NATO Secretary General doorstep at the Munich Security Conference, 17 FEB 2023

Doorstep statement by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the Munich Security Conference, 17 February 2023.

???? | NATO Secretary General:

Good morning.

One year ago, President Putin invaded Ukraine.

This was an invasion that NATO Allies warned again, with shared intelligence.
And on this very stage, here in Munich, I called on President Putin one year ago to step back from the brink.

But he decided to carry out his plans.
Since then, we have seen the most brutal war in Europe since the Second World War.

Today, one year after, we can already draw some lessons.

One is that we need to support Ukraine.
NATO Allies have provided unprecedented level of military support to Ukraine.
We need to continue and sustain our support.

Because if President Putin wins in Ukraine, it will be a tragedy for the Ukrainians.
But it will also be dangerous for all of us.

It will be a message to all authoritarian leaders, all over the world, that when they use military force, they achieve their goals.
And that will make the world more dangerous and us more vulnerable.

So it is in our security interest to support Ukraine.

The other lesson we can learn is the need to invest in our security.

Even if the war ended tomorrow, it has changed our security environment for the long term.

President Putin wants another Europe. He wants a Europe where he controls neighbours. Therefore we need to continue to invest in our security.

And the third lesson we can learn from the war in Ukraine, is that security is about more than armed forces. It is about our resilience, our society, so critical infrastructure of energy supplies.

We have seen the vulnerability caused by the dependence on Russian gas.
And we should make sure that we don't repeat those mistakes with other authoritarian regimes, like China.

But the most important lesson to be learned is the importance of North America and Europe standing together.
There is no security in Europe without NATO.

And the only way to preserve peace, to ensure our security, is to ensure that North America continues to stand together in NATO.

Then, I am ready for your questions.

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