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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg thanked the Dutch government for its continuing support to NATO operations in talks with Dutch Prime Minister | NATO - Nov. 14, 2014 |

I would like to underline that The Netherlands has been for many, many years a valuable and very reliable ally within the Alliance. And I would like to take this opportunity to commend you for your contributions in so many parts of the work we are doing together within the Alliance: contributing troops to our mission in Afghanistan and in Kosovo, fighter jets over the Baltic states.
And actually I went from Brussels to Estonia, and I was escorted by two F-16s, Dutch F-16s, extremely close, but let's just say it was safe. At least they told me so.
And I also seen the Dutch patriot batteries in Turkey augmenting the air defence of Turkey. And as you said, The Netherlands is also offering troops to the spearhead force which we are going to establish in NATO.
So we are really grateful for your solidarity and your efforts to improve defence capabilities by cooperating with other allies, and we all gain from this.
Our meeting and our lunch today was very constructive. We addressed a wide range of issues, but we focused on the security challenges we face in the east and to the south.
To the east, Russia continues to destabilize Ukraine. And we call on Russia to pull back all its forces from eastern Ukraine and to respect the Minsk agreements.
To the south, ISIL terrorists are carrying out horrific attacks and threatening to export the terror beyond the Middle East. We have to be ready to respond to these challenges. That is why we, at our summit in Wales in September, agreed on a readiness action plan.