00:00Shona, of course, the leaders are now leaving the summit.
00:03But tell us now, ultimately, what is the mood as President Trump walked out of this press conference just minutes
00:08ago?
00:08Well, I would say, Maria, that the point that John Bolton had made just there in relation to actually having
00:14a summit every few years rather than every year is something that leaders would definitely echo.
00:18I think they're sort of breathing a sigh of relief that this wasn't as bad as it could have been.
00:22The bar was pretty low. We know that Donald Trump came to Ankara, castigating his allies, saying he's going to
00:29take over Greenland.
00:31And they would say this is actually very damaging, albeit to the fact, as you mentioned there at the start,
00:36that the declaration does commit an ironclad support of Article 5, the backbone of NATO.
00:42But if that didn't happen, then NATO would be over. So the bar is pretty low in that regard.
00:46I'd also make the point that they're breathing a sigh of relief because this morning, when we heard that the
00:51United States had launched strikes against Iran,
00:53they really thought this summit was going to be completely overshadowed by Iran, when it should be about supporting and
00:59defending the European continent and in particular Ukraine.
01:02And I caught up with the Belgian Defence Minister, Theo Franken, and I asked him about this piece specifically in
01:07relation to Iran.
01:09He says we need to do more, but OK, he understands that we're doing this. You cannot build Rome in
01:14one day.
01:15So this takes some time. And then he had a lot of emphasis on Iran.
01:20So that was the Middle East, for me, is of particular priorities, yeah.
01:26So on Iran, we know that that ceasefire that was fragile at the best of times is no more.
01:32What do you think the implications are now for Europe? Because one of the main concerns was that the world
01:37was distracted by Iran and not paying enough attention to Ukraine.
01:42Yes, but they're always lying. The Islamic regime, that's a religious Nazi regime, they're always lying and cheating.
01:49That is what they do. So saying that you have a peace agreement, first thing that I was thinking is
01:57that they will never hold up into that agreement.
02:00So we'll see about how this is going, where this is going. I don't know if everything is broken now,
02:08but it comes on being one of the main issues.
02:13Ukrainian support, we can count on Europe for Ukrainian support, but it's true that the United States is more like
02:21focalising on Iran and the Middle East.
02:24And what did, well, tell us a little bit about the conversation then you had with Secretary of War Pete
02:28Hegsert in relation to that.
02:29Because everybody's worrying about their oil prices, quite frankly.
02:34Yes, of course. Everybody's worried about the oil prices. And also for Ukraine, it's not good that Putin gets too
02:41much for his barrel of crude oil.
02:43So that's also a direct link. But then again, when they attack gas, LNG, ships, vessels, you cannot remain silent.
02:53Turkish President Erdogan was looking for a couple of things out of this summit, access to the F-35 programme
02:59from the United States.
03:01And he really wants to get rid of this idea that there should be a European preference when it comes
03:06to the defence industry.
03:07That means the European Union. What's your own assessment of that? Is he right to look for those things?
03:13He's right. F-35, that's not of mine business because it is an American product.
03:18But are you happy for him to have them? Because the concern is that the Russian system that the Turks
03:24have, the problem is that it could be a security issue for NATO.
03:27Yeah. I think that the Americans will not give F-35 to Turkey when there's a problem with their own
03:33security and with Russian threats.
03:35And just finally then, Minister, tell us a little bit about what Belgium has committed to, particularly at the Industry
03:41Defence Forum.
03:42Also, could you tell us about what Belgium's plans are as part of the Coalition of the Willing and the
03:46Strait of Ramos?
03:48So on the Coalition of the Willing, we're there with a mine hunter. It's ready to be deployed.
03:52We can also send other capabilities. So when we have green light, we will go.
03:58And second, on Industry Day, we signed 10 contracts. The biggest is Air Defence, NASEMS, SkyRanger NASEM system, radar system,
04:07Air Defence for the first time in 20 years.
04:10It's more than 3 billion euro contracts.
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