Mark Rutte

Ukraine is putting up a strong defense.

And when you look at the front line at the moment, it is stabilizing.

There are even reports that Ukraine is...

in net terms regaining territory, not massively, but at least it is stabilizing and potentially even moving now in the right direction and not any longer in the wrong direction.

So from the west to the east and not from the east to the west.

um and and and this is amazing and this is what ukrainians are doing and ukrainians have been incredible ingenious in terms of their ability to innovate and and this is one of the things we are learning all over nato from ukraine for example that comes to the drone warfare and the anti-drone technologies this is why we have jtech this joint organization in poland where we capture all the lessons from the war so that we can figure them in the nato plan so uh

And I would not be too happy if I was Putin today, but I was never happy if I was Putin, but particularly not the last couple of weeks because things are not going in the right direction.

So when foreign ministers met in Sweden today for the first time since the Iran war broke out, there was a lot to discuss. Before the summit, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had some praise for the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. One of the big issues now of course is Iran, the Strait of Hormuz. I hear from many of my colleagues here that it is not acceptable that the freedom of navigation is trampled upon as it is at the moment. And we have to think how we collectively can deal with this. And

I think everybody acknowledges that the United States degrading the nuclear capability of Iran, but also the long-range missile capability of Iran, is crucial for the Middle East, for Europe, for the whole world. So again, Marco, thank you for being here, for your incredible leadership, and being such a staunch supporter of our transatlantic bond. So how did the summit go? And is the alliance any stronger now? Here's Mr Rubio speaking after it had finished.

And allies are moving quickly to secure the budgets, grow their armed forces and fill the capabilities we know we need.

But even with this progress, it is clear we will need more.

If peace is to have a chance...

If the hope for freedom is to be kept alive, the United States must play a powerful and active role in world affairs.

that it has capable partners who are ready, willing and able to defend our freedom and security.

Europe is assuming a greater and fairer share of the task of providing for its conventional defense.

And from that, there will be no going back and nor should there be.

Europe is assuming a greater and fairer share of the task of providing for its conventional defense.

And from that, there will be no going back and nor should there be.

Europe is assuming a greater and fairer share of the task of providing for its conventional defence.

And from that, there will be no going back and nor should there be.