Well, good morning, and thanks for coming out early on a monday morning. And thank you to joel for that lovely introduction. It is a real pleasure and an honor to open this conference, nato at 75, charting a new course that im very much looking for to your questions in the few minutes. For threequarters of a century nato has been a cornerstone of International Peace and security, United Nations in a collective commitment to mutual defense, and to our shared values. Natos Success Story really is remarkable, and its one that was by no means preordained. The fact that in 2024, 75 years after it was founded, the alliance is bigger, stronger, and more united speaks to the alliances adaptability. It speaks to natos resilience. But it also speaks to the commitment and the courage of millions of soldiers, sailors, aviators and operate together under the nato umbrella. But i think it also speaks to the attractiveness of natos core values, democracy, individual liberty, and the rule of law. Now, i dont have enough time this morning here had to gh all of natos many achievements over the last seven decades, and there will be sample panel struck that they were folks will be allowed to look at the alliance from different angles, looks like a superb conference and series of discussions, and i congratulate the organizers. But what i do want to do this morning is i want walk us through all that has happened inside the Nato Alliance over just the last two years, since russian launched its unprovoked war of aggression in ukraine. These last two years have in many ways been transformative, and dont use that word lightly. I dont think theres a better word to describe whats happening across the Nato Alliance since the war started. And i think they have showcased time and time again natos agility and its innovation. So let me walk you through five big changes that weve seen again just in the last two years. Years. First, after many, many years of focusing on expeditionary operations or you remember in the 1990s they were often referred to as out of area operations, the alliance has come home and returned to its core mandate of collective defense. And its taken a series of dramatic steps to enhance its deterrence. Before the war even started, nato allies were moving force posture into Eastern Europe. You will remember that nato just a few months after the war started announced four new multinational battalions on the eastern flank that were paired with the four that were created in the three Baltic States and poland right by doctor rut into crimea in 2014. In the trance and some less to the alliance also rolled out new regional plans that provide clarity to all allies in terms of whats required to protect every inch of nato territory. We are also working on an entirely new commandandcontrol structure which a suspect general cavoli will talk about in his remarks later today, and we just finished conducting our Largest Military exercise since the cold war, steadfast defender, with 90,000 nato troops. And that exercise for the first time in a long time enabled us to exercise north american troops moving across the atlantic and into europe to defend nato territory. So thats number one. Dramatic shift or a coming home of sorts to collective defense and enhance deterrence. Secondly, burden sharing has increased significantly in recent years. You will remember that in 2014 all allies pledged to spend 2 of their gdp on the own national defense. That pledge was to last ten years. That that brings us to 2024 when we started the pledge ten years ago we had three countries in the alliance spending 2 2 p on defense, and by last count we dont know where were going to end up by the end of this calendar year, but right now we have 20 allies that are meeting the 2 pledge. 20 allies. That is a significant increase over a decade. Of course we wanted to be all 32, and were going to keep pushing until we get there, but the movement that we saw over the last two years, particularly by countries like germany that put an extra 100 billion euros on the table for their own defense after the war started speaks volumes about where we are as a subject of burden sharing. But when we talk about burden sharing, its not just about 2 of gdp spending on national defense. Sharing also takes us to the question of ukraine. And here we are also seeing remarkable level of burden sharing across the alliance. The United States over the last two years has provided roughly 74 billion worth of support to our friends in ukraine. Our european allies collectively have provided somewhere around the order of the 110 million worth of support to ukraine. Every Single Member of the alliance is providing assistance to ukraine, economic, humanitarian, and security systems. So burden sharing is something that weve seen and everywhere we have seen Tremendous Positive shift just over the last two years. Third, nato has added two new members. You will remember right after the war started in the spring of 2022 the was a knock at the door and to make countries that had hundreds of years of nonalignment decided to shift the National Policy and request formal nato membership. Pot in five years, not in a decade come not in two years but immediately. They wanted to start the process immediately. As you well know finland became an official member last spring, and sweden just joined officially, and now it is taking its seat at the table just a couple of weeks ago. And those two allies already making meaning meaningful contributions to the lights h and every day. Number four, nato rolled out a new strategic concept in 2022. This is nothing new. Nato rewrite the strategic concept. Its core Mission Statement about once a decade. What was a new about this particular strategic concept was that in addition to mentioning the two core threats the alliance is facing, russia and terrorism, for the first time in natos history the strategic concept mentions the prc, challenges associate with the prc, for nato Member States, and the importance of deepening our partnerships with our friends in the indopacific. Now, why is a native doing this . Does it have aspirations to become a Global Alliance and add the members in the indopacific . Absolutely not. Thats not the plan. Our indoPacific Partners dont have an interest in joining the alliance, and the alliance is not looking to go global. But what we see is increased utility in working together with our friends in the indopacific on a number of shared security challenges that really have no geographic boundaries. This information, malicious Cyber Attacks, or emerging and disruptive technology. We view the security challenges increasingly in one theater and not limited to just the atlantic or the pacific. And so nato is moving out while it is focus on the war in ukraine, it is moving out to deepen these important partnerships with our friends in the indopacific to share best practices and insight on those shared challenges. Finally, nato, while it is been addressing the challenges in ukraine and coping with the russia threat, has taken a series of unprecedented steps to address a wide range of emerging and future challenges. And ill give it a couple of examples. We have new initiatives across the alliance in two new domains, cyberspace. You will remember when nato was created we focus on land, sea and air. Now increasingly the alliance is moving out to focus on security threats that exist in cyberspace and in space proper. Nato also recently announced a c1 1 billion euro Innovation Fund to protect our collective technological edge it nato is in the process of building something called the Defense Innovation accelerator for the north atlantic which has a handy name of diana, to solve critical defense challenges both with the private sector and with academic institutions. We have expanded our work across the new alliance on climate security but also resilient. We have identified a key areas such as our telecommunication networks, our Health Systems or continuity of government that must remain resilient in the face of any potential attack. And last summer we Just Announced something called the defense production action plan to ensure that nato has the industrial capacity and the capabilities that it needs to support its defense plants. So taken together, what does all of this mean for this alliance . The enhance deterrence, the new resourcing were seeing, the new members that are still trying to join this alliance, the deeper partnerships with our friends in the indopacific, and all of the new initiatives that we are rolling out to cope with future challenges. Well, it tells us that at 75 this Alliance Remains relevant. It remains resilient, and the remains ready for the future. And thats why we look forward to hosting this years anniversary summit right here in washington, d. C. July 9 through the 11th where we will no doubt celebrate 75 years of historic achievements, are strong transatlantic bonds and natos vital importance in defending against future threats. Now an addition to the celebrations we of course will be spending a lot of time at the summit focused on ukraine. I cant predict, none of us can, with any certainty what the world will look like come july, but heres what we do know. All 32 heads of state will be traveling to washington, d. C. In july to showcase their unwavering unity, their unwavering resolve in helping ukraine when. We will send a strong signal to president putin that he cant wait us out. We are not distracted, that we are not looking away, and we remain focused on ukraines immediate and future security needs. And we will take concrete steps at the summit to move ukraine closer to the alliance and build a bridge to nato membership. And, of course, in addition to ukraine the allies will be making a series of new announcements on many of the subjects i just mentioned. We are rolling out new initiatives as it relates to cyber come to resilience, to climate security, and yes defense production act will. So let me close just with this. Sometimes i encounter folks that wonder whether natos 75 years, whether or not that some sort of liability. And i the very short answer on those types of questions. Natos 75 years of experience, that is not a liability. That is an asset. 75 years of working towards consensus with our closest allies day after day on natos core mandate and our future mandates has made unity our greatest strength. Yes, working with 31 other allies day in and day out as have its challenges. Its not always easy to get 32 nations to agree around the table. But when allies put their full weight behind an issue or a position or a new initiative, there is no question that it has both regional and global implications. I think madeleine albright, former professor here of course and a first female secretary of state said it best when she said we know that when democracies, with the democracies of europe and america are divided, crevices are created to which forces of evil and aggression may emerge. But when we stand together, theres no force on earth more powerful than our solidarity on behalf of freedom. And thats it right there. Its our solidarity, the solidarity that makes nato stronger and is made nato one of the most successful alliances in history, and one that is made the Alliance Ready for tomorrows challenges. Thank you very much. I look forward to your questions. [applause] well, thank you, ambassador smith. Thank you, everyone to beer. Im davidson, new york times, and just so that you understand the order of the next few minutes. Ambassador and are going to talk for about half an hour, and then were going to go out to questions for everybody. There are a couple of microphones lined up, or at least i see here, where you can stand for your questions. So thank you for this. Thanks for coming. Thank you. Great to see you again, in a previous life we had offices next to each other. Indeed. But it was hard to imagine then that you would be ambassador to nato. Im still doing the same thing i was doing. So let me start with your comments about what it is that weve learned in the last two years, because it is been an extremely moment for nato. I think you summarized it well, that there were years, decades really where they were doing expeditionary out of area operations. A lot of debate within nato, is this really what we were created for . There was some debate, do we need nato anymore . There were my favorite conversations that i dug up when i was working on new cold wars. The book you would reference before, the intro discussions mostly in the Bush Administration about the integral what he could bring rush into nato and the russian nato council gave them at Office Inside the nato headquarters. I think thats gone. It is gone. It is gone. Yeah. So that take you to the question of what we have learned, what we were surprised by and what weve learned. So you gave us some of the great strengths that have come together. There are three things that strike me that took nato by surprise and wanted to run them, run through them. Because it will give us a sense of how they reacted. In the opening days of the war, or in the runup to the war i should say, a lot of european leaders, even the weekend before the war at the munich security conference, were telling me, were telling you, were telling secretary blinken the russians are just bluffing, they are not really going to do this. The economic interests are so great in providing gas and oil they would never take this risk. Hes just trying to get a negotiated solution. What lessons have emerged from the fact that while the United States provided the intelligence and the europeans believe the intelligence, it didnt believe our assessment . Yeah, youre right. This was an interesting time for me because i was confirmed in november of 2021, and that was right in the thick of i think it was early fall 2021 when we had taken, the Biden Administration had taken this decision to share an unprecedented amount of intelligence with our closest allies let them know what we thought was a clear indication that they were not just bluffing, this wasnt just posturing. They were preparing to go to war. And so i landed in brussels in late that november, late 2021, and i frankly didnt quite know what to expect. I guess my assumption going in was that the United States putting this information on the table, the debates which shift and that we would all then seen from the same song sheet. But, in fact, what happened is exactly what youre describing. There were many allies around the table that were saying come on, we hear what youre saying, we appreciate the fact that you have shared this level of intelligence with us many times, not just in one instance, but we were keeping the making public because they were calling thats right. No, and we were making it public, absolutely. Was it just our closest allies. But then one of my most vivid memories is when the phone rang february 22 at 3 a. M. , a kind of felt come will talk about the 3 a. M. Phone call in the United States. Literally rang around that time, and we went in for the North Atlantic Council meeting. Before the meeting got started one of my colleagues from Eastern Europe raised his hand, and before were going to launch in this series, we were activating natos graduate response but i think the Nato Response force, flurry of activity, he said i just need to say, put his head up, looked at table and instead i couldnt believe you. I, i secretary blinken has said similar. Sorry, but what that did, so the fact that tragically russia decided to go forward with this war, there were several diplomatic efforts you will remember the trips to geneva. There was the natorussia council at nato headquarters on january 12 around the table at the North Atlantic Council. So we had made efforts to encourage them to take another path. They did not. The war starts. There was a shift inside the alliance in that there was suddenly a different approach and attitude towards u. S. Intelligence after that moment. It had created a situation where the u. S. Had built up a considerable amount of credibility because we had shared the intelligence, called it up, and tragically it come to pass, that from that moment forward as u. S. Continue to share intelligence about russians plans, what their strategy, what was happening on the ground and what we envision with the next step, then you can see the allies attention and focus on what was being presented to u. S. Briefers. So there was a significant shift from one day to the next across the island. Do you think, in other words, do think now the intel between the u. S. And the other nato members, the agreement on assessment has fundamentally change . I think it has fundamentally changed, and the changes that we saw two years ago are still ever present today inside the Nato Alliance, in terms with the seriousness with which allies look at and consider use intelligence. There were two other areas that jumped out at me from my reporting on this three. One in the oldest tech and one in the news. Europe had pretty much stopped making conventional ammunition of artillery shells at the time. Using fired. And the ukrainians, while the u. S. And microsoft, Amazon World Services and others that if i was job of moving the Ukrainian Government to the cloud, there have been no planning for how theyre going to communicate. Elon musk stepped in and solve this one, but that was not part of the plan. So im wondering if you could just sort of bring us uptodate on both the ammunition side and the communications side burner side. Yeah. Cyber side. Sorry, just had some caffeine you. So two things. First and foremost on what was happening in europe before the war and postwar. On