"Here in Europe, this is a pivotal moment for our Alliance, in nearly 70 years of NATO never we faced such a range of challenges all at once — security, humanitarian, political… In this challenging moment I want to take this opportunity to state clearly what will never change [is the] unwavering commitment of the United States to the security and defense in Europe," he said. "In good times and in bad [times] Europe can count on the United States always."
Obama also noted that NATO had been massively boosting its defense capabilities in Europe, furthermore, the Alliance reaffirmed strong support to Ukraine.
"NATO is increasing support to Ukraine, and at the meeting of the NATO-Ukraine commission we agreed on new assistance package to improve Alliance's support for Ukrainian forces," Obama added.
At the same time, according to the US president, NATO has stopped a collective decline in defense spending first time in years, however, majority of the Alliance's members still cannot meet the guideline of spending two percent of GDP on defense.
"Finally, after many years NATO has stopped a collective decline in defense spending. Over the past two years most NATO members have halted cuts and began investing more in defense. This mean that defense spending across the alliance now scheduled to increase… [But] the majority of allies are still not hitting that 2 percent [required GDP participation to NATO] mark," Obama noted.
