UK PM Sunak on Ukraine Support, Brexit

First of all, it's clear that the security guarantees, the architecture that was in place before this war, has failed Ukraine. That's just a statement of fact. Ukraine had received assurances when it gave weapons up. Russia has continually violated, whether it's human rights treaties or indeed arms control treaties. So what happened before has not worked. So we're here about that. And now our job is to look forward and say what's the right thing going forward.

Now, as I mentioned, Jens Stoltenberger said NATO, well Ukraine will be a member of NATO. But between now and then, what I think we need to work on are providing Ukraine with the means to win the war right now. And that means very specifically artillery, long range weapons, armored vehicles, air defense. That's the most critical thing. What we can also do is make sure that we're training Ukraine on NATO standard equipment. That's what we're doing when it comes to aircraft with their guns. But I think what we do need to do is think about the future of how we protect Ukraine security.

And we need to have that conversation with our allies and talk about the longer term provision of supporting Ukraine. And that's the conversation that I think we should start having because the Vilnius summit is a good place to conclude that. So this year, so the assurances would come this year. I wonder, there has been a lot of debate. You talked about the fighter jets. There has been a lot of debate here about the ammunition, the risk that they may not have enough ammunition, but also the long range missiles. There's concern that perhaps one of the targets would be Crimea.

Under your watch as you answer, would you approve of long range missiles that could hit Crimea? I think the most important thing here to recognize is, it actually starts with NATO. What is NATO? NATO is a defensive alliance. That's the first thing to recall. What is Ukraine doing? Ukraine is trying to defend itself. It is suffering, unprovoked aggression. It's territorial integrity. It's sovereignty has been violated.

It's people are being killed. And it has every right to defend itself. And that's what we should be doing. And that's the support that we collectively in this room are providing. Quickly, there are things that Ukraine needs to gain that decisive advantage on the battlefield. That's why the provision of heavy tanks was so important. So our air defense is absolutely critical.

You're right to mention artillery. And longer range weapons also help. Now, those are all the things that will allow Ukraine to defend itself and repel Russian aggression. And indeed, yes, to have a counter offensive that moves Russia outside of its own country. I think that's entirely reasonable. And we should be fully behind Ukraine in that ambition and want that ambition to succeed. And for them, the entire country means Crimea, as you know, very well.

In your speech, there was a lot of provider in the sense of Ukraine has to win the war. And Russia has to be proven wrong. Vladimir Putin has to lose this war. Some would say, and you make it clear, you still believe the UK is a big geopolitical agent. Zelensky obviously went to London. He sees value in the UK. But some here would believe to really be the strong geopolitical agent, you need to solve the pending issues that you have with the EU.

I know, you probably know this question is coming. There's a frenzy of reports that you do have a deal over the Northern Irish Protocol that could come Monday potentially. Do you have this a come Monday? And I wonder beyond that, does it reflect your wish that you want to have a normal working relationship with your European allies? So lots of things in there to unpack. I think that the first thing to say, when it comes to the issue of the Northern Ireland Protocol, there are real issues that need resolving. The way that the protocol has been implemented, it's causing very real challenges for families, for people, for businesses on the ground. Very practical difficulties and they need to be resolved. But then also there's an issue of the democratic deficit that sits at the heart of the protocol as it's currently constructed.

Now, those are the things that we need to resolve. And I'm working very hard together with my ministerial colleagues, foreign secretaries in the audience, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. You know, we are working very closely together. We're engaging in the conversations with the European Union. Next week potentially? All the time and we have been for a while. But what I'd say is there is still work to do. I think there is still work to do.

There are still challenges to work through. We have not resolved all these issues. No, there isn't a deal that has been done. There is an understanding of what needs to be done. It's the eye outlined and James was in Brussels yesterday. I've been in Northern Ireland talking to parties there about the things that we need to fix. We're working through those.

We're working through them hard and we will work through them intensely with the EU. But we are by no means done. There is no deal that is done. There is work to do and that's what we will start about doing.

Maria Tadeo, Munich Security Conference, Rishi Sunak, uk prime minister