One of the things that i loved about the l. A. Times festival of books way before i was our book editor, when i was driving and showing up early in the morning is that we have all of those panels with four authors who are novelists or authors who are people that dont get to see each other. There is a moment they have saying something they are coming up with at that instant and its that exchange of ideas that can only happen in the moment. Watch our live coverage of Los Angeles Times festival of books all weekend april 22nd and 23rd on cspan 2. This weekend on q and a. I really learned the value and discourse. So the way i interact with people who i dont necessarily agree with has completely changed. High School Students attending the Senate Youth Program where they shared their thoughts about government and politics. I can safely say at the end of this week im sure im uncertain of what i believe and i think thats a good thing. Hard work and fair chance for everybody to reach the top will turn out to be not an equal result but equal chance for everybody. Sunday 8 00 eastern on cspans q and a. A twoday visit included a visit with President Trump at the white house. Yes he spoke to students at George Washington university. This is an hour. [ applause ] good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Let me say im steven knapp. If you have an opportunity to look outside it affording a pretty broad view of our nations capital. It affords an excellent view of our monument, the Washington Monument right over here. Thats how we like to think of that. This location is rather extraordinary here. If you drew a line from the state department to white house and another line from the reserve it would intersect where we are sitting now. It tells you about the importance of this location and affords us an opportunity to discuss global significance. Im delighted to welcome you to todays discussion, a conversation with his exlen si who is the secretary general. We are honored he could make time during his brief visit to washington to come to our campus. Let me knowledge his exlen si who is ambassador and his excellencey. We also have with us former governor of Commonwealth James gi gillmore. I would like to welcome the honorable curt vulkur i mentioned that because thats where some of the founding discussions and negotiations for the creation took place. We have a pretty intimate historical connection right here. Other connection of George Washington university include addition to his role a former Elliot School alumni include the late general who was nato preem from 1993 to 1997 and the honorable rose who began her service as deputy secretary general becoming the first woman to hold that post. He began his career as state secretary of the environment after earning his post graduate degree. He was first elected to his countrys parliment in 1993 and served in a variety of leadership roles. He served as Prime Minister from 2000 to 2001 and again from 2005 to 2013. He lead a transformation and increased norways spending in the alliance and regularly committed norwegian troop to nato Peace Keeping missions. He has shared the United NationsHigh Level Panel and the high level adviser group. He also served as special envoy on climate change. As secretary general of nato he has transatlantic and strengthened ties to secure peace and Economic Development in europe and beyond. Please welcome him. Thank you so much thank you so much for those kind words. Thank you to all of us for having me here today. It is a great pleasure to meet you all because to be here today is to be one of the most recognized constitutions when it comes to educating leaders especially within diplomacy. As you mentioned in nato we have several people who have their education who are graduates from the school or work very closely with secretary general. I am also delighted to be here because originally my plan was to not become but to become an academic. My plan was to do Research Within economics and as i start to teach at the university in economics. I did that for two years. So if you fail as academic you can become Prime Minister of secretary of nato. I will be very brief. The idea is that we will have an introduction. I will really share with you some very brief remarks or reflir reflections and then we will be available for questions. What what i will say is nato is the most successful in history for two reasons. Reason number one is that we have been loyal to our core value, our core task ever since we were founded back in 1949. We have promise to protect each other one for all. All for one. If one ally is attacked it will trigger response. This strength of the unity has been so the unity, one for all, all for one is the main reason why nato has been such a successful alliance. The other reason is that nato has been able to adapt to change. So when the world is changing nato is changing. For almost 40 years nato was focused on one actually only one task, and that was to deter the soviet union from attacking western europe. We helped ending two ethnic wars. We helped fight terrorism in afghanistan and we did what we did in nato land which is called Crisis Management for beyond our borders. We did it from the beginning of the 90s until today. Now nato has to change again. We have to manage crisis yopd our borders in afghanistan. It is especially the case after illegal illegal and the use of force against russias assorted behavior especially against the ukraine. We are increasing the eastern part of the lines and we are deploying forces to poland and also in the southeast of the alliance. So we are adapting once again to respond to more challenging and difficult security alignment. Actually we strongly believe as long as nato is united, as long as nato is firm and predictable then we can and should engage in political dialogue with russia because russia is our neighbor. Russia is here to stay. We are to manage the relationship with russia in the best possible way. It is in our and russias interest to reduce tensions and to find better ways to live together. This is the main issue i hope to discuss with you in the coming hours. Thank you so much. Im ready take your questions. Thank you. [ applause ] my name is curt. I am for international leadership. Im a very proud alumnus of the Elliot School even before it was called the Elliot School, longer ago than i plan to state publicly. It has been a great privilege to have gone here and have a career billed upon that. Secretary general, i will open up the question and answer with you. Well bunch them a few at a time. I want to give priority to students here at the Elliot School. Think about what you want to ask and get your hands up early. Secretary general, we have heard from President Trump and this administration both during the course of the president ial campaign and since then many many things. Nato is not obsolete, they need to pay their share. Well decide whether we defend them based on whether they have paid their dues or not. We talk about how much germany owes the United States. Nato needs to reform, needs to deal with counter terrorism. We want to Work Together with russia. Rush thsia is a threat. Just about everything you can imagine. You can chart this and say theres been a movement. You have had a lot of interaction. I know you have been on the phone with him. You had a meeting with him in washington. You met with secretary mattis. You met with secretary tillerson. I know you met Vice President pence as well. The message to me has been very consistent in all of my interactions, in all of my different conversations and also in his security and his whole team. The message has been all of the time that they are strongly committed to nato, that they see the value of their people so when for instance President Trump and secretary mattis understand the importance of nato have to do more. Yes, i welcome that. When they stress the importance i welcome them. We need it in nato. We need more nato allies invest more in defense. We have to remember some allies, they spend it on the United States, of course but united kingdom. They have a target and this year romania declared they will meet the target into the 17th and declared they will meet 2 target next year. So nato is adapting, is changing. The answer is they are going to absolutely 2 and beyond. You articulated support for nato. Part of the question is are allies willing to support nato . Do you see them doing that . Yes. What we have seen is that of many years of decline across europe and canada we actually saw that in 2016 we saw cig n e significant increase. We saw an increase in 3. 8 in terms or 10 billion u. S. Dollars. That is a significant increase and amount for defense. We still have a long way to go and much remains, but at least the europeans have started to move in the right direction. As i said, some allies have a guideline and others have declared they would meet it this year or next year. So what we discussed what i discussed yesterday was how can we make sure we keep optimum momentum, that we are able to see this development. What we promised in ways in 2014 when we made it was to stop the cuts, gradual increase and move towards spending 2 within a decade and we are starting to do that. My top priority has been to focus on defense spending because of this important strength. One more thing and that is that what we call a defense investment pledge is not only about spending. It is about spending more but also spending better to be more efficient and work closer together. It is about the capabilities we need and about contributions to nato operations. So very often we speak that the pledge is about cash capabilities and contributions. All of that is important at the same time. In your remarks you said nato want to deal with deterrence and defense but also to have dialogue and outreach towards russia and to try to Work Together with russia. Does russia want to Work Together with nato . Yes and no. We see it is difficult to accomplish any kind of understanding or real dialogue. We have to continue to work for dialogue. It is hard to predict how it will be in the future but im absolutely certain we have to do what we can do diffuse the tensions and avoid a new cold war and thats why we pursued this approach to russia, deterrence and defense and dialogue. This also something which is very much based on my own experience because norway we have a land border and we have a border in the sea where thats lot of oil and gas and so on. I was able to develop a pragmatic working relationship with the soviet union and later on with russia on issues like energy, like border as we agreed on the border and environment and military issues where you have some search and rescue exercises together. It is regular contact with armed forces or Russian Armed forces. This corporation to the north takes place not despite nato norways membership because our membership provides the strength, the platform to engage with russia. I strongly believe that we should not be afraid of talking to russians. They are there to stay. They are our biggest neighbor and it will help all of us if we are able to improve the relationship with russia. And final question from me and then well pull from the audience in particular. Did you and the president discuss ukraine and how does ukraine fit in west russia relations and giving ukraine and of course we are concerned about the situation in especially Eastern Ukraine and the fact that russia illegally annexed crimea. It is the first time one country annexed apart another country by force. So this is of course cease for ukraine and also which has been so important for the peace and stability in europe. So nato and United States provide their defense structures, the armed forces, the defense institutions, train them. We have different trust funds for cyber, for command and control, so nato, nato allies provide Political Support to ukraine. At the same time, i think its important to understand this is not only about ukraine. Because nato has the main reason why we have implemented this strong reinforcement to our collective defense, the response force, deploying forces in eastern part of the alliance is is because of ukraine. The illegal annexation of crimea and support of russia, is the main reason why nato has strengthen their collective defense in europe. Making sure that no nato ally experiences anything like what ukraine has experienced with russia since 2014. Is. Thats very important for the nato allies, for ukraine itself . Of course, it is important for ukraine itself that we provide support, that we help them with modernizing the law forces fighting corruption, helping them in command, control, cyber, many other areas where we work with ukraine. And allies also provide training of ukrainian forces. But the way to solve the problem, and the crisis in ukraine, is through negotiations, through political solution and the only basis for that is the minsk agreements. Were calling on russia to use all its influence on the separatists in Eastern Ukraine to make sure that they fully respect the minsk agreements, meaning respect a cease fire, which is not respected now. Withdraw all heavy weapons from the contact line and allow the International Observers to do their work, to observe the implementation of the cease fire. Thats a precondition for any effective minsk agreements. Students, i see in the third row in the center. We can take this one here. Given the current euro skeptic and anteglobealist governments in poland and hunga hungary, the elections in france, do you think there are any internal threats to nato. Were going to take a couple. There is another one in the center soocenter aisle. Since the end of the cold war, what do you believe has been natos biggest mistake in its interactions with russia and what do you believe has been natos biggest success in its interactions with russia. Were stay in the center aisle for now, in the very back. Thank you for coming to speak here. I had a question in regards to how nato is going to respond in syria. You spoke about successful interventions in the balkans as well as afghanistan. Given in mind the nato bombing in libya, how do you plan to respond to the chemical weapons in syria. You can see why students in this school go places. Its more difficult, the questions i get from the journalists, so this is no. Internal threats and challenges, i think its important to remember that nato is the alliance of 28 democracies. In democracies, there are different political views, some are against nato, some are for nato. In my country, some politicians have been against nato the whole time. When i was a young i was also against nato. So but the reason why i say it is we should not be afraid of open debate. We should not be afraid of people having different opinions, even criticizing us. Its wrong, but i think thats part of living in democratic societies. Yes, there are political parties, organizations, in nato countries, which are critical, either towards nato as an institution, or at least critical towards part of what we do. And to be honest, im not afraid of that. I think that nato has proven again and again that it is a strength that we have open debate, different views, and that we are developing our thinking by confronting different views. And then improving our understanding of many different and difficult issues and policies. And nato has proven again and again that despite differences, despite the fact that we elect some conservatives or some liberals or some social democrats, people republicans or democrats what it is. Coming from different parties with different views, they have always been able to agree on natos core task. And that is that we are safer together than alone. And as long as we stand together and protect each other, we prevent conflict. The best way to prevent conflict is to send a very clear message to any potential adversary that were so strong. So its now chance, if you try to attack one ally because the alliance will be there. Coming from a small country like norway, the strength we feel being a neighborhood to russia by having the Alliance Supporting us, is the reason why, also, europeans feel as safe as they do. So yeah, my answer is that we should not be afraid of the fact that there are different Political Tendencies in the European Countries because thats part of a natural development, debate process in democratic societies. The next question was russia, greatest mistakes and greatest benefits. First of all, im not that kind of person, you know, i have a list on my where i remember my greatest mistakes. I forget them. No, but i think its im not able to point at one thing which was natos greatest mistake. Again, its partly linked to the first question. Because we are an alliance of 28 democracies, sometimes it takes long time to make decisions, sometimes its not clear, but that very often reflects the fact that in a democratic constitutional to 28 democracies, its not always the perfect solutions, but they are sustainable, theyre very strong because theyre anchored in 28 nations. I think that the biggest success is just the fact that we have been able to prevent war. That we have been able to not only prevent war with 12 and 16 members which was what we had in the beginning. Now actually 28 members, where former countries in the warsaw pact now join nato. Europe was traditionally the middle east of the world. We were fighting and fighting each other for centuries. And then since the Second World War there has been no conflict involving nato countries or attacking nato countries. Then the response to syria. Syria is a very difficult. Very dangerous