Check against delivery! 

During 75 years [of its existence] NATO has been ensuring peace and protecting the free world. 

Today, we have a big threat, a big challenge in Ukraine – and I know that for Ukraine to prevail against the aggression of Russia, we have to continue supporting Ukraine. 

We, at the European Union, have been [doing] that. We have provided almost €40 billion in military support, training 60,000 soldiers from Ukraine, increasing our military capacity, [and] increasing the production capacity of our defence industry. 

For the ones who say that supporting Ukraine will prolong the war, for the ones who say that peace has to come quickly even if it means that Ukraine has to surrender, we oppose the idea. 

We have to make Ukraine prevail against Russia’s aggression. We have to continue supporting Ukraine in order to save the sovereignty [and] independence of this country and ensure the security of the free world.

Also, we will discuss with the Indo-Pacific partners. 

We have to look at a strategic continuum between Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific, because China is supporting Russia in the name of this “Unlimited Friendship”. [Democratic People’s Republic of] Korea (DPRK) is one of the most important suppliers of war material to Russia.

Attempts against international law, and in particular maritime law, in the Indo-Pacific puts a threat to the stability of the whole region. 

We will discuss with our partners in the Indo-Pacific area in order [to explore] how NATO and the European Union countries can engage in ensuring stability in the region.

At the G7 Ministerial meeting we will discuss about the situation in the Middle East – in Gaza and in the West Bank. 

It is awful. It is worse than ever.

Nine months after the terrorist attacks by Hamas, the humanitarian situation on the ground is much worse - unbearable. 

In the West Bank, the Israeli government is seizing land. I am sure the G7 Ministerial meeting will condemn this seizing of land – which is against international law – by the Netanyahu government.

They have declared “Israeli land” the biggest portion of the West Bank since the Oslo Agreements. They have been withholding the [tax] revenues of the Palestinian Authority. 

I think [that] the voice of the humankind has to prevail: to release hostages, to cease fire, to provide humanitarian support to the people in need in Gaza, and to look for a political solution based on the two-state solution.

Thank you. 

Q&A 

Q: Prime Minister [of Hungary, Viktor] Orbán, right before this Summit, has been a critic of Western military aid to Ukraine. How concerned are you about this divide? Are there steps that the European Union can take?

I think I already said [it]. For the ones who complain that supporting Ukraine will only prolong the war, I would tell them: If we stop supporting Ukraine, the war certainly will finish – and finish soon. But how? With the Ukrainian surrender, with a ‘puppet government’ in Kyiv, with the Ukrainian people being crushed by an aggressor.

Is that the way we want the war to end? No. If we do not want the war to end like this, if we do not want Ukraine to have to surrender because it does not have the capacity to continue fighting, we have to continue supporting Ukraine. This is the position of the European Union. The whole European Union is supporting this position. And for the European Union, there is no [other] plan than the Zelenskyy plan. It is the only peace plan in town for us, for the Europeans. 

Link to the video (starting from 0:12): https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-259222