This year, I am pleased to co-sponsor the Future Forces Forum, an international platform for trends and technologies in defence and security. Its unique range of activities is a great opportunity for the entire security community to learn about the latest trends and developments in defence and security. At a time of a deteriorating international security environment, increasing interconnectedness of threats and securitisation of a wide range of issues, activities and aspects of everyday life, projects like this are very important as they communicate, connect and strengthen a society-wide approach to security.

We can hardly talk about our own security without recalling the heroic struggle of the Ukrainian defenders, the human suffering and all-round devastation that is occurring in the vicinity of EU and NATO borders. We ourselves will not be safe if we leave Ukraine alone.

While the third year of the Russian aggression is an unhappy milestone, a number of events have helped us realize where our strength and hope for the future lies. This year we have commemorated 75 years of the North Atlantic Alliance foundation as well as 25 years of our own membership; in May, I hosted an informal NATO foreign affairs ministers meeting in Prague; last month, the Chiefs of General Staff of the NATO member countries met in Prague. The upcoming Future Forces Forum event will contribute to the mobilization of our efforts and capabilities and will be another visible contribution of our country to the Euro-Atlantic area security.

To protect the rules-based international order and the security of ourselves and our allies, we need the will, unity and determination of like-minded countries. It is therefore important that most Allies, including Czechia, have already begun to invest at least 2% of GDP in their own defense, that we work to maintain a technical and technological advantage and that we expand our defense industry, in which Czechia is a significant player in the European context, enjoying reliable name and a long-standing tradition.