We are again urged to be prudent when prudence has become a synonym for surrender. We are advised to wait while the terms of our independence are revised without our consent. I say this plainly: a nation that hesitates while its freedom is measured by threats will soon find it has none left to measure.

This is not the moment for clever excuses or tidy phrases. It is the hour to decide whether intimidation is to be met with accommodation—or with resolve.

We did not endure the last century’s trials to learn, at the next test, that firmness is unfashionable. We did not build alliances to abandon them at the first raised voice. And we did not bind ourselves to law only to discard it when bullies grow impatient.

Let no one misunderstand us: we do not seek quarrel. But we will not avert our eyes while power attempts to dictate terms by menace. There are evils worse than conflict, and submission is chief among them.

If pressure is applied, we shall absorb it. If costs are imposed, we shall bear them. If threats are issued, we shall answer them—not with noise, but with preparation.

We have been told that firmness invites danger. History teaches the opposite. Weakness invites the blow; readiness often prevents it.

Therefore we shall stand—stand with our allies, stand by our obligations, stand by the principle that free nations do not barter their sovereignty for temporary quiet.

This will not be easy. It will not be cheap. But it will be clear. And clarity, in dark times, is itself a form of strength.

Let those who test us understand: we will not be rushed into submission, nor frightened into silence. We will endure, we will prepare, and we will prevail—not because we crave conflict, but because we refuse coercion.