NATO Secretary General

And when it comes to the Arctic, I think President Trump is right.

Other leaders in NATO are right.

We need to defend the Arctic.

We know that these sea lanes are opening up.

We know that China and Russia are increasingly active in the Arctic.

There are eight countries bordering on the Arctic.

seven are a member of NATO, that's Finland and Sweden and Norway and Denmark, Iceland, Canada and the US, and there's only one country bordering on the Arctic outside NATO, and that's Russia.

And I would argue there is a ninth country, which is China, which is increasingly active in the Arctic region.

So, President Trump and other leaders are right, we have to do more there, we have to protect the Arctic against Russian and Chinese influence, and that's exactly what NATO ambassadors decided to do in September.

We are working on that, making sure

that collectively will defend the Arctic region.

Listen.

The U.S.

is by far the most powerful nation on Earth.

And the President of the United States is there for the leader of the free world.

So again, I'm not popular with you now because I'm defending Donald Trump.

But I really believe we can be happy that he is there because he has forced us in Europe to step up, to face the consequences that we have to take care more of our own defense.

I'm absolutely convinced without Donald Trump, we would not have taken those decisions.

And they are crucial, particularly for the European and the Canadian side of NATO to really grow up in the post-Cold War world.

Last night, we discussed a lot of things. Obviously, defense spending. Clearly, we have to do more. We have to ramp up. defense spending because we know we cannot protect ourselves four or five years from now if we don't. And also we need to ramp up defense spending because it is clear that the U.S. rightly requires us to do more here on the European side and the Canadian side of NATO.