Online Press Briefing with Ambassador Julianne Smith, U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO

MODERATOR: (In progress) Finally, a reminder that today’s briefing is on the record.  With that, let’s get started.  Ambassador, thank you so much for joining us today.  I’ll turn it over to you for your opening remarks.

AMBASSADOR SMITH:  Well, thank you so much, Margaret, for hosting this call, and let me thank everybody for joining us today.  Just let me say at the top, as many of you have already heard, Secretary Austin will not be traveling to Brussels this week for the NATO defense ministerial, but he does plan on attending a virtual meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, or Ramstein Group, which will take place tomorrow.

Now, as has happened every time the U.S. has hosted the UDCG, we do expect to see a number of our allies and partners once again coming forward with additional forms of assistance for our friends in Ukraine.  We do not expect tomorrow to be an exception to that trend.

Now, at the defense ministerial itself, we’ll have two different sessions.  We’ll be discussing progress on the implementation of NATO’s new military plans.  We’ll be discussing our work with defense industry to ensure that our militaries continue to be well-equipped and we’ll be discussing the steps Allies are taking to increase investments in defense.

Now, on that subject, all of you know that it was in 2014 when Allies agreed or pledged to spend 2 percent of their GDP on their own national defense, and that pledge was supposed to run through 2024, and so here we are at the end of that 10-year pledge.  And what we’ve seen in essence over the last decade is nine straight years of defense expenditure increases.  That trend is accelerating as we reach the end of this calendar year, and we think we are going to have a considerably larger number of Allies hitting 2 percent by the end of this year, and I can say more about that later.

Now, the ministerial will also take stock of our progress on our shared responsibility to resource our militaries, and I do expect the secretary general to say more on the question of burden sharing when he goes out and speaks out – speaks to the press at the top of the ministerial.

So in addition to having this discussion among Allies, the issues I just mentioned, we are also going to meet with Ukraine in the NATO-Ukraine Council to discuss continued allied support for Ukraine’s security needs.  And here I just want to take a minute to acknowledge the recent announcement that came from downtown at the European Union.  They just recently announced an additional €50 billion of support for Ukraine, and that adds to the €90 billion that EU member-states have already given.  Just by comparison, the United States in that same time has provided $75 billion worth of support, and I remain confident that Congress will pass another assistance package soon.

As we get closer to the two-year mark of Russia’s war on Ukraine, it is important that all of us keep in mind what’s at stake.  If Russia succeeds, European and transatlantic security will no doubt be at risk.  An emboldened Putin, working with other autocrats seeking to destabilize our countries, would fundamentally – as Chancellor Scholz just wrote quite recently – imperil us all.

The only possible response is continued NATO unity, continued investments in our security and our resilience, and most importantly, continued assistance to our friends in Ukraine to demonstrate to adversaries around the world that the transatlantic Alliance, transatlantic community, will continue to be the cornerstone of global security.

And with that, I’ll be happy to take your questions.

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  We’re now turning to questions and answers.  For our first question, Ambassador, Ciaran Sunderland of the German Press Agency asks:  “How can the United States reassure NATO Allies of their defense commitments after former U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about choosing who to defend based on their defense (inaudible)?”

AMBASSADOR SMITH:  Well, let me just say this at the top:  This Alliance is celebrating its 75th birthday this summer at the summit in Washington, D.C., in July.  And what that means is that for over seven decades, we have had several Democratic and Republican administrations in the United States join together in one belief, and that belief is that alliances – particularly the NATO Alliance – really sit at the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy.

These alliances are America’s strength.  They are not a charity project.  They serve U.S. interests directly, and they serve the interests of our allies directly.  And what we’ve been able to do together with our Allies for over 70 years is nothing short of remarkable.  Not only are we working together on conventional military threats and continuing to provide important deterrence and defense of NATO territory, but we are working together day in and day out here in the NATO Alliance on a variety of future challenges.  We look and work together at space, cyber, emerging and disruptive technology, protecting critical infrastructure, ensuring that we’re building resilience so that we can guard against some of the hybrid tactics that we’ve seen the PRC and the Russians rely on.

So this is an Alliance that is ready to celebrate 75 years of standing together in the name of our collective security, but it is also an Alliance that is in real time preparing for the future and putting concrete initiatives on the table where we bring America’s greatest strengths together with our European and Canadian greatest strengths to really provide for our collective security.

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  And prioritizing our upvoted questions, we next have Mikael Holmstrom of Dagens Nyheter: “Sweden is waiting for Hungary to ratify its accession to NATO.  How serious is this delay for NATO and U.S. national security?  In what way?  What concrete steps is the U.S. taking to speed up this process?”

AMBASSADOR SMITH:  Well, the U.S. position on this has been pretty clear from the start.  We have messaged all Allies from the beginning of the process that Sweden is a partner that is ready to join this Alliance.  Sweden fundamentally shares all of our values.  It was an incredibly active partner that conducted training and exercises together with NATO Allies.  And it is prepared to bring real capacity and important capabilities into this Alliance the minute it becomes a full-fledged partner.  So we want to see Sweden’s accession finalized as soon as possible.  We were pleased to see our friends in Türkiye complete the ratification process just a couple of weeks ago, and we are urging our friends in Hungary to do the same as soon as possible.  Sweden will make the Alliance stronger and bring real capacity to this Alliance.

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Next, we have Lisa O’Carroll of The Guardian:  “How do you see NATO operating under a Trump presidency?  Should there be a spinoff for Europe?  Is it time for a European defense force?”

AMBASSADOR SMITH:  Well, I’m not going to get into any hypotheticals.  What I will say on the subject of European defense or European forces:  We here at NATO and we in the United States, we have been very supportive of efforts downtown at the European Union to strengthen the EU’s capacity and policies in the area of defense and security.  We were very pleased to see them move out with a very, very generous package of support for our friends in Ukraine, and we’ve been encouraged by many of the developments that have evolved over the last two years to build on the EU’s existing defense and security policies.

So we believe that supporting Ukraine has brought both the EU and NATO closer together over the last two years, and we look forward to continuing to work closely here at NATO with our friends downtown at the European Union.

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Next, we have Zeleniuk Kristina of TV Channel 1+1: “Are NATO member states seriously considering the risk of a possible military conflict with Russia in a few years?  Does this mean that it is very likely that Ukraine will be defeated and Putin will move further, or are these things unrelated and Russia can attack one of the NATO member countries even without winning in Ukraine?”

AMBASSADOR SMITH:  Well, ever since Russia decided to move into Ukraine and start this unprovoked war of aggression, NATO has taken a whole series of steps to enhance its deterrence and defense.  We immediately saw not just the United States, but many European allies moving troops into Eastern Europe to fortify and reinforce the eastern flank.  We also saw the Alliance develop four new multinational battalions on the eastern flank and fortify a whole array of policies, including strengthening our cybersecurity to prepare for Russia’s use of any hybrid tactics against NATO Allies or against NATO territory.

So we are, in real time, preparing ourselves for all contingencies.  We have seen the classic playbook that Russia prefers to use to undermine the Alliance’s strengths, and we are not wasting any time to prepare for a variety of contingencies.  Russia remains our number-one focus here.  We made clear in the strategic concept that was released in 2022 that Russia is the primary threat that we are facing here inside the Alliance, in addition to the threat of terrorism.  So our work here at NATO focuses primarily on that threat, and we continue to prepare ourselves for any future contingency.

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Next we have Henry Foy of The Financial Times: “Do you agree with the secretary general that Donald Trump’s remarks undermining Article V have put the U.S. and European soldiers in greater danger?”

AMBASSADOR SMITH:  Well, look, encouraging the Kremlin to attack any NATO Ally or Alliance territory really puts our soldiers, U.S. soldiers, and our Allies’ soldiers in greater danger.  Doing so, making those types of statements, is dangerous and, frankly, irresponsible.

MODERATOR:  Next up, Niels Goedegebuur of ANP: “Do you think in these challenging times for NATO it would be good to announce a successor for Secretary General Stoltenberg as soon as possible?  Would you prefer to make the announcement before, say, Easter?  Would Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte make a good candidate?”

AMBASSADOR SMITH:  Well, let me just say how grateful we all are here inside the Alliance for Jens Stoltenberg’s continued leadership.  He is closing out a decade of service here inside the Alliance, for which we could not be more grateful.  He has decided that he will be departing as secretary general later this year, towards the fall of 2024.  And for that reason, we are currently in a process, here inside the halls of NATO, where we are beginning to move towards the selection of the future secretary general.

I think Allies are quite interested in completing the selection process probably in the first quarter of this calendar year, to the extent that that’s possible.  We’re eager to bring this process to a close.

And as for who the person will be that is selected, of course I have nothing to say on that.  I don’t think it’s any secret, though, that we have heard from Rutte himself, Prime Minister Rutte, and he has expressed an interest.  So that is one person that the Alliance is looking at.  But it is an ongoing process, and I would expect that it will come to some sort of resolution in the next few months.

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  We have a question from Iryna Somer: “In light of the ongoing preparations for the upcoming summit in Washington, what result can Ukraine expect?  How realistic is it that NATO will extend to Ukraine an invitation for membership?”

AMBASSADOR SMITH:  Well, I think first and foremost, I would note that last year the Alliance was very clear.  Allies explicitly stated that Ukraine’s future is in the NATO Alliance, so we reaffirmed what the Alliance said in 2008, when Allies noted that Ukraine will become a member of the Alliance.  And we’ve worked very hard since the Vilnius Summit last year to move out on a number of steps to continue to help our friends in Ukraine with the necessary reforms inside their own country to move closer to Euro-Atlantic integration, both their integration with the European Union and with the NATO Alliance.  And we continue to focus, first and foremost, on supporting them in the current fight and ensuring that they can prevail on the battlefield.

As for the summit this summer, I do not expect the Alliance to issue an invitation at this juncture.  I do anticipate that the Allies will be able to signal that the Alliance continues to move closer to Ukraine and that we are taking concrete steps to serve as a bridge between where we are now and that full-fledged membership.  So stay tuned for additional insights on what we will be rolling out at the summit, but we very much hope that President Zelenskyy will be able to join us in person, and I think he will continue to hear unwavering unity and resolve in Allies’ support for his country.  And we will be able to signal, most importantly, to President Putin that we aren’t going anywhere in terms of our support for Ukraine.  All of us will continue to support them for as long as it takes.

MODERATOR:  Our final question for today is also on the theme of Ukraine.  We have Mindaugas Laukagalis of Lithuanian TV, and the question is: “How does the Ambassador see the future of Ukraine Defense Contact Group?  German media recently reported that the coordination of Ukraine support could be transferred to NATO instead of the U.S.  Could you shed light on these discussions?”

AMBASSADOR SMITH:  Well, the United States has been very proud to lead the Ukraine Defense Contact Group over the last two years.  We believe that it has been an important instrument to coordinate security assistance to our friends in Ukraine.  The success of that group really rests both with Secretary Austin, who has been able to lead it each and every time, but also to the 50 allies and partners that come and sit around that table each and every month, providing additional forms of assistance to the Ukrainians.

So this is a format that we believe is producing real results, and I anticipate, again, that the meeting that will happen this week will continue to trigger additional forms of support for Ukraine, and the U.S. will continue to invest in this process.

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  And unfortunately, that’s all the time that we have for today.  Thank you for your questions, and thank you, Ambassador, for joining us.  Before we close the call, I’d like to ask if the ambassador has any final remarks for the group.

AMBASSADOR SMITH:  No.  Thank you very much for joining us, and hope to see some of you around the margins of the ministerial.

MODERATOR:  So shortly we will be sending an audio recording of the briefing to all the participating journalists and provide a transcript as soon as it’s available.  We’d also love to hear your feedback, and you can contact us or my colleagues at any time at thebrusselshub@state.gov.  Thanks again for your participation, and we hope you can join us for another press briefing soon.  This ends today’s press briefing.