WEBVTT - Jens Stoltenberg Talks NATO, Ukraine and Russia

0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:08.720
<v Speaker 1>Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. The distractions not going away,

0:00:08.760 --> 0:00:12.719
<v Speaker 1>But one individual that is hyper focus on the actual

0:00:12.800 --> 0:00:15.280
<v Speaker 1>policies that were discussed this week is of course the

0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.400
<v Speaker 1>NATO Secretary General Yain Stoltenberg, and this was his final

0:00:18.520 --> 0:00:22.079
<v Speaker 1>NATO summit. You're going to be retiring in the fall.

0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:23.760
<v Speaker 1>You've been at the Helm for a decade, so you've

0:00:23.760 --> 0:00:25.239
<v Speaker 1>seen a lot. We're going to get into some of

0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.159
<v Speaker 1>those distractions that were happening at the summit, but I

0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:29.720
<v Speaker 1>want to get into some of the policies. We just

0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.479
<v Speaker 1>heard President Biden there talking about the limits they've placed

0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:36.400
<v Speaker 1>on Ukraine about striking deeper into Russia. He basically said,

0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:38.280
<v Speaker 1>they don't want to give HM capacity to hit the Kremlin,

0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:42.199
<v Speaker 1>but Celenzi is asking to attack Russian jets on Russian

0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:45.360
<v Speaker 1>air bases that strike Ukrainian cities. Do you get the

0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:49.040
<v Speaker 1>sense that the US doesn't trust Zelenski? Well, First of.

0:00:49.000 --> 0:00:53.920
<v Speaker 2>All, the US and Old Alas have loosened the restrictions

0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:56.240
<v Speaker 2>that have imposed on the US solo their weapons that

0:00:56.320 --> 0:01:00.480
<v Speaker 2>have delighted to Ukraine. So Ukraine it's not able to

0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:05.440
<v Speaker 2>also strike against the military targets inside the Russia and

0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:06.880
<v Speaker 2>we need to remember what this is. This is a

0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:11.280
<v Speaker 2>where Russian Russia has attacked the Ukraine. That's violation national law.

0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:15.040
<v Speaker 2>Ukraine has the right, according to national law, to defend

0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:19.839
<v Speaker 2>themselves and that includes also striking legitimate military targets inside

0:01:20.000 --> 0:01:23.160
<v Speaker 2>the territory of Russia and allies. Some allies have given

0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.800
<v Speaker 2>them that permission or the allies have some restrictions, but

0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:28.000
<v Speaker 2>they have been loosened up a bit.

0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:30.920
<v Speaker 1>But of course the most important ally sending the most

0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:33.319
<v Speaker 1>weaponry is the United States, and they've only said you

0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:38.120
<v Speaker 1>can go about forty kilometers. But to really Zelensky's point

0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:40.840
<v Speaker 1>is to really start to push back the Russians and

0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.399
<v Speaker 1>be defensive, they need to get on top of it,

0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:46.480
<v Speaker 1>meaning going maybe three hundred kilometers. Do you think I

0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:48.320
<v Speaker 1>mean you were part of these discussions. Do you think

0:01:48.360 --> 0:01:50.840
<v Speaker 1>there's something the new United States? We've seen them before

0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:53.320
<v Speaker 1>drag their feet and then make decisions that Lenskap is

0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:55.880
<v Speaker 1>pushing for. Could you see them coming around to this?

0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:58.400
<v Speaker 2>This was an issue that was discussed at the Natal summit,

0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:01.760
<v Speaker 2>and again some allies have no resictions on the use

0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:05.240
<v Speaker 2>of the weapons they have delivered. Others have resictions but

0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:09.080
<v Speaker 2>have loosened them. The US is of course important, but

0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:13.200
<v Speaker 2>half of the military support to Ukraine comes from a

0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:18.360
<v Speaker 2>non US allies comes from Europe and Canada. So when

0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:21.400
<v Speaker 2>it comes to Ukraine and the Europeans have really stepped up,

0:02:21.520 --> 0:02:23.400
<v Speaker 2>and with the decision we made at the net To

0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:25.960
<v Speaker 2>summit to have a long term pledge and to have

0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:28.840
<v Speaker 2>a formula for burnishing, we will ensure that those in

0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:33.240
<v Speaker 2>the future European allies and kinda will provide half of

0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:36.760
<v Speaker 2>the military support because they have half of the economic

0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:38.079
<v Speaker 2>strength of the alliance.

0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:42.080
<v Speaker 1>Ukraine didn't get the formal invitation they were helping for,

0:02:43.080 --> 0:02:45.840
<v Speaker 1>so they are still at the gates, knocking on the

0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:48.200
<v Speaker 1>door and they're not letting too NATO just yet. While

0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:51.960
<v Speaker 1>they do this, though, it unnerves putin do you think

0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:56.080
<v Speaker 1>they're in a sense almost the worst position this security

0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.519
<v Speaker 1>purgatory because they're still stuck in the middle because they're

0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:02.600
<v Speaker 1>not yet alliance. But even asking to be an alliance

0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:06.880
<v Speaker 1>really underscores the issue that they're having with their neighbor

0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:07.359
<v Speaker 1>next door.

0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.280
<v Speaker 2>At the summit allows we're very clear that Ukraine will

0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.200
<v Speaker 2>become a member. We also stated that this is a

0:03:14.360 --> 0:03:20.360
<v Speaker 2>reversible path towards membership. But actually as important, or perhaps

0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:23.640
<v Speaker 2>even more important than the language in the statement we agreed,

0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:26.840
<v Speaker 2>is that actually we took actions to move Ukraine closer

0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:30.800
<v Speaker 2>to membership. We established a Native Command with seven hundred

0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:36.560
<v Speaker 2>personnel to organize the provisional training and military support to Ukraine.

0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:40.000
<v Speaker 2>We do this long term pledge, and we stepped up

0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:43.120
<v Speaker 2>the work to do what we call interoperability, to ensure

0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:47.200
<v Speaker 2>that Ukrainian forces are fully interoperable with NATO forces. These

0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.480
<v Speaker 2>are concrete actions that actually helps them to prevail, to

0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:55.800
<v Speaker 2>help Ukraine to prevail as a certain independent nation in Europe,

0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:59.360
<v Speaker 2>and all of that moves them closer to membership, and

0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:02.360
<v Speaker 2>then when the when the time is right and als agreed,

0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:04.240
<v Speaker 2>they will become members straight away.

0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.640
<v Speaker 1>As you know, politics overshadowed this summit. Everyone was talking about,

0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:13.400
<v Speaker 1>if not officially, unofficially President Biden's age as the native

0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:16.560
<v Speaker 1>Secretary General who's worked with both of these US presidents

0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.960
<v Speaker 1>who are the candidates for November. Do you see potential

0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:23.760
<v Speaker 1>change in the future US commitment to the Alliance?

0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:28.760
<v Speaker 2>I expect that the United States will remain a strong

0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:33.159
<v Speaker 2>NATO ally also in the future for at least three reasons.

0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:35.760
<v Speaker 2>One is that this is in the US security and

0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:38.400
<v Speaker 2>interest to have a strong NATO. In NATO, the United

0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.720
<v Speaker 2>States has something Russia and China doesn't have more than

0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:45.920
<v Speaker 2>thirty different an allies. Second, it's very strong bipartisan support

0:04:45.960 --> 0:04:49.520
<v Speaker 2>in the United States for NATO in the public wess

0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:53.000
<v Speaker 2>in your opinion polls also confirming that, but also in

0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:56.880
<v Speaker 2>the US Congress. I met congress men from both parties

0:04:56.880 --> 0:05:00.680
<v Speaker 2>and they will express some strong support to NATO. The

0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:04.919
<v Speaker 2>main criticism from former President Trump and others have actually

0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:09.200
<v Speaker 2>not been against NATO. It has been against NATO allies

0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:13.240
<v Speaker 2>not spending enough on NATO, and that has changed or

0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:16.159
<v Speaker 2>just during the last years, we have seen significant increase

0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:18.480
<v Speaker 2>in number of allies spending at least two percent of

0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:20.320
<v Speaker 2>GDP on defense, which is a native allies.

0:05:20.440 --> 0:05:24.240
<v Speaker 1>So is your expectation to ignore, potentially your expectations that

0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:26.920
<v Speaker 1>Trump's rhetoric will not match his policies on the ground.

0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:30.400
<v Speaker 2>Well, I worked with him when he was from president

0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:34.080
<v Speaker 2>last time, and again I expect that the United States

0:05:34.160 --> 0:05:38.920
<v Speaker 2>will remain a strong NATO ally because this also makes

0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:42.839
<v Speaker 2>the United States safer and stronger. The United States is

0:05:42.839 --> 0:05:46.039
<v Speaker 2>big twenty five percent of the world's GDP, but toget

0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.400
<v Speaker 2>with NATO allies, we are fifty percent of the world's GDP,

0:05:49.560 --> 0:05:52.560
<v Speaker 2>twice as big, fifty percent of the world's military right,

0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:56.400
<v Speaker 2>and this makes the United States stronger. And the main

0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:59.640
<v Speaker 2>criticism the fact that your pen allies didn't spend that

0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:02.680
<v Speaker 2>has really changed the twenty three allows penny two percent,

0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.039
<v Speaker 2>and those allots are not yet a two percent, have

0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:08.440
<v Speaker 2>a promise to be there soon. So this has really improved,

0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:10.960
<v Speaker 2>not least because the criticism from the United States was

0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:14.960
<v Speaker 2>valid and Europeans have heard the call and have stepped up.

0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:17.520
<v Speaker 1>Jen Centerburg, thank you so much for your time. That

0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:20.880
<v Speaker 1>was of course John Jen Stoltenberg, the outgoing NATO chief