Video interview

Q: Welcome, Mr. Lunn. You are the Secretary General of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. What is the NATO Parliamentary Assembly?

SIMON LUNN (Secretary General,NATO Parliamentary Assembly): The NATO Parliamentary Assembly is theorganization that brings together members of parliament from all 26member countries of the NATO Alliance. Each parliament selects adelegation based on the country's size, and reflecting the politicalcomposition of the parliament.

So we bring together a very broad, or a large number, a very broadcross-section of members of parliament. So we reflect a very broadspectrum of political opinion within the Alliance

We also have associate members. This is a status that goes back tothe 1990s. In the very early days when countries of Central and EasternEurope were seeking a relationship with NATO, we created our own statusin order to help integrate the parliaments of those countries into ourwork and to help them prepare for eventual NATO membership.

So we have associate members, who are allowed to attend, andparticipate in most of our functions. We also have other countries whoattend as observers, and who are able to attend, again, most of ouractivities.

We also have a Mediterranean Dialogue, which is rather similar tothat of NATO. Similar in the sense the same countries are involved, allthe parliaments of those countries are involved, but different becausewe also bring in entities such as the Palestinian Legislative Council;we have Malta, we have Cyprus, and other countries. Ours is also amultilateral dialogue. We do not have bilateral events with thesecountries. We bring them together two or three times a year in order toexchange views, particularly on the problems of the SouthernMediterranean and other relevant issues.

We have a particular relationship with the Russian FederalParliament. Russian parliamentarians participate actively in our workand we organize meetings regularly in Moscow in the Duma and thefederal council and we have our own NATO-Russia Parliamentary StandingCommittee which meets at 27 and in which all countries are equal andindependent.

So we are an organization that basically brings together members ofparliament from a very broad range of countries, all of which arerelevant to the security concerns of today.

The role of the assembly is essentially to improve parliamentaryawareness of defence and security concerns. It's to provide a forum inwhich members of parliament, legislators, can meet regularly to discusskey issues of the day, to exchange views, to understand each other'sperspectives and problems on those issues.

So it is an awareness-building organization. Awareness in the senseof encouraging members of parliament to understand what the Alliance isdoing.

It is also... it also serves as an indicator of collectiveparliamentary opinion within the Alliance, and we think that's veryuseful for the Alliance itself and its member governments becausepublic support has always been important for NATO, but it's probably asimportant as ever today. And it has a particular resonance because ofthe sorts of operations that NATO is today involved in. Whereparliaments are actually often involved in authorizing, anauthorization. But also because of the influence of the media wherethese things, these activities, are brought very quickly to theattention of our publics.

So public support is more... is possibly more needed today thanever it was, and parliamentarians are very central to that.Parliamentarians are really in the front line of generating publicsupport. They're the people who have to go and explain to theirconstituencies why we're doing the things we're doing, why ourforces... we're putting forces into the field and possibly puttinglives at risk. They have to explain to their constituents, but theyalso have to reflect back to governments the concerns of theirconstituents. So this is a two-way process in which parliamentariansare particularly important.

And so finally, we also, I think, help... our work helps thetransparency of NATO policies. I think we... the reports we write, thedebates we organize, the general activities of our assembly we thinkhelp make Alliance policies more understandable to public opinion.

There are two aspects to our work which are, I think, particularlysignificant. One is the transatlantic link. As with NATO, the role...the participation of North Americans is vital. And without it obviouslywe would be an organization of an entirely different nature. And wework very hard to maximum North American participation or activities.

We pay particular attention to the Congress, the United StatesCongress. Firstly, because of the role of the United States within theAlliance and the important central role that it plays, but also becauseof the role that Congress itself plays vis-à-vis the United Statesforeign and security policy. And we organize many of our meetings, orat least our key meetings, several of our key meetings are organizedwith the congressional schedule in mind, in order to try to maximum theparticipation of Congressmen and women in our activities.

The second aspect of our work, which I would stress, of course, isthat of outreach. As I mentioned earlier, we have developed relationssince 1990 with all of the countries who are seeking a relationshipwith NATO, all those countries who are seeking cooperation with NATO.It's become a central part of our work. Through seminars, trainingprograms, a whole raft of activities, which are aimed to bring theseparliaments into our work to demonstrate out interest in thesecountries, and to help them to become more effective in seeking NATOmembership.

And we are not... of course, with enlargement, in two ways ofenlargement, and perhaps a third coming down the road, our attentionnow is focusing beyond Central and Eastern Europe now to countries likethe Caucasus. We are beginning to make contact with central Asianstates, although those bring with them certain problems to do withdemocratic institutions. And equally we are, as I've said,concentrating very much on encouraging dialogue with the countries ofthe Southern Mediterranean.

So all of those activities add up, I think, to a fairly lengthy agenda for a parliamentary organization.

Q: What are the Assembly's priorities for 2005?

LUNN: Our priorities for 2005 arereally to assist in those countries now, which are beyond the normalscope of the Alliance. And to help those countries, countries such asthe Caucasus 3, the three countries in the South Caucasus, othercountries in, as I said in Central Asia who are looking to develop arelationship with NATO, and with the countries of the SouthernMediterranean. To see where we can help with developing contactsbetween the Alliance and those countries, where we can reinforceAlliance activities.

Sometimes parliamentary diplomacy is easier than officialdiplomacy. Sometimes parliamentarians can make contacts, open windowsin ways that sometimes governments can't.

Certainly our work is extremely useful in these early days ofengagement with countries in developing contacts, but also in combatingor countering some of the misperceptions that exist in some of thepartner countries about NATO, about what it represents.

Just the presence of a NATO parliamentary delegation is a goodindication that NATO is essentially a political organization. Veryoften these countries, you find an impression, an attitude that NATO isan organization dominated by military men and run by military men, menin uniform. And of course, it's very important to point out that NATOis essentially a political military organization and the parliamentaryarm, I think, is an important dimension of that.

So those are the sorts of things I think we will be focusing on. Wehave a long-standing interest in the Balkans. We have followed eventsthere. Our committees go and visit the forces in the field in order tosee the situation, but in order also to report back and inform thedebate within our Assembly more effectively of the situation there.

We will continue to develop our relationship with Russia. We willcontinue to develop our relationship with Ukraine. Ukraine, of course,is going to new resonance now as a result of the elections and we willbe doing everything we can to help that country in achieving its aims.

So this is a broad agenda. It's... the regional focus will be theBalkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia and the greater Middle East, or thebroader Middle East, however one defines it. And all of which will beabout trying to ensure that our parliamentarians are better informed,that they... we write reports that are used by people in terms ofinformation and resource and also that we convey to the countries we'redealing with the true nature, the real nature of the Alliance and whatit can offer.

Q: What is the relationship between NATO and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly?

LUNN: There is no formalrelationship between NATO and the Parliamentary Assembly because thereis nothing in the Washington Treaty that establishes a parliamentarybody.

We were created by parliamentarians themselves when the Cold Warwas at its height, when people believed that issues to do with the ColdWar were too important, if you like, to be left only to governments.

So we were created by parliamentary initiative. And we have worked,since that period, to develop a good, constructive working relationshipwith NATO itself. There was, I think, in the early days, somereluctance on the part of Alliance authorities to give too muchlegitimacy to the parliamentary side. I think that has completelydisappeared now. I think most Alliance leaders recognize the utility ofhaving a parliamentary body that, not just supports their activities,but is there as a sounding board.

Our members can be critical as well as they can be supportive. AndI think Alliance leaders recognize, because of the importance ofparliamentary opinion, the importance of supporting the NATO Assembly,our actual working relationship with this house, this body, is verygood.

The current Secretary General is a former parliamentarian andtherefore does recognize absolutely the importance and we have a goodcooperative relationship with the international staff. And for the mostpart most of the delegations.

But I think if there is a weakness, I think then... the weakness,if there is a weakness, it is that sometimes some of the delegationsare not fully aware of what we do. In some ways that's understandable,because they're all very busy. The agenda here is very crowded.

But I would wish that we were able to improve the visibility of thesorts of activities we have because I think too few people realize thebreadth and scope of the agenda that we have. We're holding over 40meetings a year. Most of which are of relevance to people in thisbuilding in one way or another.

So I'm happy with... I think the relationship with the NATO side isstrong. We... our recommendations, which are developed once a year,that are out of our autumn meetings, our recommendations are sent tothe Secretary General and he responds on behalf of countries. He givesa very detailed response as to whether these recommendations areheading in the right direction or whether they're helpful or not.

He, the Secretary General himself, comes to brief the Assembly onat least two occasions every year, at the spring and autumn meetingsand the members really appreciate that.

Our Standing Committee, the policy makers of the Assembly if youlike, the leaders of the delegations, meet with the NATO council everyyear here at NATO for an exchange of views. And at our last autumnmeeting, as a result of the initiative of the Italian ambassador here,and our own Italian delegation, the entire NATO council, theambassadors came to Venice for an exchange of views with the Assemblyin plenary session. That meant that 26 ambassadors sat with theSecretary General in the chair, sat and answered questions from the 300members of parliament who were sitting there.

And members of parliament appreciated that. I think it was verygood for them to see the council in action, and we hope the Councilalso found it a positive experience.

So the relationship, I think, with this organization is informal.And because of the way that NATO works, because of the nature of thedecision-making process here, consensus, which takes some time andconsensus involve compromises and sessions and give and take, becauseof that process it's very difficult to see where an inter-parliamentarybody would have direct influence.

But nevertheless, I think that most of the people within thisbuilding would say that the work that we do and when we assemble is ofdirect interest and relevance to them.