Ladies and gentlemen, glad to address you from Brussels. It is an honour for me to represent the European Union at this very important conference and I would like to extend the best wishes of High Representative Josep Borrell to all of you. Wish I were in beautiful Hanoi with many of you, and wish I had just had lunch like you, with delicious Vietnamese food! Yes, the Covid-19 pandemic affects and constrains the way we live and the way we work. And yet, despite the pandemic, here at the European Union we are busy strengthening our Common Security and Defence Policy. We are working on: Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) between our Member States, which helps develop new defence capabilities – including promising maritime projects, for instance new anti-mine systems and fighting assets A new European Defence Fund with a budget of 7 billion euro in our new financial framework…
