Remarks

by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at the press conference with US Vice President Biden

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Let me first also here in your midst very warmly welcome the Vice-President of the United States of America in our midst at NATO.

It goes without saying that it was highly appreciated and is highly appreciated by my colleagues on the North Atlantic Council and myself that the Vice-President of the United States of America has taken the trouble to come to NATO, to come to Brussels. And let me quote Vice-President Biden's first sentence to me when we had the bilateral meeting early this morning and that was, and I quote, "I really did come here to listen." And I can tell you the Vice-President of course had something to say, but he listened. And I think the input being provided by the Allies, as we heard the Vice-President say, is important of course to shape further United States' thinking in the review, the important review which is going on on Afghanistan, Pakistan and I think the wider region.

So this is what NATO is for. It is... consult each other on subjects we all consider important and it is in that vein I think that we had a very productive meeting of the North Atlantic Council. I will leave it to Vice-President Biden to tell you about the highlights. Let me mention a few things before I hand over the floor to the Vice-President.

Vice-President Biden gave us food for thought, but as I said in my summing up, he also gave us food for action because a review is important, but in this very important year in Afghanistan with elections coming up, with a NATO Summit coming up, with the first presence of President Obama in Europe on a NATO Summit, it is also important that this Alliance delivers in the short term. And delivering is important; supporting the elections; delivering more for training and supporting and mentoring the Afghan National Army; delivering on a trust fund to finance the sustainability of the Afghan National Army; seeing, as I said last week, that there is legitimacy in Afghanistan between the 22nd of May and 20th of August. In other words food for thought, yes, but food for action as well.

I am not going to mention all the elements we discussed in the North Atlantic Council because I would leave the floor and the honour of doing this to our highly respected guests. Vice-President Biden, with pleasure over to you.