LIVE: US Defense Secretary Austin, NATO Secretary General Brief the Media

Okay everyone, good afternoon. Thank you for being here today. It is my pleasure to introduce Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The Secretary will deliver some opening remarks and then we will have time to take a few questions. I will moderate those questions and call on journalists. That Mr. Secretary. Thanks Serena. Good afternoon everyone. It's great to be back at NATO but I wanted to start with just a few words about the Middle East. As you all know Israel yesterday killed Sinwar, the leader of Hamas. That's a major achievement and it opens a major opportunity for progress. Sinwar was the architect of the October 7th terrorist assault on Israel. His plot left 1,200 people dead including civilians from more than 30 other countries and that includes the United States. He was responsible for the deaths of many Americans over the years including more than 40 Americans murdered on October 7th and four murdered American hostages. Sinwar devoted his life to wrecking the chances of peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. He's finally been brought to justice and that removes a huge obstacle. Our top priority is the 101 hostages still kidnapped in Gaza including our own American hostages. They have been through hell and so have their families and the hostages should not have to suffer one more hour in captivity. Those who are holding hostages should release them immediately. Sinwar's death also provides an extraordinary opportunity to achieve a lasting ceasefire to end this awful war and to rush humanitarian aid into Gaza. Our forces in the region stand ready to assist in Israel's defense to deter aggression and to reduce the risk of all-out war and we will continue to drive hard to bring home to bring all of the hostages home and to end the conflicts in both Gaza and Lebanon through principled diplomacy. Now let me turn back to our work here at NATO. This has been an historic defense ministerial for three reasons. First, this is our new secretary general's inaugural ministerial meeting so I want to thank Mark Ruta and his staff for convening us. I also look forward to working very closely with Mark and his team. Second, this is our first defense ministerial with NATO's Indo-Pacific partners, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea. And that just underscores the importance of working with our partners in the Indo-Pacific on boosting industrial-based resilience, combating disinformation, and much much more. And third, this ministerial is the first high-level NATO gathering since our 75th anniversary summit in Washington back in July. The summit was a major success. We welcomed Sweden as a NATO ally. We endorsed a NATO industrial capacity expansion pledge and that will strengthen the defense industrial base on both sides of the Atlantic and increase large-scale multinational procurement and help deliver capabilities swiftly and securely. We also launched the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine, or INSATU. Now that's our military effort to plan, coordinate, and arrange delivery of the security assistance that Ukraine needs to prevail against Russian aggression. We strengthened NATO's deterrence and defense. We deepened ties with our global partners, especially in the Indo-Pacific. And we celebrated 75 years of the strongest, most successful defensive alliance in history. I'm proud of all this progress, but we still got work to do. Our priority is implementing the important agreements from NATO's recent summits, and today we continued our progress. We're forging NATO's most robust defense plans since the end of the Cold War, and that will help ensure that we have the forces and capabilities to meet any contingency. That includes air and missile defense, which are crucial for defending the Allied airspace. And earlier this month, General Cavoli directed a reinforcement of NATO air surveillance in Romania to monitor Russian military activity. NATO Allies continue to make robust investments in air and missile defense, but we must invest in many other areas to meet our requirements. So I'm glad to say that we're sharing the burden of collective defense more than ever. This year, a record 23 NATO Allies are hitting or topping our shared commitment to spend at least two percent of GDP on defense. But we still need each and every single Ally to meet this mutually agreed upon obligation as soon as possible. And that will let us fulfill the requirements of our new plans and hit our capability targets. And by investing in our transatlantic defense industrial base and scaling up military production, we can send a long-term demand signal to industry. You know, we also met yesterday with our Indo-Pacific partners and with the European Union. It was a very productive meeting, and it underscored the links among Euro-Atlantic security and Indo-Pacific security. We're concerned by the PRC's increasingly coercive behavior in the Indo-Pacific, which has profound implications for the whole world. We're also troubled by the growing alignment between Russia and the People's Republic of China, including the PRC's support for Putin's indefensible war choice against Ukraine. And that makes our close cooperation with our Indo-Pacific friends more vital than ever. We also held a NATO-Ukraine Council meeting yesterday. Minister Umerov gave us some great insights, and we made clear our enduring commitment to a free and sovereign Ukraine. Like countries of goodwill around the world, our NATO allies continue to stand up for Ukraine's sovereignty and self-defense. And the United States and our allies and partners are determined to stand by Ukraine for the long haul. And we'll stand by one another. The foundation of NATO is a collective defense commitment in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. The U.S. commitment to Article 5 remains ironclad. And we will defend the sovereignty and the territory of every member of this alliance. Whatever changes lie ahead, we will tackle them together. And that solidarity is the reason why NATO is the greatest defensive alliance in history. And thanks again. And with that, I'll be glad to take some questions. Great. Thank you. Our first question will go to Phil Stewart from Reuters. Right here in the middle. Thank you. So you are saying that Israel has an opportunity to end the war in Gaza, but Israel's prime minister is vowing today to keep fighting. Do you support Israel's new campaign to, quote, stop the axis of evil, end quote, as Netanyahu put it? Or is Israel missing an opportunity here? And on Ukraine, President Zelensky told the Financial Times that a formal invitation to join NATO is the only way Ukraine can survive Russia's invasion. Do you agree with that assessment? And more broadly, do you endorse his victory plan? Thank you. So which one of those questions do you want me to answer, Phil? All right. Let's start with the question as to whether or not there is an opportunity available with respect to Gaza. Of course there is. And we would hope that we can work together to take advantage of that opportunity. The first thing, Phil, that we need to focus on is the return of the hostages. Again, you heard the prime minister publicly state yesterday that anyone who has control of hostages, he would encourage them to return them. And again, I would hope that they would do so. Beyond that, I think there are other opportunities, and we'll see how things evolve. But clearly, there are opportunities for a change in direction. And we would hope that parties would take advantage of that, both in Gaza and in Lebanon. The second question was, as I recall, Phil, was about the victory plan and whether or not we endorse the victory plan. Again, the victory plan is President Zelensky's plan. And we're going to do everything that we can to provide the security assistance to support the president as he tries to accomplish his objectives. Now, what we all want to make sure that we continue to do is to link military objectives to strategic objectives. And that dialogue continues. And I just met with Minister Kumarov today. We talked through a number of those things. Again, our focus is going to continue to be on doing everything that we can to support the victory plan, support President Zelensky. It's not my position to evaluate publicly his plan. We have been supporting him by providing security assistance in a major way for over two and a half years. We're going to continue to do that. Thank you. Thank you. Our second question will go to Andrei Smolyakov, Novaya Gazeta Europa, right here in the back, in the middle. Thank you. Mr. Secretary, Ukrainian military has been able to carry out some effective UAV strikes deep into Russian territory. But there have been reports, especially in Russian and Ukrainian language media, that the U.S. has discouraged those attacks. Is there any substance to those reports? And if so, is the U.S. willing to support such operations in the future? Actually, Andrei, we've seen the Ukrainians use their long-range UAV strike capability to great effect. We saw recently that they were able to take out a number of strategic-level ammunition supply points, which has had an impact on the battlefield. I think what's important to point out here, Andrei, is that they're able to produce these UAVs in Ukraine. They're able to scale that production rapidly. The UAVs have proven to be very effective and accurate. And again, when you consider the fact that one precision-guided missile costs, in some cases, close to a million dollars, depending on what it is. And these UAVs, they can produce in great numbers at a fraction of the cost. So when you look at the balance sheet and the effects that are being created on the battlefield, I think this is a great capability. How they use the capability that they're producing is going to be their call, Andrei. Thank you. Our next question will go to Phil Gordon right here, Air and Space magazine. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Sorry, Chris Gordon. I said Phil. Sorry, sorry. Thank you, Sabrina. You're Phil now. I'm kidding, Chris. I know you're Chris. Good to hear. Sir, the world is in a very difficult situation, and I have two questions regarding that situation. First, if there is a settlement in Gaza, is the Pentagon prepared to provide logistical support and military advice to an Arab-led stabilization force if there are no U.S. boots on the ground? And then secondly, to put a finer point on my colleague's question earlier, President Zelensky has repeatedly appealed to the U.S. to use ATACMs to strike a broader range of targets inside of Russia and to do so more quickly than drones. The Biden administration has not allowed this. Have Putin's nuclear threats worked? Regarding Putin's nuclear threats, again, you've heard me say a number of times that I think any kind of nuclear saber-rattling is reckless and dangerous, and we would call upon Putin and others to not employ that kind of language. In terms of whether or not we would participate in any kind of stabilization efforts in Gaza, I think that that's going to require the contributions of a number of countries. Hopefully, countries in the region will step up. There quite possibly can be a part for the United States to play in that as well. What part that would be and what that would look like, Chris, we're going to have to work with our allies and partners to scope that out, and I certainly would not have any announcements to make on anything like that. The first step, though, is we've got to get to some sort of ceasefire, and then we need to make sure that we're putting the right things in place to stabilize the area and provide for some sort of security going forward. But that's left to be defined yet. Thank you. Our last question will go to Terry Schultz, Deutsche Welle. Thank you, Secretary Austin. I'm very interested in the future of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a group that you yourself created. I mean, what is the future of this, given that nobody knows what's going to happen after November under either administration that would take over? What will happen with this group? How do you consolidate what you have done, what has been done under your leadership, but even more of interest to the Ukrainians? Do you have a sense after this last meeting that there's enough momentum to provide enough to help Ukraine tilt the balance on the battlefield, as is necessary, you yourself say, to someday move into discussions about ending the war? Thanks, Terry. We've been doing two things simultaneously. We're focused on providing Ukraine what it needs to be successful on a battlefield today as it tries to defend its sovereign territory. It's been very successful at that. I would remind everybody that Ukraine has taken on the largest military in Europe, and for two and a half years, it has successfully defended its territory. Putin has not achieved not one strategic objective that he set out to achieve. Kyiv still stands. The Ukrainian government did not fold, and I could name a number of other things, but they have been very, very successful. So helping them defend in the current fight is one objective. The other objective is making sure that we help them get what's necessary to be able to defend against aggression in the future and deter aggression as well. That's what the capability coalitions have been designed to do. As you know, we have an Air Force capability coalition. It was focused initially and still is focused on helping Ukraine get a fighter aircraft capability. As you know, Ukraine now has F-16 capability. We will continue to build upon that. There's an artillery capability coalition that's also being very successful, and it's helping Ukraine acquire the artillery systems and ammunitions that it needs not only for today but for the long haul as well. There's an IT coalition that helps make sure that Ukraine has what it needs to be able to function in the information space, information domain, and be effective. That IT coalition has been very effective, very impressive. There's a drone coalition. These coalitions are designed to ensure that at the end of the day, Ukraine has what it needs to be able to deter aggression and defend itself going forward. Thank you for bringing it up because it's a thing that not many people pay attention to. Every day, we are building long-term capability for Ukraine. I have to applaud the work of our allies and partners who are leading some of these coalitions and rallying support for Ukraine and digging deep to provide them what we think they'll need going forward. I think that will help to spell success for Ukraine in the long haul, but I appreciate you bringing it up, Terry. Thank you, everyone. That concludes today's press conference.