NATO Headquarter, Brussels (Belgium)
Dear Tony, welcome back to NATO. It’s always great to see you here and thank you for your personal leadership and your personal commitment to our transatlantic Alliance.
Today, the NATO flag and the flags of 30 allies are at half mast to honor Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She was a strong supporter of our transatlantic Alliance, of our armed forces, and our values. She knew and worked with all NATO secretaries general, since the founding of NATO. She visited NATO headquarters and hosted NATO leaders at Buckingham Palace. I’ll always remember her wisdom, her warmth, and her strong personal interest in transatlantic security. Our heartfelt condolences to King Charles III, the royal family, and the people of our allies, the United Kingdom and Canada.
We have just concluded a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, where we addressed NATO’s strong and united response to Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine. This includes unprecedented military, financial, and humanitarian aid from allies so that Ukraine can uphold its right to self‑defense. The United States is leading the way, and I welcome the billions of dollars of additional support announced this week.
Yesterday, I participated in the U.S.-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Russia. We all agree on the importance of stepping and sustaining our winter support so that Ukraine prevails as an independent sovereign state.
In June, NATO leaders agreed a strengthened package of assistance with fuel, food, medical supplies, military gear, secure communications, and equipment to encounter mines and drones. We will support Ukraine in the long term and help its transition from Soviet-era to modern NATO equipment.
The war in Ukraine is entering a critical phase. Ukrainian forces have been able to stall Moscow’s offensive in Donbas, strike back behind Russian lines, and retake territory. Just in the last few days, we have seen further progress – both in the south in Kherson, and in the east in the Kharkiv region. This shows the bravery, skills, and determination of Ukrainian forces, and it shows that our support is making a difference every day on the battlefield.
In the coming months our unity and sovereignty will be tested with pressure on energy supplies and the soaring cost of living, caused by Russia’s war. But the price we pay is measured in money, while the price Ukrainians are paying is measured in lives – lost lives every day. And all of us will pay a much higher price, if Russia and all the authoritarian regimes see that their aggression is rewarded.
If Russia stops fighting, there will be peace. If Ukraine stops fighting, it will cease to exist as an independent nation. So we must stay the course for Ukraine’s sake and for ours. At the same time, we are sending an unmistakable message to Moscow about our readiness to protect and defend every inch of our territory. We are significantly enhancing our presence in the east of the Alliance, putting hundreds of thousands of troops on high readiness, supported with significant air and naval forces, and continuing to invest in cutting-edge capabilities.
All of this makes clear that our commitment to Article 5 is unshakeable. Europe and North American must continue to stand together in NATO, in defense of our people, our nations, and our values.
So Secretary Blinken, dear Tony, thank you again for leadership, for being here, and for a strong personal commitment to our Alliance. Please, start, of course.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Jens, thank you so much. Thank you especially for your remarkable leadership of our Alliance in what is the decisive period of the Alliance. We’ve come out of the NATO Summit with a new Strategic Concept. We’ve faced Russian aggression in Ukraine. We’ve done it together, and that’s in no small measure because of your leadership.
Before speaking about what brings me here today, I’d like to join Jens in taking a moment just to honor the truly extraordinary life of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. On her 21st birthday, then Princess Elizabeth committed to dedicating her life to serving the people of the Commonwealth. For more than 70 years – a period during which the United Kingdom and world witnessed unprecedented change – the Queen did just that, while personifying a sense of stability and continuity in turbulent times. She was a powerful, unifying force, a source of comfort and resilience to millions of people from all walks of life. On behalf of the United States, I extend our deepest condolences to our British friends, to the Government of the United Kingdom, to the royal family.
So as Jens noted, we just finished a session with our NATO Allies, where I had an opportunity to share a readout of my talks in Kyiv with President Zelenskyy, Foreign Minister Kuleba, and other senior Ukrainian officials. I’ll have an opportunity to speak to President von der Leyen from the European Union tomorrow to continue the strong transatlantic cooperation that we’ve had on Ukraine and on so many other things. These consultations are just the latest example of the unity and strength of our Alliance.
Yesterday, as I was in Kyiv, Secretary of Defense Austin convened the fifth meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. More than 50 countries took part, including Ukraine’s defense minister as well as the Secretary General. Support from that group continues to make a decisive difference on the battlefield, where Ukraine’s great defenders are not just holding ground, they are retaking their sovereign territory in a two-front counteroffensive.
As I told President Zelenskyy, the support of the United States is unwavering. I announced more than $2.8 billion in additional security assistance to Ukraine and also for its neighbors. That support includes $675 million in new military aid to Ukraine. This is part of the twentieth drawdown of military equipment that President Biden has initiated, going back before the Russian aggression. It includes more guided multiple launch rocket systems, artillery ammunition, high-speed anti-radiation missiles, anti-tank systems. The twentieth drawdown now totals $14.7 billion.
That sum also includes approximately $2.2 billion in what we call foreign military financing for Ukraine, but also for European allies and partners. That will allow them to begin to begin to acquire assistance for the medium and long term that will be essential to deterring and, if necessary, defending against further Russian aggression in the years to come.
Our unity here at NATO, across our alliances and partnerships at the United Nations and other international institutions, is essential to advancing our objectives – shared objectives of supporting Ukraine’s capacity to defend itself, sustaining pressure on Russia for its aggression, ensuring that Ukraine is in the strongest position when conditions are ripe for negotiations. As President Zelenskyy has said, and rightly said, diplomacy is the only way to definitively end Russia’s war of aggression. We see in this moment no indication from Russia that it would be prepared to seriously pursue such diplomacy, but if and when that time comes, Ukraine has to be in the strongest possible position.
Now, President Putin thought that he would divide and weaken NATO. Today, the Alliance is stronger, more unified, better resourced than ever before, and I heard further evidence in our session with NATO partners today. We’ll soon welcome Finland and Sweden as new allies. We’ve approved a new Strategic Concept to meet twenty-first century threats, and more allies are meeting their pledge to spend two percent of their GDP on defense.
President Putin thought that he would divide the Ukrainian people and swiftly absorb their nation into Russia, but the Kremlin’s efforts to impose its will by force on Ukraine have only further united its people around the goal of defending their sovereignty and preserving a free and open democracy.
President Putin thought his invasion would showcase the Russian military’s might and sophistication. Instead, the Russian army is turning to North Korea and Iran for badly needed supplies, while Ukraine’s military capability continues to get stronger, thanks to its leadership, thanks to the courage of its fighters, and thanks to the robust support from allies and partners.
President Putin thought that our willingness to apply economic pressure would fade with time. Instead, we and our partners and allies have stuck together in the face of Moscow’s coercion and threats, imposing unprecedented costs on Russia’s economy. To date, over 1,000 foreign companies have quit the Russian market. Export controls on semiconductors and other advanced technologies mean that Russia cannot sustain – never mind modernize – key sectors, from automobile manufacturing to military exports, to energy exploration.
Russian imports parts and finished products, have been cut in half from a year ago. What does that mean? It means that they can’t replace the weapons that they’re using up in Ukraine, that they can’t make products for their domestic market, that their people are accustomed to buy. They can’t produce things for export, which will shrink their foreign markets.
Half a million people – half a million people, many of them highly skilled workers – have left the country. Russia’s foreign exchange reserves are estimated to have fallen by $75 billion and an additional $300 billion are currently frozen abroad. Meanwhile, Russia is cut off from the international lending market.
All of this is building. It’s cumulative. It will get to be a heavier and heavier burden, as long as Russia’s aggression continues.
And yet, even as President Putin has failed in virtually all of his objectives, the human suffering he’s inflicted on Ukrainians and other people around the world is staggering. I saw some of those consequences up close on my visit yesterday in Ukraine, including to Irpin, whose very name, like the battle of Bucha and Mariupol has become synonymous with Russian war crimes, including indiscriminate violence and the intentional targeting of civilians.
I saw the costs in my visit to the children’s hospital in Kyiv, where I met kids who will spend the rest of their lives without limbs, with enduring brain injuries, or with other trauma that may be invisible to the eye, because of atrocities committed by Russian forces. Hundreds more Ukrainian boys and girls have been killed by this unprovoked war.
It’s not just Ukrainians who are bearing the costs. As Russia falls short of its battlefield aims and is increasingly isolated on the global stage, President Putin has turned to blunter tools to try to peel off support from Ukraine. He’s weaponized energy against European countries standing up to his aggression, raising the costs on families, on businesses, on entire nations.
President Putin is betting that these actions will break the will of countries to stand with Ukraine. He’s betting that the Kremlin can bully other countries into submission. He’s already lost that bet, because the last six and a half months show a growing recognition around the world that while the costs of standing up to the Kremlin’s aggression are high, the costs of standing down would be even higher.
That’s why the United States is doing everything in its power to support people around the world who are shouldering the greatest cost of Russia’s aggression, like our comprehensive efforts to help Europeans get though a winter during which they’ll face heavy energy costs, making it hard for many to heat their homes. We won’t leave our European friends out in the cold.
It’s also an opportunity to make a decisive shift finally – once and for all – away from dependence on Russian energy, which Putin will never stop trying to weaponize to Europe’s detriment; and to make the transition to renewable sources, necessary as well to combat the climate crisis. We can – we will – emerge stronger and in a better place.
And that’s why it’s so vital that we stay the course, that we stay united – united in support of Ukraine, united with our allies and partners, united for as long as it takes. Thank you.
