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Statements by European Commission President Ursula von der LEYEN and Secretary-General of NATO Mark RUTTE, ahead of the Secretary-General’s participation in the security meeting of the College of Commissioners

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Thank you very much to you. Thank you very much.

And basically all you said I can completely agree with.

Let me first start by saying that the cooperation we are having is excellent.

From day one when I started,

we completely worked together as one team, which is extremely important.

And also on the assumption that we have a clear division of labor NATO.

Is strong at standard setting and capability targets, and the EU has this enormous power of the internal market, as you said,

making sure that the defense industrial base is developed,

making sure that the money and the assets are there to support Ukraine.

And also when it comes to the drone wall initiative, I think that was an excellent idea and there was a first meeting last Friday and NATO was participating,

also bringing together the eastern flank states in NATO working on this big issue. And why is that important?

Because first of all we have to keep our skies safe and we have seen over

the last couple of weeks what happened with the drones in Poland, the Mig 31s in Estonia.

But also what is happening now in Denmark.

In Denmark we are still assessing what is behind it,

but when it comes to Poland and Estonia, it is clear that it is the Russians.

Still we are assessing whether it is intentional or not, but even if it is not intentional, it is reckless and it is unacceptable.

So we need to protect our skies.

So the drone initiative is timely and necessary.

Because in the end we cannot spend millions of euros or dollars on missiles to take

out the drones which are only costing a couple of $1000 so we need a drone war.

But also when it comes to Ukraine, as you said, Ursula, it is our first line of defense.

We are helping the Ukrainians because this is about our values,

but also about indeed the first line of defense, our collective safety.

So it is crucial that they sustain the fight so we keep supporting them.

The Americans have opened again the floodgates through the pearl initiative of their lethal or non-lethal weapons.

I think that's extremely important, paid for by allies,

but everything the European Commission is now doing through SAFE and other initiatives.

To bring Ukraine to the best possible place is crucial both in the fight but also

when it comes to potential peace talks for them to be in the strongest possible position.

So for all of this, our cooperation from day one, we were friends already when I was still Prime Minister and you were already President of the Commission.

It's really, really wonderful, and we do this at all levels.

I can assure you this is not just the President of the Commission and me,

but in NATO and the EU at all levels we work together to make sure that we make maximum use,

leverage each other's strength in this whole endeavor.

So thank you again and also for hosting me today. Wish you a nice day. Thank you.

Media information
ID I-277911
Date 30/09/2025
Duration 02:57
Location Berlaymont VIP corner, Brussels
Institution European Commission
Views 152