A few weeks ago, not long after becoming Secretary  as State, I spoke directly to the American people.  

I said that my number one job is to ensure that  America's foreign policy delivers for them –  

that it makes their lives more secure, creates  opportunities for their families and communities,  

and addresses the global challenges that  are increasingly shaping their futures.

And I said that a key way we will  deliver for the American people  

is by reaffirming and revitalizing our  alliances and partnerships around the world.

That's why I've come to Brussels this week. I'm  speaking to you now from the headquarters of NATO,  

the treaty alliance that has defended the  security and freedom of Europe and North America  

for nearly 75 years.

Now, Americans disagree about a few things, but  the value of alliances and partnerships is not one  

of them. According to a recent poll by the Chicago  Council on Global Affairs, nine in ten Americans  

believe that maintaining our alliances is the most  effective way to achieve our foreign policy goals.  

Nine in ten. It's not hard to see why. They look  at the threats we face – like climate change,  

the COVID-19 pandemic, economic inequality,  an increasingly assertive China – and they  

know that the United States is much  better off tackling them with partners,  

rather than trying to do it alone.  And all our allies can say the same.

Now, the world looks very  different than it did decades ago,  

when we forged many of our alliances – or  even than it did four years ago. Threats  

have multiplied. Competition has stiffened.  Power dynamics have shifted. Trust in our  

alliances has been shaken – trust in each other  and trust in the strength of our commitments.  

Across and even within our alliances, we don't  always see eye to eye on the threats we face  

or how to confront them. Our shared  values of democracy and human rights  

are being challenged – not only from  outside our countries, but from within.  

And new threats are outpacing our efforts to build  the capabilities we need to defend against them.

Yet none of this changes the fact that we need  alliances – now as much and maybe even more  

than ever. The challenge we face is to adapt  and renew those alliances so that they can  

meet today's threats, and continue to deliver  for our people now, as they have in the past.

Today, I'll make the case for how to do that.

I'll first define the common threats we face.  Next, I'll speak to what we need to do to reaffirm  

and revitalize our alliances so they  cannot only defend against these threats,  

but also protect our shared interests and  values. And finally, I'll set out what our  

allies can expect from the United States,  and what we in turn expect of our allies.

It starts by identifying the most  urgent threats we face today.

As I see it, there are three categories.

The first is military threats from other  countries. We see this in China's efforts  

to threaten freedom of navigation,  to militarize the South China Sea, to  

target countries throughout the Indo-Pacific with  increasingly sophisticated military capabilities.  

Beijing's military ambitions are growing  by the year. Coupled with the realities  

of modern technology, the challenges that once  seemed half a world away are no longer remote.  

We also see this in the new military capabilities  and strategies Russia has developed to challenge  

our alliances and undermine the rules-based  order that ensures our collective security.  

These include Moscow's aggression in  eastern Ukraine; its build-up of forces,  

large-scale exercises, and acts of  intimidation in the Baltic and Black Sea,  

the Eastern Mediterranean, the High North;  its modernization of nuclear capabilities;  

and its use of chemical weapons  against critics on NATO soil.

And beyond China and Russia, regional  actors like Iran and North Korea are  

pursuing nuclear and missile capabilities  that threaten U.S. allies and partners.

The second category is non-military threats from  many of these same countries – the technological,  

economic, and informational tactics that  threaten our security. These include the  

use of disinformation campaigns and weaponized  corruption to fuel distrust in our democracies,  

and cyberattacks that target our critical  infrastructure and steal intellectual property.  

From China's blatant economic coercion of  Australia, to Russia's use of disinformation  

to erode confidence in elections and in  safe, effective vaccines – these aggressive  

actions threaten not only our individual  countries, but also our shared values.

And the third category are global  crises like climate change and COVID-19.  

These aren't threats posed by specific  governments – they're global. Higher temperatures,  

rising sea levels, and more intense storms  affect everything from military readiness  

to human migration patterns to food security. As  the COVID-19 pandemic has made abundantly clear,  

our health security is intertwined,  and only as strong as our weakest link.

We also face global terrorism, which  often cuts across these categories.  

While we have significantly degraded the  threat of terrorism, it remains significant,  

especially when groups and individuals enjoy  support and safe harbor from governments,  

or find havens in ungoverned spaces.

Now, many of these threats weren't front  of mind when our alliances were formed.  

Some didn't exist at all. But that's  the great strength of our alliances:  

they were built to adapt – to keep  evolving as new challenges emerge.

So here's how we can adapt them today.

First, we must recommit to our alliances –  and to the shared values that sustain them.

When America was attacked on 9/11, our NATO Allies  immediately and unanimously invoked Article 5 – an  

attack on one is an attack on all. This is still  the only time in history that Article 5 has been  

invoked – and it was to protect the United States.  We will never forget it. And our allies can expect  

the same from us today. As President Biden said  to the Munich Security Conference last month,  

you have our unshakable vow: America is  fully committed to NATO, including Article 5.

That's a vow I reaffirmed to  our allies at NATO this week.

And Secretary of Defense Austin and I expressed  that same commitment to our allies in Japan and  

South Korea, where we recently concluded  negotiations on burden-sharing agreements  

that will help maintain peace and prosperity  in a free, open Indo-Pacific for years to come.

Our alliances were created to defend shared  values. So renewing our commitment requires  

reaffirming those values and the foundation  of international relations we vow to protect:  

a free and open rules-based order. We've  got our work cut out for us on this front.  

Virtually every democracy in the  world is dealing with challenges  

right now – including the United States. We're  up against deep inequities, systemic racism,  

political polarization, each of which  makes our democracy less resilient.

It's on all of us to show what has always been  the system's greatest strength – our citizens,  

and the faith we put in them to  improve our societies and institutions.  

The biggest threat to our democracies isn't  that they are flawed – they've always been.  

The greatest threat is that our citizens lose  trust in democracy's ability to fix those  

flaws – to follow through on our founding  commitment to form a more perfect union.  

What separates democracies from autocracies is our  ability and willingness to openly confront our own  

shortcomings – not to pretend they don't exist,  to ignore them, to sweep them under the rug.

We also have to hold one another to the values  at the heart of our alliances – to confront the  

democratic recession around the world. We all  must speak up when countries backslide from  

democracy and human rights. That's what  democracies do: we deal with challenges  

out in the open. We also must help those countries  move back in the right direction, by strengthening  

the guardrails of democracy – like a free and  independent press; anti-corruption bodies;  

and institutions that protect the rule of law.

This, too, is what it means  to recommit to our alliances.

Second, we must modernize our alliances.

That begins with improving our  military capabilities and readiness,  

to ensure that we maintain a strong  and credible military deterrent.  

For example, we must ensure that our  strategic nuclear deterrent remains safe,  

secure, and effective, particularly  in light of Russia's modernization.  

That's critical to keeping our commitments to our  allies strong and credible, even as we take steps  

to reduce further the role of nuclear weapons  in our national security. We'll also work with  

our Indo-Pacific allies to address a wide range  of complex security challenges in the region.

We've got to broaden our capacity to address  threats in the economic, technological,  

and informational realms. And we can't just play  defense – we have to take an affirmative approach.

We've seen how Beijing and Moscow are  increasingly using access to critical resources,  

markets, and technologies to pressure  our allies and drive wedges between us.  

Of course, each state's decision is its own,  but we must not separate economic coercion  

from other forms of pressure.  When one of us is coerced,  

we should respond as allies and work together to  reduce our vulnerability by ensuring our economies  

are more integrated with each other than they are  with our principal competitors. That means teaming  

up to develop cutting-edge innovations; ensuring  that our sensitive supply chains are resilient;  

setting the norms and standards that  will govern emerging technologies;  

imposing costs on those who break the  rules. History tells us that, when we do,  

more countries will opt for the open and  secure spaces that we build together.

And we must expand our ability to address  transnational threats – especially climate change  

and pandemics like COVID-19. These challenges are  so vast – and the measures needed to address them  

so far-reaching – that tackling them  must be integrated into virtually  

everything we do and coordinated  across a wide array of partners.

Third, we must weave together broader  coalitions of allies and partners.

Too often, we put our alliances  and partnerships into siloes.  

We don't do enough to bring them together. But  we should. Because the more that countries with  

complementary strengths and capacities can  unite to achieve shared goals, the better.

That's the idea behind the group of countries  we call “the Quad” – Australia, India, Japan,  

and the United States. President Biden  recently hosted the Quad's first ever  

leader-level summit. We share a vision of a free,  open, inclusive, and healthy Indo-Pacific region,  

unconstrained by coercion, and anchored by  democratic values. We make a good team. And our  

cooperation will strengthen parallel efforts to  ensure security in the East and South China Seas  

and to expand safe, affordable, and effective  vaccine production and equitable access.

Deepening NATO-EU cooperation is another  example. Greater collaboration on issues  

like cybersecurity, energy security, health  security, and safeguarding critical infrastructure  

will help build our resilience and preparedness  

against present-day threats. It also makes  us stronger when we stand up for our values.

Consider the sanctions that the United States just  imposed in unity with Canada, the European Union,  

and the United Kingdom on individuals engaged in  the atrocities being committed against Uyghurs  

in Xinjiang. The retaliatory sanctions that China  then imposed on members of the European Parliament  

and the EU's Political and Security  Committee, academics, and think tanks  

make it all the more important that we stand  firm and stand together, or else risk sending  

the message that bullying works. This includes  sticking by our non-NATO partners in Europe,  

many of whom continue to stand firm  with us on the alliance's front lines.

And we'll look beyond national governments to the  private sector, civil society, philanthropies,  

cities, and universities. Diverse, broad-based  cooperation is essential to protecting the global  

commons – those resources that all people  have a right to share and benefit from,  

and which are now being encroached  upon by our adversaries.

Consider 5G, where China's technology brings  serious surveillance risks. We should bring  

together tech companies from countries like  Sweden, Finland, South Korea, the United States,  

and use public and private investment to  foster a secure and trustworthy alternative.  

We've spent decades developing relationships  with countries that share our values  

in every part of the globe. This is why we  invested so much in these partnerships – so  

we can come together in innovative ways  to solve new challenges like these.

To any who doubt what we can achieve  when we work together in this way,  

I'd point to the unprecedented  cooperation by scientists  

who shared hundreds of viral genome sequences  across institutions and borders – research  

that was indispensable to the discovery of  several safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines,  

in record time. The very first of those vaccines  to be approved by the World Health Organization  

was pioneered by a doctor born in Turkey, who  grew up in Germany, and who co-founded a European  

pharmaceutical company that partnered with an  American counterpart to produce the vaccine.

Now, America's allies and partners may be  listening to my words today and saying,  

“We need to know what we can expect  from you.” Because as I said,  

trust has been shaken to some  degree over the past few years.

So let me be clear about what the United  States can promise to our allies and partners.

When our allies shoulder their  fair share of the burden,  

they'll reasonably expect to have a fair say  in making decisions. We will honor that. That  

begins with consulting our friends early and  often. This is a key part of the foreign policy  

in the Biden-Harris administration, and it's a  change our allies already see and appreciate.

We'll treat the efforts of our allies to develop  greater capacity as an asset, not a threat.  

Stronger allies make for stronger alliances.  

And as the U.S. develops our capacities to  address the threats I've outlined today,  

we'll make sure they remain compatible with  our alliances – and that they contribute to  

strengthening our allies' security. We'll  ask the same of our allies in return.

The United States won't force our  allies into a “us or them” choice  

with China. There's no question that Beijing's  coercive behavior threatens our collective  

security and prosperity, and that it is actively  working to undercut the rules of the international  

system and the values we and our allies share. But  that doesn't mean that countries can't work with  

China where possible, for example, on challenges  like climate change and health security.