Washington D.C., United States 21 Mar. 2006

Speech by NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, at the National Press Club DE HOOP SCHEFFER: ... democratically elected president, elected parliament, millions of Afghan men and women going to the polls. We started in Kabul, and we have enlarged and expanded the mission to the west — to the north first, to the west, and now into the south in a more difficult and volatile environment; I say again, projecting stability. We hope by the coming summer we will have fully implemented the third phase of ISAF expansion. ISAF, the International Stability Assistance Force. And I hope that rather soon thereafter we'll enter into what we call phase four, and that will mean that there is a NATO responsibility for the whole of Afghanistan. Defending values at the Hindu Kush, at the same time showing solidarity and participating in the fight against terrorism. Kosovo: NATO's active and present in the Balkans. Do not forget that we started there after the horrible wars with 60,000 NATO forces. European Union has taken over in Bosnia-Herzegovina, NATO is very active still. We call that KFOR in Kosovo. And why is that important? And why is it important that we stay there? It is because status talks are going on, on the final status of the province of Kosovo. You know all about this. NATO is also showing solidarity there and NATO is protecting the Albanian Muslim majority and the Serb minority in Kosovo. NATO, when I talk about Afghanistan, is active in a Muslim country. NATO is reaching out to the Muslim world and it's necessary. It's necessary to have the dialogue, and we can have the dialogue also on the basis of operations and missions. NATO is patrolling the Mediterranean Sea; still an operation, naval operation based on Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, invoked, as you know, after the horrible events in New York at 9/11. It's an anti-terrorist operation, a naval operation, having a very good result. The Russian Federation will join that naval operation coming summer, which I think is an important moment to see our partner Russia joining that operation, and there is more and more interest from the nations surrounding the Mediterranean in giving in any way or the other support to that operation. Iraq, very much in the news today. DE HOOP SCHEFFER: What is NATO doing in Iraq? NATO is running a very important training mission in Iraq, and we are equipping the Iraqi armed forces. What is good to see, that is that you see Iraqi officers, in the Samarra bombing or elsewhere, trained by NATO, fighting the terrorists in their own country. So this training mission is essential. It is the priority of all the Iraqi governments, provisional government, governments we have had. And I'm sure that when there will be a new government in Iraq, that government will come again to NATO and tell NATO please, go on and train, go with your training mission, go on with your equipping. As far as I'm concerned, we will expand the training mission, because it is important for the Iraqi people and the Iraqi people have a right to have a well-trained and well-equipped armed force. We do more. You will certainly remember in this nation that NATO launched assistance after Hurricane Katrina hit the United States of America; a very important moment, because NATO and the NATO allies showed here again also what solidarity with its biggest ally and partner means. NATO launched a massive humanitarian operation, including elements of the so-called NATO Response Force when the earthquake happened in Pakistan; a 90-day operation, bringing in heavy engineering equipment, clearing roads, assisting with hospitals and medical facHities, setting up a command structure there, and using helicopters and a big airlift to get the essentials in to Pakistan. That is also what I call an element of projecting stability. Some time ago the secretary of the African Union called me and asked me, "Secretary General of NATO, could you please assist us, African Union, in flying our forces, our African forces, in and out of Darfur where the raping goes on, the killing goes on, the pillage goes on, the burning goes on?" And NATO allies said, "Yes, that's what we will do." And we are still doing this until this very day. And we are also training the military leadership of the African Union which is running the mission in Darfur, a subject which I know is very much on your president's and on your people's minds and on my mind as well. DE HOOP SCHEFFER: And I share the indignation. That's what NATO is doing. Had you asked me two and a half, three years ago if that would be in the cards, that NATO would be assisting the African Union, I would probably have answered you, that's a bit far-fetched. And see, NATO is doing it. What will happen in the future? A question very much on everybody's mind. I hope — I sincerely hope -- that the African Union at a certain stage will be able to transfer its mission to the United Nations and that we'll see the necessary decision-making machinery in the U.N., and that there will be a U.N. force in Darfur. And if then the United Nations would come to NATO and would ask NATO, you have done a good job -- and I know that's what the Africans think, we have done a good job, without having a heavy political footprint in Africa, but supporting them, enabling them do their work -- when that question would come, when there will be a U.N. force and a Security Council mandate for that U.N. force, I'm quite certain -- and I as secretary general consider it my responsibility in leading this alliance -- I'm quite certain and sure that NATO in the enabling sphere, not having forces on the ground, but in the enabling sphere, giving logistical support, giving support in airlift, doing more as far as training is concerned, I'm quite certain and sure that NATO will not say, "Ring the neighbor's doorbell, please." But we need, of course, the necessary mandate and the U.N. machinery to do that. NATO's operations and NATO's missions — many continents ranging from Afghanistan through the Balkans, the Mediterranean, through Pakistan, Darfur and last but not least, Iraq -- NATO needs of course the military tools to do this and, of course, the defense budgets to do this. And that is also part, of course, of my discussion with your president and the secretaries this morning. And that means that if I talk to Riga, if I talk about the Riga summit, that we have an important political element in that summit, to which I'll come in a moment, and we have an important military element. At that summit, NATO should be able to declare its NATO Response Force, its quick reaction force, fully operational and capable. DE HOOP SCHEFFER: Elements of that NRF, that NATO Response Force, were deployed into Pakistan, by the way, when we did the humanitarian operation. We need it well-funded and we need it fully operational. And we are working hard to get that done. On a second element, I think that NATO should have a good look -- and we are discussing that at the moment — is the balance right between what nations do, what nations finance, what nations own within NATO, and what is done collectively through NATO? We have a good example in AWACS, those radar aircraft, which are a combined effort, not of all NATO allies, but of a big number of NATO allies. Are we going to prevent the slide in the defense budgets? There are good exceptions — certainly in this nation. But restructuring your defense forces, bringing them up to date, being able to transport them from A to B, being able to sustain an operation, means that you must have the right forces, you must have the airlift capability, and you must be able to sustain your operations. On the political side of Riga, it is important to notice that there are.a number of nations knocking on NATO's door: "We would like to be members of the club. We think it's good what you're doing." And they are supporting us. Partners of NATO are supporting our operations and are supporting our missions. And we are having the European-Atlantic Partnership Council, where we talk to them in Brussels at the ambassadorial level once a month and at the political level when we have ministerial meetings. We have important partners like Ukraine, which has shown Euro- Atlantic ambitions. They are having elections on this coming Sunday, as you know. Georgia has shown clearly that it has ambitions for Euro-Atlantic integration. If I look at the Balkans, I see Macedonia, I see Croatia, I see Albania, having what we call the NATO Membership Action Plan, which means that they have already gone part of the road to NATO. DE HOOP SCHEFFER: But they should perform. NATO membership can never come automatic. It's performance based. They should perform. They should do what they do, what they have to do in a number of areas to reform, so that, finally, we hope that the decision could be taken to have them as members of NATO. But let's have no confusion here. If I say it's performance based, such a process is not directly linked to meetings NATO has and to summits NATO has. In brief, we have a full plate. We are a transformed alliance, but transformation is not an event; it is a process. So we will have to transform more and further. And I have given you a number of elements, as I have discussed them with the president of the United States and the secretaries this morning. That is my job, to seek a consensus within NATO for these ambitions. And do remember, and there I'll end, the catch words and the key words: NATO is a value-driven organization; it is projecting stability; and it is based on solidarity. Let me end here and listen to your questions and comments on any subject you might like to raise. Thank you so much.