For the first time, the defence ministers of Germany and France, Ursula von der Leyen and Jean-Yves Le Drian, opened the conference together. In her speech, von der Leyen focused on the challenges associated with the European refugee crisis. She stressed that helping refugees was a humanitarian obligation. The defence minister reported that the Bundeswehr participated, as part of a NATO mission in the eastern Mediterranean, in the fight against people smuggling and contributed to the integration of refugees in Germany by training refugees in civilian occupations. Von der Leyen also stressed that the influx of refugees had to be reduced as a whole, in order to help focus on those people in actual need of protection. In his part of the opening speech, Le Drian focused on the war in Syria and international terrorism. Against the backdrop of the recent terrorist attacks in France, he called for a strengthening of the fight against the 'Islamic State' terrorist militia. A ceasefire in Syria, he said, could only be reached if Russia put an end to its bombing attacks in the country.