Joint press statements

AYMAN SAFADI [Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan]: We thank you.  We thank you for the very high level of partnership that we have and we are keen on Jordan to continue to develop that relationship because we believe it's one that will enable all of us to work more efficiently towards realising our objectives of contributing to the causes of peace and stability in the region.  We also had a chance to go over some of the challenges that are in the regions, some of the region crises that we face, and I think we are all committed to working together, within the international community, to finding ways to make sure that we are on track towards peace and resolution.  Obviously we spoke of the Syrian crisis and the need to have a political solution to that problem, and our position is that we need to have a political solution through the Geneva Process, which we believe is the only process that can deliver a solution that should be acceptable to the Syrian people and should be based on Resolution 2254 so that we are able to end this tragedy, to end the suffering.  And we've all seen how horrific the war has been and the fighting has been, and we've seen the victims of that particular conflict and we all know there is no answer to that problem, but the political track so we are going to continue to work with all our partners, to make sure that we are on track towards a political solution.  Of course, we also addressed the Palestinian-Israeli issue and the need to have a peaceful solution on the basis of that two-state solution, which from our perspective in Jordan, believe that it can only work if we are able to have a two-state solution that would guarantee the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on June 4 1967 model [inaudible].

At the end, this is Middle East, unfortunately conflicts are there and some of them have [inaudible] solution for many years, but we continue to stay resilient, we continue to do everything we can to make sure that we get to a stage where we have peace and stability, and it is with partners like you, sir, that we are able to address the challenges and it's through your work and contribution that we continue to hope to be able to move forward.  So again, you're among friends and it's a great pleasure to have you.  I look forward for our continued cooperation, sir.

JENS STOLTENBERG [NATO Secretary General]:  Thank you so much and thank you so much for hosting me and my delegation here today, and we really appreciate the very close and strong partnership between NATO and Jordan.  We have been partners for more than 20 years and we are developing the cooperation based on the political pillar and practical cooperation.  We strongly believe that we should continue to strengthen the political dialogue, the political cooperation, but also that there is great potential in doing more together when it comes to practical cooperation.  For instance in the efforts to fight terrorism, to provide assistance to you when it comes to countering-IEDs, to implement security sector reform, but also when it comes to the role of women in your armed forces.  I would like to commend Jordan for really being a key partner in this region, contributing to stability and to the fight against terrorism, especially the fight against Daesh, and your efforts and your courage has been extremely important in the fight against Daesh and a key part of the efforts which has enabled us to win over Daesh and liberate the territory they controlled, both in Syria and in Iraq.  We will continue to work with you.  NATO is part of the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh.  We provide some support with our AWACS surveillance planes, and all NATO Allies participate in different ways, with the military capabilities in the [Global] Coalition to Defeat Daesh.

We are also now looking into how we can step up our training in Iraq.  We trained some Iraqi officers here in Jordan, at the King Abdullah Training Centre.  I will visit that centre later on today.  But we are also now stepping up the training of forces in Iraq and we are also planning to establish military school, academies, to help the Iraqis improve the capacity of their own armed forces, to make sure that Daesh is never able to come back in the way we have seen before.

We highly appreciate the close cooperation with Jordan.  We commend you for the role you play in this region and with a partner like Jordan, we are absolutely certain that NATO can continue to count on your support, and you can count on our support, and then together we can address all the challenges we see.  So, thank you so much again for hosting.