Regional Defence Cooperation for Southeastern Europe

Ministers, Ambassadors, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you, Minister Pejanovic-Djurisic for chairing today's meeting, and thanks to Minister Jakic for hosting this comprehensive defence ministers' meeting.  

It is a great pleasure to speak to you today. This Ministerial demonstrates the continuing solidarity of nations in both the Adriatic Charter and the greater Southeast European region. It affirms that former foes can come together to discuss ways to enhance our security. And it makes clear the importance that the countries of this region place on improving our defence capabilities during an era of declining defence budgets and rising global challenges.

These global security challenges are formidable. They include the spill-over effects of failing states, missile proliferation, piracy and cyber-warfare. And sometimes we face those challenges on our very borders, as events in Syria show.

No country is immune from these challenges, and no single country can deal with them alone. They require the broadest possible cooperation between nations and organisations. Fortunately, although the challenges are strong, our collective strength is stronger. We can bring this shared strength to bear by pooling our resources to acquire key capabilities; by cooperating through common standards; and by specialising in what our nations do best. I believe that regional organisations such as the Adriatic Charter and the Southeastern Europe Defence Ministerial are critical building blocks for our shared security.

We sometimes forget how far this region has come since the early 1990s. Only two decades ago, we saw separation and strife. Today, we see economic dynamism, political partnership, and European and Euro-Atlantic integration.

Over the past few years, two Adriatic Charter countries have become NATO Allies – Albania and Croatia. Just this past summer, Croatia became a member of the European Union. Other countries are moving steadily towards Euro-Atlantic integration either as full Allies or as valuable partners. But they also know they still have some distance to travel before they reach their destination.

In this regard, the recent Belgrade-Pristina agreement is a big step forward for the entire region. It shows that when two parties act to settle old disputes, all the countries of the region stand to gain. Belgrade and Pristina deserve great credit for their willingness to compromise. The European Union, and in particular High Representative Catherine Ashton, were instrumental in forging the final agreement. And NATO is committed to helping ensure its implementation.

The Adriatic Charter has provided an important framework for this region’s recent successes. It has contributed to the Euro-Atlantic integration of several regional countries. And by doing so, it has improved regional stability, helped to build trust and understanding, and brought us steadily closer to a Europe that is whole, free and at peace.

NATO’s Allies - as well as its partners in this region - share common values such as the desire for freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. These values must be promoted, preserved and protected. Regional groupings such the Adriatic Charter, the Visegrad Four, the Southeastern Europe Defence Ministerial, and Nordic Defence Cooperation have vital roles to play in this endeavour.

They can help individual Allies and partners to work together and to concentrate on developing key capabilities. They can connect these capabilities through building experience in training and exercises and through developing common procedures. And they can help Europe to field a full spectrum of military capabilities. This in turn will ensure a strong European voice in security and defence, both regionally and globally, and will bring additional balance between the United States and European Allies within our Alliance, strengthening the transatlantic bond that is our cornerstone.

Countries concentrating on key capabilities, regions connecting, and Europeans cooperating – this is the way to ensure a safe and secure European future, where European nations, together, have the strength needed to face the global challenges that dominate the security agenda.

We have already made progress towards attaining such a future. At our last NATO Summit, in Chicago in 2012, Allies committed to the goal of NATO Forces 2020. These must be modern, tightly connected forces that are equipped, trained, exercised and commanded so they can operate together and with partners in any environment and against any threat.

This is a demanding goal. To meet it, NATO has adopted the Smart Defence and the Connected Forces initiatives. Both have multinational cooperation as their core. For Smart Defence, the focus is capabilities development and acquisition. For Connected Forces, it is multinational training and exercising – among Allies first and foremost, but with partner militaries as well. Both initiatives seek to deliver NATO Forces 2020 during a time of austerity. And both seek to ensure that NATO remains strong and credible.

Countries in Southeastern Europe have great potential to contribute both to NATO Forces 2020 and to NATO’s operations more generally. And we have seen this potential in practice. For example, Adriatic Charter members and Slovenia contributed a contingent of instructors to the Afghan National Army Military Police School in Kabul. Other Allies and partners greatly appreciated this contribution, and I think we can do even more.

Looking forward, NATO is already working to bring together Allies and partners in operational groupings based on their current capabilities and proven strengths. This includes the idea of groups of Allies engaging with a larger Ally that retains a broad spectrum of capability, with this larger Ally facilitating and coordinating – as a framework nation – the efforts of the group, both in terms of capability development and employment in operations.

In achieving this, Allies and perhaps even some partners could choose to concentrate on specialising in certain critical capabilities – in effect, putting their best foot forward towards the common cause.

I understand that specialisation can raise concerns about national sovereignty. But some Allies have already chosen to specialise and they have strengthened their security without weakening their sovereignty. The Netherlands and Belgium, for example, have concentrated, respectively, on frigate and mine countermeasure vessel maintenance, for the mutual benefit of both nations. The Czech Republic has concentrated on Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) defence. And the fact is that as the economic downturn continues to bite, many Allies risk specialising by default as they realise many capabilities are simply too expensive for them to acquire or maintain. That risks opening up new gaps in the range of capabilities NATO needs, and damaging Allied solidarity as well.

We need to make sure that instead of specialising by default, Allies are encouraged to specialise by design, so that together, these combined capabilities will allow NATO nations the option of a collective response. The cooperative nature of such a response will bestow an inherent political legitimacy upon our operations that is crucial in this day and age.

Take for example, the Southeast European Brigade, SEEBRIG. This brigade demonstrated its value during its time in command of the Kabul Multinational Brigade, and the forces earmarked for the Brigade are impressive. At the moment, the focus of SEEBRIG is peacekeeping, and it would require a number of additional combined elements to enable it to actually project security and stability.

I would encourage you to look hard at what can be done to enhance the capabilities of the Brigade. And in particular, I would suggest that the Southeast European countries consider contributing more to the NATO Response Force, perhaps with elements of SEEBRIG. Acting together, the contributing nations have the potential to provide a brigade that has a broad spectrum of capability and can participate in the most demanding missions of the Alliance

There is also potential in the acquisition of air surveillance radars through the Balkan Regional Approach to Air Defence (BRAAD). In addition, we could increase our support to the developing Balkan Medical Task Force that would establish regional medical assets for rapid response in the event of a natural disaster or a humanitarian crisis.

More generally, defence capacity building remains an important area of work. Some nations in this region require additional assistance in – for example – strengthening their strategic planning and coordinating their training and exercise programmes. Regional organisations could help to provide this assistance. In Brussels, we see great potential in regional organisations serving as hubs for building defence capacity, and I would urge you to look long and hard at what more you can do collectively together.

In this regard, NATO welcomes the decision of the Southeast European Defence Ministers to establish a tailored Building Integrity programme – I see you have this on your agenda tomorrow. In the current financial climate, all nations are faced with the challenge of reforming , renewing and strengthening operational and institutional capabilities. NATO is a community of shared values and we encourage all nations to strengthen transparency, accountability and integrity in the defence and security sector.

I venture that the Adriatic Charter and SEDM could even help us boost our assistance to countries outside this region. Many NATO Allies and partners have already experienced the transition process of security sector reform and capacity-building. You could help to share that hard-earned knowledge and experience with nations on our borders – including our partners across the Mediterranean – as they go through their own difficult transitions.

Nations concentrating on specialised capabilities, connecting them through regional groups, and cooperating to acquire the full spectrum of capabilities, so Europe is capable of dealing with any crisis or emergency – both inside its borders or beyond: that’s our goal, and it’s a goal we can achieve.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

At the end of this year, in December, the European Council will hold a Summit meeting devoted to security and defence, the first EU Summit meeting of its kind. And next year, NATO will hold its own Summit meeting. These will be two important occasions for us to work towards that shared goal – of a Europe whole, free and at peace, and able to protect and preserve its shared values and interests.

Your meetings today and tomorrow offer you the opportunity to consider how nations in Southeastern Europe can help achieve this vision, and send a powerful message that the countries of this region have much to contribute to our shared security.

Security demands our common commitment to protect our interests, our values, and our peoples. I have offered a few ideas about ways that nations could come together in regional cooperation to enhance our security. There are doubtless many others, and I urge you to present your own. With that, I look forward to today’s discussion.