SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good afternoon, everyone. As always, a great pleasure to be with my friend and colleague, Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine. And we’re here, of course, at NATO where we’ve seen over the last year very strong support and solidarity for Ukraine, countries coming together to make sure that Ukraine has the means to defend itself, defend its people, defend its future, and that solidarity is fully on display here. We’re looking forward to being with NATO colleagues in just a short while, and of course we’re also at NATO doing preparatory work for the Vilnius Summit with leaders coming up this summer.
But this is an opportunity, as always, for us to compare notes on where things are in Ukraine, and again, all the work that we’re doing and other countries are doing to support Ukraine.
FOREIGN MINISTER KULEBA: We remain in regular contact and we talk a lot, but it’s always a special pleasure to sit down with you in person and have this conversation. I think it’s very symbolic that this is the first time that we’re actually seeing each other at NATO. And one of the issues that we will -
SECRETARY BLINKEN: You’ve always been on the video screen prior to this, right.
FOREIGN MINISTER KULEBA: Yes, yes, but physically on the birthday of NATO, we are here at the headquarters, and I think that gives us an excellent opportunity to discuss how to make our meetings at NATO happen more often.
But seriously, a lot is on the plate, as usually. We will be discussing issues related to the deliveries of ammunition and weapons, and we very much appreciate everything that the United States have done specifically in the last months to help our army prepare itself for the - for the (inaudible). The Biden administration has fulfilled its commitment to providing Ukraine with a lot - what we need - and to set an example, to give an example to other allies.
So, as always, everything we do aims at victory - victory of democracy over authoritarianism, victory of Ukraine over Russia, and victory of security over repression.
SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you. Thanks, everyone.
Source: U.S Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs