The Arthur F. Burns Fellowships Programme

On 7 May, NATO Secretary General, Dr Javier Solana, gave a speech at the Arthur F. Burns Annual Dinner held in Berlin. The Arthur F. Burns Fellowships Programme is an exchange programme between American and German journalists. It was set up in 1988 in order to develop a better understanding and knowledge of transatlantic relations between members of the media in the USA and Germany. The organisation is named after the late US Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany.

In his speech, the Secretary General emphasised the need for an extended Atlantic community in the changed security environment of the 90s.

"This community has always stood for much more than mutual protection. It stood for a practical model of how democratic nations should cooperate. And it stood for a distinct vision of how a unifying Europe could escape its troubled past for good. [...]

Today, the Atlantic community stands as a unique community of shared values and interests. Its first 50 years, Act One, were characterised by the Cold War, and then by the struggle to wind it down peacefully. This has largely been achieved. The Washington Summit raised the curtain to the Second Act of our transatlantic community, a mature transatlantic partnership that reaches out across the old faultlines of confrontation. Today I can say with confidence: the Alliance is ready to face the 21st century."