We have made sure that President Donald Trump strives for peace through force. Peace can be had when you are strong not with words and gestures, but with force that your opponent appreciates, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said today before the start of the meeting of his colleagues at NATO headquarters in Brussels, BTA reported.
The world sees that we have a president who strives for peace - we saw it in Gaza and I hope to see it in Ukraine, he added. Hegseth expressed his expectation that the European allies will soon start buying weapons from the US and providing them to Ukraine through NATO in order to achieve peace. We expect more countries to declare their readiness for these purchases today in order to reach a peaceful solution to the Ukrainian conflict, the minister said.
We now have many more resources after the decisions of the NATO summit in The Hague earlier this year, we are doing everything possible to keep Ukraine strong, said the alliance's Secretary General Mark Rutte. He thanked the US leadership for strengthening NATO and for a fairer distribution of costs for the alliance. Rutte also expressed gratitude for the support provided by the US to Kiev.
If the Russians do something deliberately against NATO, we have all the capabilities to defend ourselves, the alliance's Secretary General Mark Rutte told journalists today before the start of the meeting of the defense ministers of the pact countries in Brussels.
There were questions about whether NATO is in a position to take decisive action when something happens in our airspace - I assure you that we can react, he added. There is a public opinion that any Russian aircraft in violation should be shot down, I do not agree with that, Rutte said.
According to him, providing the Ukrainian side with long-range missiles is a bilateral issue that will not be discussed today. According to Rutte, Russia's progress in Ukraine this year has been very limited.