Supporting Ukraine is not charity. Supporting Ukraine is an investment in our own security. Such a statement the NATO Secretary General made ahead of the meetings of NATO Ministers of Defence in Brussels.

“Today, NATO defense ministers will meet to address our support to Ukraine, and how to further strengthen our deterrence and defense.

And to do both, we need to invest more, and we are on the right track. Because we now have historic numbers when it comes to defense investments. Last year, we saw an 11% real increase in defense spending across Europe and Canada. This year, we expect 18 Allies to meet the target of spending 2% of GDP on defense. And European Allies together spend 280 billion US dollars on defense. And this is 2% of their combined GDP.

But we still have a way to go. Because at our Summit in Vilnius last year, all Allies promised to spend 2% of GDP on defense, and 2% is a minimum.

Then, later on today, I will chair a meeting of the NATO Ukraine Council. We will address how to sustain our support to Ukraine. We see that our support is making a difference on the battlefield every day. Just yesterday, the Ukrainians were able to strike successfully a Russian naval ship, and this demonstrates the skills and the competence of Ukrainian armed forces, also in conducting deep strikes behind the Russian lines.

To ensure that Ukraine gets the weapons, the supplies, the ammunitions they need, we need to ramp up production. And NATO Allies have, just over the last month - since we agreed the defense investment plan - agreed and signed contracts for 10 billion euros, for more orders from different parts of the transatlantic defense industry.

I welcome that NATO Allies are providing more support, more air defense, more ammunition. I welcome the decision by the European Union to allocate 50 billion euros to Ukraine, and I expect the US Congress to agree a package of continued support to Ukraine. Because supporting Ukraine is not charity. Supporting Ukraine is an investment in our own security. And with that, I am now ready toy to take a few questions”, - said Jens Stoltenberg.