 Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Colonel Frank Vada, Spokesperson of the Exercise Steadfast Defender 24, and I'm very happy to welcome you here at Coginevo at NATO's Visitor's Day event today. Let me please introduce to you today Senior Military Representative. It's an honour to introduce Lieutenant-General Pietro Bažujejoš, First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army. I would like to introduce General Julemo Miljeta, the Commander Joint Force Command Pronsum, and it's an honour to introduce to you Vice Admiral Doug Perry, the Commander Joint Force Command Norfolk. We'll begin this press conference right now with statements of each speaker, starting with the host nation, followed by the commanders from Pronsum and Norfolk. General Bažujejoš, the floor is yours. Thank you. Esteemed media representatives, General Admiral, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the Polish Chief of Defence, General Wiesław Kukua, I would like to welcome you here in Poland and to the Dragon 24 exercise, which is integrated with the Brilliant Jump 24 exercise and under the umbrella of the Steadfast Defender 24 exercise. Poland, as the NATO Eastern Flank Country, is key in the deterrence and defence posture of the whole Alliance. We are a host nation, a transit nation, but also a troop contributing nation. Poland is a reliable ally and takes seriously its responsibilities. As you know in the Steadfast Defender 24, we have already practised the strategic reinforcement, activation and deployment of the VGTF. After reception, staging and integration with the host nation, meaning Polish troops and Polish headquarters, they are now conducting a tactical road march, as you have heard, to the employment destinations. Today you have witnessed a water crossing here at Kożaniewo. This is the northern group of forces. At the same time, we have a similar group of forces in the south that will also be performing the water crossing of the river Sun. Both groups of forces will complete their road marches with live fire exercises at Bemowal Piskier and Dęba. As you probably also heard today, but let me reiterate it, there are about 20,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen from nine nations, with about 3,500 military equipment pieces participating in the Dragon 24 exercise. From Poland, there are over 15,000 troops, and in addition, as you have heard from the Prime Minister, we have about 2,500 civilians from the non-military part of the house, but exercising their role in the host nation support and practicing integration with the military instrument of power during crisis and early on in the conflict. This is key to prepare and test our resilience as part of the whole of government approach. Synchronization of civil military actions, as well as security, enablement and sustainment in the exercise, are crucial and allow us to practice and stress test elements of our new NATO plans. Understanding that peace and security are priceless, you can rest assured that Poland will do its part and even more within our alliance in time of need. United will be prepared to deter, defend and win against any odds. Thank you very much. So next, sir, General Mita, floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you very much. If you have read my curriculum, Mita, you know that I am a journalist, for me, it's very difficult to be on this side of the room. But ladies and gentlemen, esteemed media representatives from all over the world, good afternoon. Thank you for joining us today for the Distinguished Visitor Day of Exercise Dragon 2024. It's a particular pleasure to be here in Poland with you. Poland is a key part of the area of my SQ joint force command Brunsum, and I am grateful for all Poland does as a proud member of our alliance. The very respected Chinese military strategist, Sun Tzu, once said that the nature of war is always changing. More than 2,000 years later, recent events in Europe continue to demonstrate is worth to be true. When Russia illegally invaded Crimea in 2014, claiming the strategically important peninsula for itself, NATO recognized the urgent need to adapt. In the following years, NATO significantly increased its presence along the eastern flank of the alliance. NATO also developed the very high readiness joint force, the VUJTF, a speared element of the NATO response force that is highly capable and always ready to deploy in response to any crisis within allied territory. The need for continued adaptation was underlined on the 24th of February 2022. NATO responded very quickly, activating plans and reinforcing its presence in order to send Russia a clear message that the alliance is committed to defending every inch of its territory. During the Madrid summit and the following Vilnius summit last summer, many important decisions were made in order to speed up our rate of change. New regional plans were developed by each joint force command and agreed by nations in order to meet and exceed the challenges of years to come. NATO's forward presence was increased, making the alliance commitment to its eastern flank bigger and deeper than ever before. Moreover, a decision was taken that the NATO response force would transform into a new allied response force in the summer of 2024. The ARF is a much larger body of high readiness forces with increased capability and even faster deployment times. So how do these decisions lead us to be here together on the banks of the Vistula river in wintertime? The answer is both simple and complex. We are here to witness how the alliance is linking national and multinational efforts into a simple container. The state of a defender 24 exercise is, in fact, a central banner for a cluster of different exercise, each hosted by a NATO member nation designed to train and demonstrate unique military capabilities in a modern, multi-dimensional and multi-domain scenario. Dragon 24, the exercise we are seeing today, is one of the 14 different exercise conducted all across the continent in the first half of the year. When you consider all those efforts as one, it's clear how the state of a defender is the largest exercise that NATO has conducted in the case, involving more than 90,000 service members from all over Europe and North America. State of a Defender showcases many capabilities by demonstrating NATO's ability to sustain complex, multi-domain operations for long periods of time, deploying troops at the speed of relevance over any geographic span from North America and over Europe. It demonstrates the incredible strength of the transatlantic bond between NATO allies in Europe and those in North America. It demonstrates our readiness, our cohesion, our will to train and operate together, and most of all, NATO's firm commitment to defend every inch of Allied territory. So far, in part two of State of a Defender, we have achieved deployment forces from five nations to form a single WUJTF unit here in Poland for exercise brilliant jump. The WUJTF has now met up with the NATO's response main body, and the forces drawn from nine nations are now in convoy across Poland and will arrive later this week at one of the most strategic important locations in Europe. The logistics involved in moving so many people and vehicles from so many countries is a truly incredible accomplishment and further proves NATO commitment to tackle sensitive political issues with renewed education. Between now and the end of May, part two of State of a Defender will see training events in Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia. This has been and will continue to be a truly inspiring undertaking designed to train our militaries to work together in multi-domain 21st century warfare and to successfully test the civilian infrastructure required to support the rapid deployment of military forces. The cooperation between Alliance members, their militaries, and the incredible civilian contribution provided to make it happen is the real hallmark of NATO. The individual countries of NATO are strong. Together, we are stronger and we form the greatest military alliance in human history. We are training and executing our new regional plans as we in parallel and ever more quickly adjust to the evolving security environment. It's important to remember that we are a defensive alliance focused on the prevention of conflict and the preservation of peace. But without any doubt, NATO is ready to face any threat, any adversary at any time. Finally, let me again thank you, esteemed representative of media agencies, for being our guest today. Your credibility and the free speech we have been able to have in these days shows the difference between democracy and tyranny. It shows the difference between freedom and fear. Democracy and freedom are the foundation of our world. It's a huge responsibility. And NATO is there to protect and preserve those values against any challenges today and for the years to come, as it has been doing already for the past 75 years. Thank you, thank you very much for your attention. General Mineta, thank you very much. Admiral Perry, floor's yours. Good afternoon. Thank you for being here today. I am honored to be here to witness today's demonstration, like all of you, the capacity, the capability and the readiness that you saw today is the deterrence against potential adversaries. I'm Vice Admiral Doug Perry, United States Navy. And I have the honor of being the commander of Joint Force Command, Norfolk, the United States Second Fleet, and the director of NATO's combined joint operations from the sea. And in each of these roles, I bring North America to secure the transatlantic link that reinforces and strengthens the European allies, the European continent, and our NATO alliance. I'm going to speak to you today about the first phase of NATO exercise, steadfast offender. It is currently underway, taking place under my direction as Joint Force Command, Norfolk. So today, 20,000 troops, over 50 ships, and over 100 aircraft, are exercising together in northern Norway. Inside the Arctic Circle, one of the harshest environments on this earth, and that is part of exercise Nordic response, the Norwegian NATO national exercise. So throughout the first phase of steadfast offender, NATO has demonstrated its ability to secure the Atlantic and the Arctic, thus safeguarding the vital strategic lines of communication that unite North America and Europe, as demonstrated through NATO's maritime command live exercise, and subsequently, in the United Kingdom's joint warrior exercise. Each stage of this phase of steadfast offender has increased in complexity and scale, with the maritime phase culminating in the Arctic Circle. How under the direction of Joint Force Command, Norfolk, carrier strike groups will work together with amphibious task groups, all the while being synchronized with a major land campaign. The Nordic response epitomizes what NATO can achieve, and is a clear demonstration of our alliance's unity, our seamless interoperability, and above all, our collective will to defend every inch of our allied territory. Our NATO adversaries, and any potential adversaries, should and certainly will take note. Joint Force Command, Norfolk, is the only operational NATO headquarters in North America, and it was established in 2018 due to a resurgent Russia in the Atlantic and Arctic, and that decision was validated when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Joint Force Command, Norfolk is the NATO command responsible for both the Atlantic, the transatlantic link, and the Arctic, and we are capable. We are ready, if ordered, to do so, to secure and defend that vital transatlantic link that has united North America, Canada, the United States, with our European allies and the NATO alliance for 75 years. The Arctic is becoming an ever-increasingly important region, and Joint Force Command, Norfolk, stands ready to ensure that tension in the Arctic remains low and that the rights of all Arctic nations, which I should mention that today six of the eight and maybe soon to be seven of those eight Arctic nations, are NATO allies. Thank you very much, and it's great to be here today. Thank you. Admiral Perry, thank you very much. That concludes today's NATO press point. If you have any interest, if you have any interest in bilateral interviews with the respective generals, admirals, please let me know. Thank you very much for your interest. Thank you so much. OK, I think we're done. I avoided to ask something. We'll do this later. Let me spread it out to feed your need. So take notes, you would get in touch with it. So we need, so America, we have to deal with, where's John?