Toomas Hendrik Ilves Quotes

For the United States to be a global leader, we have to have a very tight relationship with Europe. And we've held that relationship since 1949 when we established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO. NATO is the bond. It's a security bond.

The security of Western Europe rests ultimately on the trustworthiness of the American commitment.

You say that NATO is not directed against us, that it is simply a security structure that is adapting to new realities. Therefore, we propose to join NATO.

NATO is the most important military alliance in world history.

We created NATO. It was a United States invention for the collective security of Europe. It has been a Russian desire since 1947 to break up NATO.

NATO is still the most remarkable alliance in history. It stuck together through 40 years of Cold War, and it then joined together to fight in Afghanistan. In the 1980s, I would not have thought this was going to be possible.

We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe.

America's commitment to collective defense under Article 5 of NATO is a sacred obligation in our view - a sacred obligation not just for now, but for all time.

In today's interdependent world, a threat to one becomes a menace to all. And no state can defeat these challenges and threats alone.

We also have a real opportunity to join NATO.

Unlike the Afghans and Iraqis, the South Korean people solidly supported the American military presence, which was part of a United Nations operation.

NATO was constructed on the - with the reason, whether one believes it or not, that it was going to defend Western Europe from Russian assault. Once the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union was beginning to collapse, that reason was gone. So, first question: why does NATO exist?

NATO was built to counteract the Soviet Union in its day and time. At this point there is no threat coming from the Soviet Union, because there is no Soviet Union anymore. And where there was the Soviet Union once, there is now a number of countries, among them the new and democratic Russia.

NATO – No Action Talk Only

The only thing wrong with NATO is that we don't belong to it.

Just as we protect California, so shall we protect Japan.

I don’t want Italy to withdraw from the Atlantic Pact [NATO] … not only because our withdrawal would upset the international equilibrium. I feel safer …

NATO is indispensable to America's national security.

I want to reassure our NATO allies that if any of them get attacked, we'll be there to defend them.

It is axiomatic that the security of America and Europe are linked.

We're working with NATO, the longest military alliance in the history of the world, to really turn our attention to terrorism.

I see NATO as a good thing to have - I look at the Ukraine situation and I say, so Ukraine is a country that affects us far less than it affects other countries in NATO, and yet we are doing all of the lifting, they're not doing anything.

We're committed to NATO. From the conversations I've already had with President [Donald] Trump over the phone, he has shown to me his commitment to NATO as well.

In Romania, American forces have found a devoted NATO ally.

I think NATO is a Cold War product. I think NATO historically should have shut up shop in 1990 along with the Warsaw Pact; unfortunately, it didn't.