Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, attending the NATO Summit, referred to the challenges facing the NATO Alliance.

In particular, the prime minister talked about a meeting of NATO members in an era of great challenges while underlining that “we will continue to support Ukraine”.

“It is a time when the NATO Alliance it has to face a number of complex challenges and it is also a time when we need to reaffirm our own commitment to spending. At least 2% of our GDP in defense spending.”

Kyriakos Mitsotakis also noted that “it is extremely important for European countries not only to achieve this goal but also to align defense spending at the same time, so that we can strengthen the NATO Alliance more.”

“We don’t need to spend more, we need to spend smarter” emphasized the Prime Minister.

Here is the Prime Minister’s full statement:

“We meet here in Washington to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the world’s most successful and enduring defense alliance. We meet at a time of great challenges, at a time when a war is raging in the heart of Europe. We are meeting at a time when we will continue to support Ukraine as long as necessary to ensure that Russia does not win this war of unprovoked aggression.

It is a time when the Alliance must face a series of complex global challenges. It is also time to reaffirm our unwavering commitment to allocate at least 2% of our GDP to defense spending. This is particularly important for European countries, not only in terms of achieving this goal, but also in streamlining our defense spending in order to further strengthen the Alliance.

I have been a firm supporter of greater integration of European defense spending. We don’t just need to spend more, we also need to be smarter about how we allocate resources to strengthen our collective defence. And strengthening European defense capabilities is complementary to NATO’s defense capabilities, NATO is strengthening.

That is why we must use the next European cycle to focus more on how to strengthen our European defence. It is in our best interest to do so.

Question off the mic

Kyriakos Mitsotakis: I will not comment on this matter. There will be an election in the United States and we will, of course, respect the decision of the American people. I have personally worked with both President Trump and President Biden. What we are particularly interested in is ensuring that we maintain this very strong transatlantic bond, which has always been at the core of the Alliance.”