Secretary General's Council Welcoming
     Remarks, Visit by Maltese Deputy Prime
    Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs,
    Professor Guido de Marco, Wednesday, 26th
                  April 1995


          The Alliance is pleased and honoured
to welcome today Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malta, Professor
Guido de Marco.

          Minister de Marco, we are certainly
delighted to have you here with us today.  By
joining the Partnership for Peace, Malta is
entering a closer relationship with this Alliance. 
It is our hope and our desire that this new
relationship will contribute substantively to
security and stability in Europe.

          Malta is the 26th Partner country
subscribing to Partnership for Peace.  Your
joining underscores once again that security
today is as much about partnership and
cooperation as it is about national defence.  We
therefore welcome Malta's decision to join the
Partnership as a sign that it seeks to contribute
actively to the building of security and stability
in Europe and indeed in the entire Euro-Atlantic
region.

          Like some other countries which have
joined the Partnership, Malta has debated first
whether such a step would possibly compromise
certain longstanding national principles
concerning security.  Your presence here today,
Minister de Marco, indicates such fears have
been laid to rest.  Let me use this opportunity to
stress once again that Partnership for Peace does
not imply a commitment to join or participate in
a military alliance.  For some countries, active
participation in PfP can be part of the
evolutionary process leading to NATO's
enlargement.  But for others, such as Malta, it
provides an opportunity for practical military
and defence-related cooperation in a framework
flexible enough to accommodate countries with
widely different security traditions.

          Partnership for Peace is a forward-
looking programme.  It is intended not only to
help overcome the remnants of the decade-long
division of Europe and prevent such divisions
occurring again.  The Partnership also looks to a
brighter future.  It seeks to engage countries of
the Euro-Atlantic community in a network of
cooperative political and military relations.

          For our part, we look forward to
building a new relationship with you -- one
which will be of mutual benefit in developing
common approaches to peacekeeping.  The next
step will be to agree on an individual
Programme of activities for Malta which suits
your needs and accords with the goals of the
Partnership.  In this we very much hope that
Malta will take full advantage of the opportunity
the Partnership provides in joint training,
planning and exercising for multilateral
peacekeeping.

          Minister de Marco, again welcome to
NATO, and I now give you the floor.

[After Minister de Marco's intervention]

          Thank you, Mr. Minister.  We will
now proceed to signing the Partnership for
Peace Framework Document.