Toespraak minister-president Schoof bij NATO Public Forum
De NATO Public Forum in Den Haag is een publieksbijeenkomst op de locatie van de NAVO-top. Hier komen experts, politici, opiniemakers, maatschappelijke organisaties en uiteenlopende groepen uit de samenleving bij elkaar. De toespraak is alleen beschikbaar in het Engels.
Ladies and gentlemen,
This is a proud moment for the Netherlands as a founding member of NATO.
Because this is the first time that a NATO Summit is taking place in our country.
Now, you might say: after more than 75 years, it’s about time.
And I would be the first to agree.
Our alliance was founded on the principles of democracy, liberty and the rule of law as laid down in the Washington Treaty.
And the Netherlands has always been deeply aware that, without transatlantic cooperation in NATO, our country would not be what it is today: safe, free and prosperous.
So let me assure you that hosting this Summit is a form of burden-sharing we are only too glad to take on.
This Summit brings together NATO allies and partners from all over the world, from Europe to the Indo-Pacific, from the US and Canada to Ukraine.
And we are delighted to welcome you all here.
It’s wonderful to see so many people gathered here in The Hague.
This is also a proud moment for the city of The Hague, the international city of peace and justice.
A role that goes all the way back to 1899, when it hosted the First Hague Peace Conference.
And consequently, this is also a proud moment for me, as prime minister of the Netherlands.
We’ve been preparing for this event for quite some time now, and before we begin, I’d like to acknowledge the effort that has gone into organising this Summit.
Many thousands of police officers and members of the Dutch armed forces, and countless other professionals and volunteers have worked tirelessly to make it happen.
Today it is happening, and that’s a great feeling.
Now, as you may know, the Netherlands is a trusted supplier of NATO Secretaries-General, Mark Rutte being the fourth Dutchman to hold the position.
The first was Dirk Stikker, who was in office in the first half of the 1960s.
In 1966, in the section of his memoirs on NATO, he wrote this:
We cannot build international policy on the quicksand of idealistic hope. We must accept the hard truth: we must do everything possible to ensure that we are strong enough economically and militarily to be able to defend our freedom.
It’s an uncomfortable thought to realise that he could have written these lines today.
The challenge he set with those words still rings true.
The world is in turmoil and we cannot afford to be naïve.
We need to face facts and accept the hard truth.
And NATO must ensure that we are strong enough to defend our freedom.
You could even argue that the task facing us today is harder than it has ever been in the history of the alliance.
For generations, a real threat of war in our part of the world seemed barely conceivable, even at the height of the Cold War.
For generations, peace, security and freedom could be taken for granted.
And for generations, that’s what we did.
But in the past few years the situation has been turned on its head.
There is now a renewed sense of urgency.
A fresh realisation that we have to defend our way of life, our fundamental values, and above all: our freedom.
Since the Cold War ended, there have been times when people have questioned whether NATO serves a useful purpose as a military alliance.
But those voices have fallen silent.
NATO’s relevance is now more visible and tangible than ever.
Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has been a wake-up call in this respect.
Make no mistake: Russia is a real, present and current threat, not only to Ukraine, but to the entire Euro-Atlantic region.
Because it would be naïve to assume that Putin will stop if he gets what he wants in Ukraine.
For over three years now, Ukraine has bravely been defending itself against Russia’s ongoing aggression.
And in doing so, it has taken a stand for freedom and security.
Our freedom.
Our security.
So it’s imperative that we continue supporting Ukraine and put as much economic pressure on Russia as we can, in order to bring real negotiations and a lasting peace closer.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s no secret that we have some major decisions to make at this Summit.
Many are already calling it ‘historic’.
I truly hope they will be proven right in at least two ways.
Firstly, that it will be a historic show of unity.
Because that has always been the greatest underlying strength of our alliance.
Let’s not forget, NATO is the largest and strongest military alliance in the history of the world.
So if we act as one, it really will make all the difference.
Unity is our strongest weapon.
Secondly, we need to make some historic decisions so we can dramatically increase our defence spending.
Or – as Mr Rutte put it recently – so we can make a ‘quantum leap’ in our collective defence.
It’s clear that European allies in particular are going to have to invest considerably more in their own security.
And I’m confident that will be the outcome of this Summit.
The Netherlands fully supports moving towards spending five per cent of GDP on our collective defence and security.
Because the simple truth is that, in today’s world, peace and freedom do not come free.
They come at a cost.
But this summit is not only about money.
At the end of the day, money is just a means to an end.
And the question we have to answer time and again is how to maintain peace and security in a rapidly changing world.
Obviously, the war in Ukraine has shown how important it still is to have sufficient recourses at our disposal.
Troops, aircraft, tanks, vessels drones, weapons, ammunition and other materiel.
Without firepower, we have no credible deterrence or adequate defence.
So the Netherlands firmly supports all joint efforts to ramp up our defence production capacity, such as the revised Defence Production Action Plan and the Defence Industry Production Board.
There can be no doubt that we must strengthen and scale up the European defence industry more quickly.
Today, at the NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum, governments, companies and experts will be discussing the ins and outs of this.
We need to act as quickly as possible.
At the same time, the threats we face today are different from those we faced in the Cold War, or in the first few years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
We will also need new forms of resilience to respond to cyberattacks, the spread of disinformation, hybrid conflict and threats to our critical infrastructure.
More and more military issues are becoming technological, scientific and logistical in nature.
Issues that concern the whole of society.
And that’s why this NATO Public Forum is so important, as a meeting place for youth leaders, academics, military experts, civil society representatives and politicians to participate in dialogues about peace and security.
We need all of you.
All your ideas.
All your expertise.
All your commitment.
Ladies and gentlemen,
While the world is changing, it is clear that NATO and the transatlantic partnership are in a transition phase too.
We face new and bigger threats.
We are redefining financial arrangements within the alliance.
And we’re confronted with geopolitical shifts in power and influence that demand constant vigilance and strategic choices.
But despite all these shifts, the essence of what NATO is and must remain has not changed: a joining of forces by the United States and 31 other Western countries, standing strong together to defend their collective security.
Everyone must take their share of the responsibility, and that includes financial obligations.
Each country must contribute its own specific expertise where asked to do so.
And working together, we must do everything necessary to write a new chapter in NATO’s transatlantic success story.
Because Dirk Stikker was right: we must be strong enough to be able to defend our freedom.
That is fundamental.
That is what unites us.
That is the challenge we face.
And if The Hague Summit can play a part in meeting that challenge, then in my view it will have been a great success.
Stronger together!
Thank you, and let’s get to work.