00:00The annual NATO summit earlier this month was hailed as a step towards a more balanced
00:05US-European relationship. It also reconfirmed Russia as an ongoing threat to the alliance.
00:13Today, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is meeting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
00:18to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. This, as the war on Iran shows no signs of subsiding.
00:24To discuss all of this, I'm glad that we can say we can bring in our NATO correspondent,
00:29Shona Murray, who is live for us from the NATO headquarters in Brussels.
00:34Good morning, Shona. Great to see you. The Ankara summit earlier this month, I know you were there,
00:39proved quite a positive moment for Ukraine. Is there hope now that the US might do more to pressure Russia?
00:49Well, good morning, Murray. Indeed, it was a step towards Europe really stepping up,
00:54bringing the establishment of NATO 3.0 with a lot of procurement, 50 billion euros in procurement
01:01for European capabilities. At the same time, as you mentioned there, it was a good day for Ukraine
01:06in Ankara because the United States allowed the licensing and manufacturing of crucial
01:11patriot defence systems. And today, Marco Rubio said he is meeting his counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
01:18The jury's out as to whether this means that it's a definitive moment, because we heard also
01:23Marco Rubio saying that he won't be putting too much pressure on Lavrov. Lavrov also saying he's going
01:28to question Marco Rubio comments by US President Donald Trump, who said that the war in Ukraine
01:33is coming closer to an end. So to discuss this, I'm joined by Colonel Martin O'Donnell,
01:39who's the senior advisor to the Supreme Allied Commander of the European Forces here at NATO.
01:45Martin, that meeting today with Marco Rubio and Sergei Lavrov, do you hope something will come out
01:51of it because of what we've seen in terms of the signs of Ukraine doing much better on the battlefield
01:56and Russia really on the back foot? Well, I think Secretary Rubio has said the meeting will
02:02comprise of a number of different things. We'll see what comes out of it in terms of peace. Of
02:06course, we all hope for and really want to see peace in Ukraine. The important thing to know,
02:11though, is until that point comes, NATO will continue to support Ukraine.
02:15Yeah, but do you think that it's possible because of that signal that Donald Trump gave
02:21the Ukrainians that they can manufacture and license Patriot defense missiles, that the United
02:26States is sort of a bit annoyed that Putin has not in any meaningful way come to the table when
02:32it comes to peace, that maybe the US is giving a little bit more support to Ukraine than we've
02:36seen so far in the past couple of years? Yeah, I mean, President Trump has been pretty clear.
02:40He wants to bring about a peaceful end to that, to stop all of the killing. So then you see
02:46responses like you just described. And I think those are very, very positive movements towards
02:54peace. On the Iran issue, because we know that the war there has started apace. And in fact,
02:59it was at the NATO summit that Donald Trump decided that the memorandum of understanding
03:03was no more. That's not a good sign for NATO, because we know that Donald Trump was outraged
03:08that allies didn't support him in the initial days of the war. What do you think allies can do
03:13in defending the United States if they want to, and also the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz,
03:18because that's what everyone's very concerned about? Yes, I think it's not a good thing for
03:21anyone, right, that this is going on, that Iran has said, hey, we'll control the Strait of Hormuz.
03:29All the allies agreed at the NATO summit that you talked about, that the Strait of Hormuz must remain
03:36free and free will. And if NATO can play a role, we said time and time again, we will. A
03:40lot of
03:41nations, bilaterally, multilaterally, have sent ships already to the region. Nations are also
03:47supporting the United States in other ways. Bulgaria, for example, their parliament met
03:53yesterday, decided to support the basing of U.S. refuelers. That was followed by a statement from
04:01a U.S. European command saying that they will support Bulgaria with United States assets in the
04:06region if anybody thinks that they can threaten the United States or NATO. So these are strong
04:11reactions. They are indeed, because the Iranians have responded to that and said that that might
04:16bring Bulgaria as a party to the conflict. So there is a threat that this war in Iran could
04:22explode even further. Well, look, we saw that when Iran fired missiles towards Turkey,
04:28right, a NATO ally. Of course, NATO defended in all of those instances, and we will continue to defend
04:33against any threat posed by Iran or anyone else to this defensive alliance.
04:37Colonel McDonald, thank you very much for joining us this morning. And back to you in studio, Marid.
04:42Shauna, thank you so much. And thank you also to your guests there.
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