Bart 
De Wever

*** This speech was delivered on 3 June 2026. Only the spoken word counts.***

Dear General Grynkewich,
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Ever since I was a child, I have been rather competitive. 
That will probably not surprise you coming from a politician.
It also meant that I paid little attention to activities at which I was not particularly good. 
At school, for instance, physical education was certainly not my strongest subject.
But whenever I saw an opportunity to succeed, I seized it with both hands.
Snooker was one such opportunity.
As a teenager, I often played snooker with friends. 
At first, I was not very good at it.
So, behind their backs, I started reading about the game and practising on my own.
I was fascinated by the idea of beating them and seeing their astonishment at my sudden improvement.
Of course, being a teenager, the fun quickly disappeared. We found other obsessions.
And since then, I have exchanged snooker for another – and much more important – game.
Why am I telling you this?
Because I was reminded of a small piece of equipment used to arrange the red balls on a snooker table.
It is called a rack, or a triangle. 
It is used to arrange the balls neatly and tightly together. 
As long as the balls are held together in that triangle, they form a solid and compact group.
Once the triangle is removed, it takes only a single shot to scatter them across the table.
For me, NATO is that triangle.
*
Ladies and gentlemen,
I do not know whether there is a snooker table somewhere on these premises.
But I do know that the idea behind that triangle is nowhere more visible than here.
Vigilia pretium libertatis is the motto of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe.
“Vigilance is the price of freedom.”
There is a tendency nowadays to be somewhat dismissive of mottos like these.
They sound out of fashion.
I, on the contrary, am rather fond of them – especially when they are written in Latin.
Because they teach us something. They’re like a message from the past.
And this motto could hardly be more relevant.
Our predecessors chose it wisely, because it poses a question that every generation must answer anew:
Are we willing to pay the price of freedom?
For a long time, particularly in Europe, the answer was: not really.
Freedom was taken for granted.
We have since been reminded that freedom is anything but self-evident.
It comes at a price.
The price of vigilance.
Belgium is a clear example of how this change in mindset has taken shape.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Belgium spent more than three per cent of its GDP on defence.
By the early 2000s, that figure had fallen below one per cent.
Last year, after a major effort, we reached the NATO defence-spending guideline of 2 per cent.
We are not among the Alliance’s frontrunners.
But we are catching up.
Today, our answer is clear.
We are willing to pay the price of freedom.
Because Belgium believes in NATO.
NATO remains the indispensable cornerstone of our security.
For more than seventy years, it has preserved peace and stability in Europe.
It has promoted stability and prosperity around the world.
Recent polling shows eight out of ten Belgians support NATO. 
That is why we are assuming our responsibilities within the Alliance.
*
Security requires trust and cooperation.
But security also requires real investment.
That is precisely why we are gathered here today.
SHAPE has been present in Belgium for almost sixty years.
I have great admiration for Charles de Gaulle.
He was a visionary general and a strong president.
He did so much for France and for Europe.
But from a Belgian perspective, the arrival of SHAPE must surely rank among his finest gifts.
We are immensely proud to host both NATO and SHAPE.
At the same time, we had to acknowledge that, over the years, the housing provided for SHAPE personnel and their families no longer felt like the home it should have been.
When they arrived here in 1967, prefabricated homes were erected in great haste to accommodate them.
Despite careful maintenance and renovations carried out in the 1980s, these residences no longer met the standards that the men and women serving our common security deserve.
That is why the decision was taken to replace them entirely.
The project was not an easy one, as the site had to remain fully operational throughout the works.
The result is a modern residential community where people can live, work and raise their families.
I would like to thank everyone who contributed to making this project a reality.
Because this is not merely about buildings.
It is about the people who live in them.
Men and women who serve far from their home countries in support of our shared security.
As host nation, we have a duty to ensure that they and their families can live here in the best possible conditions.
That is part of our credibility as a reliable Ally.
And that is why I am particularly pleased that we can officially inaugurate this new SHAPE Village today.
*
Ladies and gentlemen,
The best guarantee – and indeed the only guarantee – of the security of our nations is a strong NATO Alliance.
The lesson of the triangle is simple.
Alone, the balls are vulnerable.
They can be scattered with a single shot.
But together, they are strong.
That is why we must remain vigilant.
And that is why SHAPE will always have a home here in Casteau.
Belgium will always be at the heart of NATO.
We won’t be snookered.
Thank you.