Video background briefing

Hello, this is James Appathurai, the new NATO Spokesman. I have been Spokesman for about four weeks, it's been a very exciting time for me and from now on I, as the spokesman will be doing these monthly briefings for you to update you on where NATO is, where NATO is going and what the main issues are on our agenda.

On the 20th of February, the International Herald Tribune had a front page story on NATO and the first line of the story was "NATO is back." Now I don't know if NATO ever went away but it certainly was a reflection of what we feel here at NATO Headquarters is a general revival of the transatlantic community, a common determination to tackle firmly and firmly together the issues on our agenda.

There is of course as you know a new Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and he has been travelling to many NATO countries to visit the Heads of State and Government and consult with them on the issues that they consider to be important and how we can tackle these challenges together and the message that he's gotten in Washington, in Ottawa, in Berlin, in Paris, in London, in Ankara, in Athens as well and soon, before the end of this month, he will got to Spain and Portugal as well.

The underlying message has been very clear and very strong: We have an important agenda to tackle, we want to do it together, we want to look to the future and not to the past. So there's a very strong current of transatlantic community and will to act together.

On the first priority that the Secretary General has set since his first day in office and that is Afghanistan, the last few weeks have achieved a lot of progress. We have put 'meat on the bones' to our commitment to take the international community and particularly NATO beyond its commitments in Kabul into the provinces of Afghanistan through what we call the Provincial Reconstruction Teams. Now the Provincial Reconstruction Teams are joint civilian and military teams that are going out to key areas in Afghanistan to try to bring better life to the average citizen and also to help the Karzai government, the central government in Afghanistan, to extend its influence and help to create a stronger more centralized state.

The military component of these Provincial Reconstruction Teams is there of course to protect the civilian ones. NATO has recently taken command of one Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kunduz in the north and NATO has an ambition to take over five new... or create five new Provincial Reconstruction Teams. These will complement the existing Provincial Reconstruction Teams that are under a separate command, that is under the command of "Operation Enduring Freedom" the U.S. coalition that is in Afghanistan in the southeast in particular fighting the Taliban, fighting al-Qaeda and conducting other operations.

So NATO's ISAF and "Operation Enduring Freedom" the U.S.-led coalition are operating side by side and there are two main thrusts to the development of these operations.

One is, as I mentioned, to create new Provincial Reconstruction Teams under NATO. A few weeks ago, in Munich, NATO's defence ministers got together for an informal meeting, now informal meeting doesn't mean they take off their ties. It means that they don't take decisions... formal decisions. But at that meeting defence ministers made informal commitments to provide the resources necessary for up to five new Provincial Reconstruction Teams under the International Security Assistance Forces banner, in other words NATO's banner. This was a very positive step.

The next steps in this expansion is that the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO will present his operational plan to the North Atlantic Council near the end of this month... the beginning of next month... and at that point nations can begin to make formal contributions to provide the resources necessary.

We've also managed to get, at that information defence ministers' meeting in Munich, to fill in some of the shortfalls at Kabul Airport. Kabul Airport is a vital lifeline into the country. The country is very difficult to access by road, it has very high mountains, so it's hard to fly in everything but flying in everything is principally the best way to supply the country. So filling in the shortfalls at Kabul International Airport which we have managed to do has been a very, very important step.

At the same time however as we take on these new Provincial Reconstruction Teams, we need to be concerned about their security and that security is something that in extremis only the U.S.-led coalition can provide. So we need to ensure that there is security provided for these as the European and Canadian governments consider providing more resources for the PRTs.

Also we need to ensure that there is no overlap, we need to deconflict the two operations and make sure that they complement each other rather than step on each others toes. That is why a second initiative is going forward is that we will work to create the proper synergies between "Operation Enduring Freedom" and NATO's ISAF and the PRTs. This is not for the immediate term but it is something that is being developed as we go forward.

The second priority issue on NATO's agenda and this has bubbled up relatively quickly but it's moving forward very successfully is looking towards the end of the year where it is likely that NATO and the EU will take decisions to bring NATO's mission in Bosnia, SFOR, to a successful conclusion after nine years and begin an EU-led operation in Bosnia, in cooperation still with NATO.

The NATO-led operation in Bosnia, SFOR, began as I mentioned in 1995, it began with 60,000 troops. We are now moving towards a very small, comparatively small force of 7,000 and that drawdown is taking place with an eye to the end of the year and to a potential handover. NATO and the European Union are in very close consultation to prepare this successful end of SFOR and the beginning of a new EU mission.

Now it is important to stress that the EU-led operation which will take place starting as soon as SFOR is completed, will be done in close cooperation with NATO under what we call the "Berlin Plus" arrangements. The Berlin Plus arrangements are arrangements negotiated between the European Union and NATO to allow for the EU to have access to NATO's assets and capabilities so that NATO can support the EU, so that there's full transparency between the two organisations and so that we cooperate with the most efficient, the most effective mechanisms possible so that resources are used in the most efficient way.

Under those arrangements, the EU will have representation in NATO's planning structure and under arrangements agreed last December, NATO too will have a representation in the EU's small planning cell. So after a meeting just last week between NATO and the European Union's political councils, we are now moving forward with staff talks to ensure that both organisations are moving forward in a transparent and complimentary way.

What will happen next? As I mentioned NATO is drawing down, the EU in consultation with NATO is preparing to launch its major operation in Bosnia after the NATO SFOR comes to an end and both organisations are in consultation with the authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina to ensure that everything takes place in a way that complements them and their interests as well.

This is a very important test of the "Berlin Plus" arrangements and the Secretary General has made it very clear in his public announcements but also in his private conversations with Presidents and Prime Ministers that the handover if you wish to call it or the end of SFOR and the beginning of the EU force under "Berlin Plus" is precisely a test of how well NATO an the EU can work together.

So this is something that we will be looking very carefully to ensure that it's done well, that it's done right. Those were the two main formal issues on NATO's agenda.

There are two other issues which are not formally on NATO's agenda but which certainly the Alliance has to discuss because they are international security questions which are very soon going to be on NATO's agenda.

One is Iraq - for the moment the Alliance is supporting Poland in its leadership of a multinational division centre/south in Iraq but of course there are 18 of the soon to be 26 NATO countries on the ground in Iraq so by definition this issue is on NATO's agenda.

Furthermore, NATO is by far the most effective security organisation for mounting, sustaining, commanding large multinational peacekeeping operations and as a result the Alliance is under significant pressure on many fronts to take on a greater role in Iraq. For all of these reasons it is being addressed.

Now it is too early for NATO to take on a formal role in Iraq, certain key political conditions have been identified by the Secretary General but also by NATO's Heads of State and government that would necessarily have to be in place before a more formal role for the Alliance could be contemplated. One is that a sovereign Iraqi government must be in place. Now the United Nations has agreed, Kofi Annan has agreed, that on July 1st the transfer of sovereignty can take place but, according to the existing plans it is too soon to hold elections.

So, this July 1st date is very important but there won't necessarily be clarity afterwards or sufficient clarity for the Alliance immediately to take a role, that is for our governments to determine. If a sovereign Iraqi government with UN backing were to request the Alliance to play a greater more formal role the Secretary General has said that it would hard for NATO to say no but certainly this discussion is not on the table yet but it is one that is coming and it will be certainly addressed furthermore as we get closer to that very important July 1st date.

The second issue is what is increasingly being called the Greater Middle East. The United States first proposed formally to take a more holistic approach to supporting reform in the Greater Middle East. Now the exact geographic area of the Greater Middle East differs depending on your perspective but certainly the idea is to promote democratic reform, freedom of the media, military reform and economic reform across this broad area and in the vision of some in the United States, some in the United Kingdom, some in France, some in Germany, representatives of all of which have made informal proposals on this issue; the international community, NATO, the EU, the G8, should look at the Greater Middle East and how it can provide support.

NATO is part of this effort and there are key summit meetings in June, G8 Summit, US-EU Summit and a NATO Summit at which there will be much more development of the Greater Middle East concept. NATO has at present a Mediterranean dialogue, the Alliance has and has had for ten years a dialogue with countries of the southern Mediterranean, Israel and six countries of the Maghreb.

This dialogue has focused very much on getting to know each other, low level cooperation, trust, transparency and dialogue. The question now on the agenda is can the Mediterranean be deepened to provide for example more in the way of military to military cooperation. Can it be broadened to include more countries? How can it complement the efforts coming from the European Union and the European Union's Barcelona process for example? How can it complement the efforts from the United States? How can we bring together economic/political and military efforts as part of a Greater Middle East initiative.

Again, all of this is still to be defined but it will defined over the next few months so if you're interested in this issue, watch this space and watch a few others.

In the coming weeks there are a few key issues on NATO's agenda. One is what we call a CMX: Crisis Management Exercise. Crisis Management Exercises are held relatively regularly and have been held relatively regularly throughout NATO's history. Over recent years they have moved of course far beyond the old Cold War Crisis Management Exercises, they've moved to try to take account of new threats, new challenges in new parts of the world and they engage the entire Headquarters and our governments all nineteen governments in trying to simulate how the Alliance could react, take decisions and take the right decisions in the event of the kind of crises that we might face today.

Instability in a key country, an attack by a weapon of mass destruction or whatever scenario is thought up by those who do the planning. That will take place over the next few weeks.

We are looking forward to, at the beginning of April, an informal meeting of our foreign ministers. Now, this information meeting will help to shape the discussion at NATO as we look forward to the Summit in Istanbul in late June. It will also be the time for a very important ceremony here at NATO and that will be the formal welcoming of the seven new members into the Alliance.

There is a process going forward right now whereby the ratification of the accession protocols for the seven invitees has now completed and the final accession protocols are, as I speak, in with DHL on their way to Washington to be deposited with the United States as the depository country. Once that has taken place, the Secretary General will inform the seven invitees, they will finish their own internal processes and when that is completed and we hope that... and it will be very close... that it is completed in time for the information ministerial at the beginning of April.

We will be able to have a flag raising ceremony out on the front compound of the Alliance and we will certainly film that and put it onto the website and you will see the flags go up or at least the flags up and the seven new members will take their place fully, formally, and fully around the NATO table as one of the 26 Allies. We will no longer say invitees we will simply say allies.

That is the NATO agenda. I hope you will tune in next month for the next update. Thank you very much