(3 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brussels – 3 April 2025
++QUALITY AS INCOMING++
1. Various of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker arriving for NATO meeting, Rubio greeting waiting media
2. Wide of Norway’s Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide arriving
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s Foreign Minister:
"This is not a meeting about trade. There are many issues to be discussed in order for us. But it shall be remembered and it must be remembered that it is important now to preserve allied unity. It’s important to understand that we grow faster and better together, and that if we want to build resources for a stronger defence, we need to have economic growth and protectionism will not do us any good. And the founding fathers of this alliance in 1949, they recognized that in the article two of the NATO treaty, the North Atlantic Treaty, where it says that we should foster good economic collaboration and refrain from using economic coercive measures against each other. And that’s an important part of the treaty, which I think it’s good to remind us all about in these very days."
4. Wide of Lithuanian Foreign Minister, Kestutis Budrys, arriving at NATO meeting
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Kestutis Budrys, Lithuanian Foreign Minister:
"Increasing defence and spending more on defence, meaning we have to invest more. Invest more, it means that the current levels of our defence expenditure are too low to achieve the results where we have to be. So for The Hague summit, we have to at least double our baseline defence spending, going from 2% up to 4%. For Europe, it means that we also have to double our spending to be in a position where we can, we have the capabilities that are needed from us for NATO to be a strong military alliance."
6. Mid of flags
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Margus Tsahkna, Estoniam Foreign Minister:
"The most important (thing) is that we now are going to decide to increase the spending from the European side to defence. (The) Estonian government decided a month ago that we are going to increase our spending on defence from the next year, up to 5% at least. We probably (will) do more because we are following the regional defence plans we adopted already during the Vilnius NATO summit. So I do expect that this discussion today as well, and then the summit in The Hague will be decisive, at least 3.5% of GDP for everybody. So I’m happy that I see as well many European governments deciding to increase the defence spending."
8. Wide of flags in arrivals area
STORYLINE:
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump administration’s new envoy to NATO arrived Thursday in Brussels, where the alliance’s top diplomats are hoping they’ll shed light on U.S. security plans in Europe.
European allies and Canada are deeply concerned by President Donald Trump’s readiness to draw closer to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who sees NATO as a threat, as the U.S. works to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine.
Recent White House comments and insults directed at NATO allies Canada and Denmark — as well as the military alliance itself — have raised alarm and confusion, especially with new U.S. tariffs targeting U.S. friends and foes alike.
Arriving for the talks, Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide referred to the tariffs and stressed the need for unity.
"It is important now to preserve allied unity. It’s important to understand that we grow faster and better together, and that if we want to build resources for a stronger defence, we need to have economic growth and protectionism will not do us any good," he said.
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