‘Social Media Distractions’: NATO Generals Openly Defy Trump On Ukraine, Troop Reduction, Russia

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[00:00:00]As you'd expect, we also discussed the uh recent decision by the United States to redeploy an armor brigade from Europe. And I'd like to emphasize this decision does not impact the executability of our regional plans. In accordance with uh President Trump's announcement, it'll be 5,000 troops uh coming out of Europe. Uh as I mentioned in my opening comments, uh a fair number of those come from uh the armored brigade combat team uh that is returning. Uh and the US has also already announced that the previously planned deployment of a long-range fires battalion uh will be uh curtailed uh and will will not start occurring. There's some other additional uh minor elements that'll be shifting as well. Uh the planning is still ongoing for what those are uh for another several hundred troops. Uh and so we we can talk about that a little bit later, but uh the the total number is 5,000.

[00:00:54]>> Okay. Good afternoon. Thank you for being here.

[00:01:00]NATO highest military authorities are meet meeting today to face an increasingly complex security landscape and to adapt our alliance. This adaptation is already occurring and delivering results starting with the fairer border sharing, a stronger Europe and a stronger NATO, sometimes called NATO 3.0. But NATO adapts every day.

[00:01:26]This morning, the 32 Allied Chief of Defense discussed the alliance priorities with NATO Secretary General Mark Rut. We took stock of the commitments allied heads of state and government agree in the hag last year.

[00:01:41]Now, as we look ahead to the NATO summit in Ankara, the expectation by military authorities are extremely high. turn all those pledges into tangible results with faster delivery in order to achieve a higher readiness and stronger deterrence.

[00:02:00]We truly welcome Alli's progress on investment. Early this year, for example, we agree a new distribution of senior leadership roles across the NATO common structure with greater responsibility for European allies.

[00:02:16]This renew common allign with the alliance with the allies a growing strength matching forces and capabilities where they are needed must at the same time as we discuss with the chief of defense we must note that the rate of delivery and fielding of all capabilities necessary for our deterrence and defense require a dramatic increases and improvement. We are not at war, but we are not at peace either. This is why we must redouble our efforts to focus defense investment in accordance with our pledges.

[00:02:54]In parallel, I call firmly on defense industry to accelerate production and adapt business model to this imperative.

[00:03:04]Enough with fermentation.

[00:03:06]We could be which could be the main risk when more funds are available.

[00:03:12]We must sustain this commitment in the long term with the steadiness and consistency not to be thrown off course by social media or other distractions.

[00:03:23]The security of our citizen demands no less. This morning we also reaffirm our continued support to Ukraine and strengthening its armed forces for the fight today as well as tomorrow security.

[00:03:39]Let me take this opportunity to once again commend the Ukrainian soldier and people for their courage, resilience, and adapt adaptability.

[00:03:48]To them, my message is Slavo Kra. Early today, we also welcome the chair of the European Union Military Committee, General Shan Clansy, to advance NATO EU cooperation on practical vital military matters.

[00:04:04]We are building on uh our already strong partnership. For example, we recently undertook joint visit to Ukraine and another to the Western Balkans by aligning complimentary efforts reinforcing one another together. We can deliver so much more. Thank you again and hand over to Sakure and Saki who will elaborate on their respective field of responsibility. Thank you.

[00:04:35]All right. Uh good afternoon everyone.

[00:04:38]It's uh great to speak with you again alongside Admiral Cavo Draon and uh Admiral Vanier. Uh and it's a privilege uh to meet again with the Chiefs of Defense and discuss how European allies in Canada are taking more responsibility for the conventional defense here in Europe with continued critical backing uh from American capabilities which are being adjusted as I know you've all heard. As you'd expect, we also discussed the uh recent decision by the United States to redeploy an armor brigade from Europe. And I'd like to emphasize this decision does not impact the executability of our regional plans.

[00:05:13]As we discussed what Allied Command Operations is doing to support Ukraine, to build war fighting readiness, and to strengthen our uh deterrence posture, you know, the the war in Ukraine is into its fifth year, and the Ukrainian armed forces continue to demonstrate extraordinary resilience.

[00:05:29]uh extraordinary resilience and innovation. Uh and they continue to share their combat tested expertise with us, especially when it comes to countering Russian and Iranian drones and missiles. But Ukraine needs persistent and predictable support from allies. This is why support for Ukraine through the prioritized Ukraine requirements list or Pearl and any other means remains critical. And regarding Pearl, I want to assure you that everything allies have paid for is flowing, including air defense interceptors that the Ukrainians so urgently need. By investing in Ukraine, we are not only protecting their population and defending their critical infrastructure and sustaining their fight. This is also an investment in European security.

[00:06:15]Beyond Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East remains tense. In the straight of Hormuz, Iran has attacked attack attacked commercial shipping, disrupted energy flows, and impeded freedom of navigation. Each nation is considering their response with many, including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, sailing ships to the region. Now, we all agree it's in our interests to ensure freedom of navigation and international waters, and allies are moving out.

[00:06:41]As I look deeper and longer term, ongoing operations in Ukraine and the Middle East are informing how we manage our posture and maintain the warfighting readiness needed to deter and defend every inch of Allied territory. I applaud each ally that is taking immediate steps to leverage increases in defense spending to procure the capabilities needed to maintain credible deterrence and a strong defense.

[00:07:03]This requires a strong defense industrial base and we're working with allies and the EU to ensure our HEG summit commitments turn into real combat capabilities.

[00:07:14]Turning to NATO activities, operations and missions across ACO, we are executing with precision and efficiency through our enhanced vigilance activities, Arctic, Baltic, and Eastern Century. We have greater awareness, increased response capability, and we're seeing results. Meanwhile, in K4, there's real progress with a military mission, creating opportunity in the political space. And at NATO mission Iraq, we've temporar temporarily transition to a remote a remote advisory presence to help Iraq build more sustainable and effective security institutions and armed forces to stabilize their country, fight terrorism, and prevent the return of dash.

[00:07:54]And I'd like to conclude by highlighting today's change of command at NMI. It was an absolute pleasure working with Major General Kristoff Hinsy. I'm very proud of what he accomplished during his command. And we're excited to have Lieutenant General Armada Vasquez joining our team as we look for opportunities to return to a military-led non-combat advisory presence in Iraq once conditions allow.

[00:08:16]Thanks again and I look forward to your questions.

[00:08:23]>> So, um, happy to see you again. Um at the uh 2025 summit uh the allies made an historic commitment uh moving to 3 3.5% of their GDP to defense investment. That was the buck. Now the question we have ahead of us is the bang bang buck for the bang. Uh how we turn this effort in real capability, real interoperability and real deterrence for tomorrow's and to um tomorrow's and tomorrow's fights.

[00:08:54]That is what ACT is striving for. Our role is to help the alliance and very concretely the chief of defense I've been talk speaking with this morning to get more military effect from the resources nations are putting on the table.

[00:09:08]We need not to forget that the enemy has a vote. Russia and its allies have adapted. Others are watching and learning. Ukraine and the Middle East shows us that war is now shaped by speed, mass, software, drones, electronic warfare, space and data.

[00:09:28]Areas where we have a lot to do. So yes, we need more missiles, more shells, more air defense, more high-end capabilities, more stockpiles. These are essential, but they will not be sufficient on their own. More of the same is necessary, but more of the same will not be enough from far. If we want mass and speed, we need to know how we can build fast, produce at scale, adapt quickly, and still deliver real operational effect. And we need to identify which part of our industrial base can actually deliver it.

[00:10:03]NATO 3.0 doesn't exist without defense industry 3.0.

[00:10:09]This is where ACT brings value. ACT is the derisking and the acceleration machine for the chief of defense and nations and NATO enterprise with LCIX you heard about on contour US uh on task force 6 in the maritime domain. We bring nations operators and industry together around real operational problems. We test what works, what can scale and how it become an interpret interpretable capability.

[00:10:39]Force utility enhancement program we discuss sometime with you where we also show that legacy pro platforms are not obsolete. The decisive question is the false mix. how we can combine ships, aircraft, tanks at the and the end system with robotics, drones, sensors, software and newectors to increase lethality and better protect our soldiers. But capability is not enough.

[00:11:06]We also need forces able to adapt. That means harder, more realistic training.

[00:11:13]It means cloud data and AI architectures that allow nations to share information, connect systems, decide faster and remain resil resilience when communications are degraded. The point is in not innovation theater. The point is delivery for from buck to the bang.

[00:11:33]More capability, more interoperability, more resilience and therefore more deterrence. That is what ACT is built to deliver.

[00:11:43]Okay, thank you all and please for the record state your name and your outlet.

[00:11:48]The lady in white first row.

[00:11:53]>> Thank you very much. Emily Byer from Reuters. I have a question for Sucker.

[00:11:57]Um there's been some confusion over the past day. So I was wondering if you could clarify for us. Um how many troops will the US pull from Europe? Where will they be pulled from specifically? Will there be more announcements and how much does this hurt or impact the implementation of the regional plans?

[00:12:17]Thank you.

[00:12:19]>> Hey, uh thanks Emily. Uh in accordance with uh President Trump's announcement, it'll be 5,000 troops uh coming out of Europe. Uh as I mentioned in my opening comments, uh a fair number of those come from uh the armored brigade combat team uh that is returning. Uh and the US has also already announced that the previously planned deployment of a long-range fires battalion uh will be uh curtailed uh and will will not start occurring. There's some other additional uh minor elements that'll be shifting as well. Uh the planning is still ongoing for what those are uh for another several hundred troops. Uh and so we we can talk about that a little bit later, but uh the the total number is 5,000. On on your question of you know how does it how does it impact us? uh you know since the the rotational brigade uh that is returning now without replacement showed up in 2022 a lot has happened in the alliance first off the Baltic allies uh uh and the uh and and the polls and many others have really built up uh their their ground combat power. Uh so there's substantially more capability in the ground domain than there was previously.

[00:13:23]I'd also highlight the multinational brigade that we have in Latafia led by Canada uh fully uh operational on the ground and uh highly effective. Uh and then the Germans continue to build out a brigade in Lithuania. So again, this is as allies build up their capability, the United States is able to pull capability back and use it for other global priorities. So I'm very comfortable with where we are. We'll continue to work on the on the plan uh in both of my hats as commander Yukcom on the US side and across the alliance of secure uh to ensure we've got the right coverage in the right places to maintain deterrence.

[00:13:55]>> Thank you. Terry lady in pink jacket first.

[00:13:59]>> Yes. Yes.

[00:14:00]>> Pink jacket.

[00:14:02]>> Hi Terry Schultz. I'm with Dutch today.

[00:14:04]I I have a question for Saki. Um in a recent exercise in Sweden, um the Ukrainian um war team uh killed the Swedes three times. Um the exercise had to be stopped. Um what does this tell us about where we are and in particular um especially on on AI and high-tech uh methods on on the battlefield? I mean, could you address both of those things?

[00:14:30]And I'm not sure if that's exactly why Sweden got um killed three times, but um could you talk about how AI has changed the way that NATO needs to look at the battlefield because the Ukrainians are are and thus the Russians are far ahead.

[00:14:44]>> So um given to Ukraine experience, uh we are turning training not on a fairy tale but something that is more realistic and where um we we use training to make the system change. Uh so as I said we are we are I think the nations are late in adopting some drones adopting AI and so today with the experience of the red team uh which is given by uh the Ukrainians through JAK uh we are raising the level of the exercises. So the good news is that today we are more realistic about the threat and we are working on it very hard and I think the number of um trainings that will follow this path where we will have some hard time with the enemy uh shows that today the nations want to be realistic they want to make the efforts and we have the science we have the industry to to uh to overcome that c >> can I come in on that for just one second too um so the uh we've had a number of these exercises where we've we've done this training with with highly qualified opposition forces, sometimes provided by Ukraine, sometimes by others. Uh we often focus on the beginning of the exercise where we're learning a lot uh and and when you learn lessons you're you're uh you're being uh uh you know removed from the battlefield if you will by the end of the exercise by by say the end of a week out in the field facing that up for you should see our young soldiers uh from across the alliance and the rapid increase uh in their knowledge and their ability to fight back in this environment. So I just want you to know while we off often focus on that initial result, this training is having real results in terms of the capability and understanding of the modern battlefield for our troops.

[00:16:21]So it's something we're going to continue to do.

[00:16:23]>> And how much is that AI? How much is is that advantage?

[00:16:27]>> So AI is coming in the alliance. Um so um ACO is running a Maven smart system and we are buying computing to to make that faster and more relevant. uh ACT is experimenting co-pilot at the enterprise level uh for the start work. Um we have an AI champion uh which is a French guy today. Uh France will propose um an AI COE um next summer. So things are going on. Um and back to the training uh we've launched with ACO uh a program which name is Odacious training where all the NATO uh training now is run with AI process to go faster to give more free play uh and so to make more relevant trainings.

[00:17:10]>> Yes gentleman in second row please.

[00:17:13]>> Hi Victor Jack from Politico. Thanks for the press conference. My question is for Saka. Do you expect um any future redeployments, US redeployments from Europe in the weeks to come? And are you in uh talks with allies about replacing some of their capabilities and the troops which have been announced so far?

[00:17:32]Thank you.

[00:17:33]>> Yeah, on the second uh part of your question, absolutely uh in constant contact with allies. I had a a session today with the Baltic 3 and the and Poland uh to go over what what some of the options were and how we might array uh capabilities uh on the eastern flank.

[00:17:48]Um so absolutely constant contact uh with with allies and constantly looking at what the threat is and and what do we need to adjust or or do we need to adjust. Uh on the question of future uh redeployments, look, I I I will not uh uh get ahead of any political leadership in the United States. Uh uh I will just say that uh the deployments that we have so far are all that's been announced.

[00:18:11]It's all that I'm expecting in the near term. But you know over the longer term we absolutely should expect uh additional deployments as Europe continues to build capability and capacity uh and step up to provide more of the conventional defense of Europe.

[00:18:24]>> Okay. The ladies with the red sweater and the brown jacket. Last row. Last row.

[00:18:34]Thank you. Uh, Maria Aroni from Athens News Agency and Open TV Greece. I have a question for CMC and also for Sakor Sakary if you wish to comment. So the experience of four years of military confrontation in uh Ukraine uh has changed the way modern battles are fought in particular with the extensive use of drones and electronic warfare.

[00:18:59]what are uh the lessons learned for the alliance from this experience? And uh speaking of drones, I would also like to uh hear your views on a serious incident which took place last uh week. Um, when a rogue maritime surface drone of Ukrainian origin loaded with explosives was recovered by the Greek authorities, it was found by fishermen in a cave near the shore of a very touristic Greek island in the Onian Sea. So my question is if NATO is willing and also in a position to to tackle such a new type of unorthodox warfare that seriously endangers the safety of navigation in maritime zones such as East Mediterranean. Thank you.

[00:19:49]>> Okay, we will uh we'll share the the question with the Saki as far as a lesson learned draw and so on. Uh what uh for the first part what the alliance learned from that? I mean drones uh just are kind of revolutionary uh issue on the on the battlefield. They are not the the only the only u uh the only they will not be the only weapon. They will be the maybe the most prominent and also influencing all the battle space probably they will be probably in this and the next future could be the the very first one in the getting in the involved in the confrontation. What we basically learn is that they just shrink dramatically time among all the killing cycle. It's just a matter of maybe minutes or even even less seconds when you they I mean detect they track they I mean analyze and discover what is it they shoot they got information battle damage assessment and get and then feel information to the next to the next operation that's that's a matter of seconds and that's happening with artificial intelligence and and drones.

[00:21:00]That's a big issue. I mean time is just becoming I mean very very short. on the other side an orthodox uh warfare.

[00:21:08]Well, we can call it unconventional or unorthodox, but it's I think that uh that's typical of confrontations. And that's typical when uh let's say a a smaller country is facing a bigger one.

[00:21:25]They have to exploit all the all the I'm not justifying anybody, but just I'm just thinking in in their shoes. I would try to get the most from from what I have and of course there are sovereignity there are all these kind of problem that will let the politics deal with it but as far as unorthodox or unconventional warfare I'm expecting that from a smaller nation that is trying to survive that has been attacked so any any kind of a of a solution is good if you are achieving the result then probably you have to justify your your behavior but from the military point of view that's they are trying to get the most from from from the field and that's basically what I think that I would do in their shoes and then as far as innovation or drone I'll let Pierre take the take the floor >> um so I will not go too technical um because there is a lot of things uh one of thing I would say about the lessons from Ukraine one is the all of society residence we need to think about that during three decades we thought that the war was something uh far far from more borders uh made by some fighters overseas. Today we see that Ukraine experience show that to be resilient you need to have a strong collaboration between military instrument of power and civilian one. The example of power grid of communication grid transport grid u medical support that is common endeavor.

[00:22:55]Second uh question um the industry is a part of the war fighting system. We've seen a ramp up of the uh Ukrainian industry uh in a dimension that now makes them building something for the west. Uh they have been creating all an industry which is very agile. On the Ukrainian drones you have a QR code. The soldier can give the report of how his drone is functioning to the headquarter of the company and they can update the software in a matter of weeks or even days. Today um Ukraine is enabled, the soldier is enabled on his own uh mobile phone by a suit of applications that is giving me all the tools you need as you have in your in your life today. Um and so the adaptation is maybe the most important lesson. How we we we have a system that been very static where the definition of programs was taking three four years and then four years to deliver to a system where we can adapt in a night and that is why it's so important to be dataentric software ccentric that that enables that. So it's a big shift for the industry today to come from a platform mindset to a data mindset whatever the platform is and so it's what we've seen in Ukraine. Let me let me just as far as orthodox or unorthodox I mean uh well we we are facing I mean uh uh power who is who is targeting civilian uh uh civilian infrastructures killing civilian u crossing border of a sovereign nation uh kidnapping from 15,000 to 23 24,000 25,000 children and moving in them. Uh, and is this orthodox?

[00:24:47]Okay, next.

[00:24:47]>> Yes, please.

[00:24:48]>> Thank you from theian national public public broadcaster. Uh, I have two questions but they are very related and I don't know maybe you yourself will decide who want to answer. One uh is about drone. Today in Estonia, uh drone was shut down by Romanian fighter jet uh who flew from Lithuanian air base. Uh also drones took off in Latvia uh in the risk of drones. How would you assess with uh this incidents? And uh other question which is related with drones.

[00:25:25]Uh we hear uh Russia uh accusing and threatening uh the Baltic states saying that Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia are giving uh their territory, their airspace uh for Ukraine to attack uh Russia. And today specifically for Latvia, there was a threat uh claiming that Latvia let Ukrainian troops to come to uh to their territory and to attack Russia from Latvia and Russia said that uh because of that they could attack Latvia also. So uh could we say that it is pl uh point blank uh threat to NATO alliance to NATO country or how we should uh take this uh Russia's threat?

[00:26:13]Thank you.

[00:26:15]>> I'll I'll take the first swing of that and then if CMC would like to to weigh in uh first in terms of the uh the drone over uh uh uh the drone incident today where the Romanians shot it down. That's exactly how our defense design is supposed to work. the authorities are delegated down to the lowest tactical level so that we can defend every inch of alliance territory when there's an incursion like that. So, I'm extremely proud. You know, we're still assessing the situation, but it looks at initial uh glance like everything worked and we've got great integration uh with all of the Baltic air defense capabilities that are there and with our air policing mission as we make a transition to air defense uh over the uh over the coming months in terms of our mindset and our plans. Uh so, that's uh that's kind of part one. And second, with your with your uh comment on the the Russian threats. Look, it's a standard Russian trope, right? Uh they constantly say that NATO is doing something in an offensive manner, but we all know, you can read the treaty. NATO is a defensive alliance. Uh we are not a threat to Russia and they know we're not a threat to Russia. If they thought we were a threat to Russia, they wouldn't have emptied the Leningrad military district to go and invade Ukraine. Uh so I just offer that uh at face value of there's just it's so uh obviously incorrect. uh that there's any threat whatsoever. Last thing I'll say is if we were allowing drones uh to go through Baltic airspace in order to get to Russia, we wouldn't be shooting them down.

[00:27:38]>> Thanks.

[00:27:40]>> Okay. Yes. First of all, black shirt.

[00:27:45]>> Andrea Balancho from Bloomberg News. Um Sakir, I have a question for you. You mentioned that you all agree that in uh the interest of the alliance to secure freedom of navigation through the street of Hormuse focusing on the um on the coalition of the willing and the bilateral commitments that have been made but could you tell us uh under which conditions uh NATO would consider participating and uh if so uh with which assets? Thank you.

[00:28:10]>> Yeah, thanks for the question. uh the the the conditions under which NATO would consider uh operating in the straight of Hormuz are ultimately a political decision. But I'll just give you a couple of thoughts from myself uh as an alliance officer. Um Iran fired ballistic missiles into my AO into Sakur's AO multiple times during Epic Fury. So we've had kinetic uh uh events coming into the AO from Iran. uh the uh stoppage of the flow uh that Iran has caused through the straight of hormuz uh is affecting all of our economies in a very negative way and affecting our economies affects our military-industrial capacity uh over the long term. Uh we know that uh Iran is uh and Russia are doing technology transfer and sharing lessons. uh we know that uh the increased price of energy and some of the shortage that we've read about in the news could have a military impact.

[00:29:09]So there's a number of impacts here uh from the uh from the uh lack of freedom of navigation in the straight of Hormuz right now. I think that's all up for discussion at the political level as to what do those trip and when would we uh politically decide to move forward.

[00:29:23]Thanks >> the lady in the red uh shirt third row.

[00:29:30]Uh thank you Valentino Vilva TVP Polish Media Vak. Uh I have a question about um uh Spanish idea to create European army.

[00:29:39]Last week Spanish uh minister of foreign affairs suggested that. What do you think about this idea especially that it's coming from Spain? And in general can you imagine that Europe can create common European army without NATO? Thank you.

[00:29:53]>> I'll take it.

[00:29:57]This is my mantra. No, I mean I think there is kind of misunderstanding. We need to start from two basic point.

[00:30:05]First single set of army.

[00:30:08]Second sovereignity.

[00:30:10]I mean we the alliance I mean the the nations um are they just have one one army every nations. Okay. Okay. So that's the one and they are force providers. So they will provide secure what for what he needs to fulfill his mission depending on the mission. So we cannot think about an European army. It's a an oxymoron or a nonsense because NATO doesn't have a army and also the single nation keep the sovereignity of their army. So I mean they are the one who decide what to do it and I mean they are providing us NATO as force provider with what we need. We have to see I mean European Union as a the European pillar of of NATO but again they will be using in case they are they will do a kind of activity military activity they will use the same set of armies that NATO has. So that's some that's why we have to we need to speak about I mean uh uh European column pillar of the of the NATO that's basically it of course uh we should stick with with the idea that that we we we just said that I mean European Union has some characteristic which are complementaryary to the to the NATO. I mean NATO has a a strong chain of command, operational orientation plans and and on and on. So the uh operational side of the the house on the other on the other side European Union has a great capability in in providing financing in a great leverage on uh on uh on industry that we don't have basically uh they have rules regulation and so that's basically it. We are we are complimentary by design and we have we should stick with this just not to just to avoid duplication waste of money time and energies.

[00:32:21]>> Okay. We have a small clarification from the Yes.

[00:32:26]>> Oh okay.

[00:32:31]>> Okay. Okay.

[00:32:34]>> You want to go >> Okay. Point a point of clarification.

[00:32:36]Sir, I I don't want to put words in your mouth, but when you were talking about uh allies stepping up, you had said you would use the word deployment of US troops. I believe what you meant to say was redeployment of US troops.

[00:32:48]>> Yes, absolutely.

[00:32:49]>> Okay.

[00:32:51]>> Yes. Andrew.

[00:32:53]>> Yes. Yes.

[00:32:54]>> So, just to try and clarify this, thanks. Just to to follow up on that. So just to be clear, you had originally said, you know, we should absolutely expect additional deployments as Europe continues to build cap capability and capacity step up. So what you're actually saying is redeployments and if you just classify clarify why that should be expected and if you can say anything about the kind of time frame, how long that might happen over.

[00:33:18]>> Yeah. Uh yes, redeployment. So that was a misspeak. Apologies. Uh I guess one can dream. uh but no uh the uh so so uh this is resident in the US national defense strategy and it's resident in the concept that some have called NATO 3.0 know as CMC mentioned uh and so what um what we're basically saying is as the European pillar of the alliance gets stronger this allows the US to reduce its presence in Europe and limit itself to providing only those critical capabilities that allies cannot yet uh provide and so we should expect there to be a redeployment of US forces over time as allies build their capacity as for the exact timeline I mean it it's going to vary broadly across a number of different capabilities as nations meet their H spending commitments and meet their capability targets. So I can't really give you an exact timeline. It's going to be an ongoing process for several years.

[00:34:13]>> We have time two more last question. One here please.

[00:34:17]>> Thanks a lot Max Laney FP just following up on um a couple of issues. the um straight of moose you said that it's a political decision ultimately if NATO get involved but are you already planning for a possible NATO role in uh in the straight of all moves if you're asked by the political leadership and then on the troop redeployment it wasn't so much the amount that was the issue this time but the manner in which it was done impulsive uh without coordination and sudden is that the way to do it and can Can you guarantee that in future Europe will be better informed and better able to prepare for these announcements?

[00:34:58]>> Yeah. So first on your uh on your question on planning for for Sakir to under undertake any formal military planning requires a council planning directive that gives me guidance from the North Atlantic Council. So the political direction comes first. Uh and then the the the formal planning happens after that. Am I thinking about it?

[00:35:15]Absolutely. Have I have I uh uh but uh but there's no no planning yet until the political decision is taken. Uh second in terms of uh your comment, look, you know, we we've talked about this uh with the chiefs of defense today. Uh and I would tell you that uh every chief of defense uh in there uh acknowledged that uh this type of adjustment was something that they knew should be expected. Uh the exact timing was unknown. uh but uh but when it did happen and when when it was ordered uh we were quickly able to uh to talk to our allies and let them know what was going on and and why it was happening. So uh you know there was coordination uh there was uh an expectation that this would happen and we're going to stay well synchronized with our allies moving forward.

[00:36:00]>> Thank you. One last more question in last row please. The lady with the jacket.

[00:36:08]Um uh good afternoon uh Maria Vascu Tana Greece. Uh uh I would like to go back to the uh Ukrainian sea drone that was found in Greek war Greek waters and ask this time uh because this is actually understood it's not the only one the only sea drone of Ukrainian origin that is floating around in the med whether um you are concerned that we could see the spilling uh that the war could spill into the med because the uh Ukrainians are hunting uh Russian shadow fleet tigers and in this case, how could NATO react and operate? Thank you.

[00:36:49]>> Um, I I'm I'm not currently concerned that the war is going to expand into the uh into the Mediterranean. I think as CMC mentioned, uh these type of tactics are common uh in conflicts like this where there's an asymmetry of power. So, I don't I don't share that concern right now. We'll watch it closely. Uh but but I'm not concerned about it. Thanks.