own feet effectively because that is what this is about. any international agreement on one kind or another, always has a mechanism in it for one of the parties to you know pull out of that agreement. that ia any of these agreements, but i think everything that we om the united states, but from so many other countries, i an enduring commitment to ukraine and making sure he can stand strongly on its own feet, and i don't expect that to change. with regard to thesecretary-genk many of wish we had a lifetime appointment. but i don't think the secretary-general feels that way.l come strong behind the new■ secretary-general when

the current sta term ends this fall, there will be a very strong sear to pick up the baton and carried the extraordinary work that the secretary-general■4$■a done, forward into the future for the alliance. i stand by exactly what i said a few minutes ago. thank you. reporter: -- sec. blinken: again, i have been as clear as i can possibly be. reporter: [inaudible] sec. blinken: i will not talk about what we said in diplomatic conversations. i can just say again, that we have commitment to make sure neo defend itself against a whole variety of threats. but it's far some farcesof the . the president is committed we continue to move these

different cases through our system on regular order. we have one case, the presidenoe 2000 pound bombs and the concerns wbeing used in denselyd but there have been no change in our posture which is again, to make has what it means to defend itself across these many64hr . many of the system is moving through our system are th been n some cases, years. it takes a long time to move these things. and a number of the things going to israel will not get therethay this works. but it is regularñ6 oe is that we have talked about many times. thank you. sec-gen. stoltenberg: first on the question about china, what i wanted to say, just in itself,

mothat it cannot continue the wy it i china really trying to have a normal with european and nato allies and at the russiat t the european country. the biggest security challenge we have faced in europe since the en war. and, of course, how china changes its behavior, what kind of consequences should this have for our trade relations? it is tooly is an issue we need to address, because to continue as we do today is nthen on supporr ukraie are discussing -- we are addressing many deliverables on

for the upcoming nato summit. úwe have already agreed on a pln for the nato training and security assistance for ukraine. we have seen new announcements and i expect alsoannouncements y support to ukraine. i am certainng that ukraine will then, you are right that i have also put forward proposals on the more long-term commitment, because i strongly believe that the stronger our support, the more stronger our commitment to ukraine is, the sooner this work in end. the exact@ggu of what we will agree isdiscussed among alm confident we willsolution agreee summit. normally, i don't say anything

about my successor, because it is not for me to select my succ■rfesso but with the announcement by prime minister orban i think it's obvious that we are very close to a conclusn in that alliance for the allies to select the next secretary-general. i think that is good rutte is ad candidate. he has a lot of experience as prime minister. he is a close friend and colleague and i strongly believe , therefore, that very soon they successor and that of us, for nd also for me. [laughter] >>hasec-gen. stoltenberg: thank.

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