Speech

Ladies and Gentlemen,

My visit to Canberra is the first official visit by a NATO SecretaryGeneral to Australia. It follows a visit to New Zealand earlier thisweek, and to Japan in the next few days. Let me tell you how much Ihave been looking forward to travelling down under. The world haschanged greatly over the last few years and our security interests haveconverged greatly. In my view NATO and Australia sit side by side intheir perspective on international security. Unfortunately, the samecannot be said given my experience of the 28 hour flight from Brussels,of our geography. Given this convergence of views I believed it washigh time for me to come and visit, to discuss these common interests,and how we can best address them.

I know how thiscountry was shocked by the Bali bombing of October 2002, and I want touse this opportunity to pay my respects to the many Australiansvictims. The Bali bombing was a terrible tragedy. But it was also astrong warning. A warning that this part of the world, just like anyother, is not immune from the new breed of terrorism that first showedits ugly face in New York and Washington in September of 2001.

Indeed, this new, indiscriminate, form of terrorism has not left one ofour countries unaffected. It is a fundamental challenge, not just toour security, but also to the values that our countries have shared formany years – democracy, freedom, and basic human rights. Values thatthe NATO Alliance has successfully defended, and promoted, for morethan half a century.

Since 2001, there has been a strongreappraisal of the transatlantic relationship in general, and of NATOin particular. I have experienced that reappraisal very personally inmy meetings with Alliance leaders during my first year in office. Andit was very clearly the main message that came out of the NATO Summitmeeting in Brussels last month, right at the start of President Bush’sfirst visit to Europe following his re-election.

Thisreappraisal of the Alliance is really no big surprise. It is based on asober assessment of the new security environment; an acknowledgementthat a number of realities in that security environment require Europe and America to work together;and a recognition of NATO’s proven record of uniting America andEurope’s political and military weight behind a common purpose of delivering greater security.

What are the defining features of the new security environment thatEurope and America are responding to through NATO? I want to highlightthree.

First of all, our new security environmentdemands new security thinking. Today, providing security means beingable to project stability – including to regions far from home. We arenot only confronted with a new, lethal breed of terrorism. We also haveto seriously consider the prospect of weapons of mass destructiongetting into the hands of irresponsible individuals with evilintentions. And we must deal with failing states that cause instabilityin their own region and well beyond.

In such a world ofglobalised insecurity, a regional approach simply no longer works. Wehave to address these new security challenges when and where theyemerge – or they will show up on our doorstep. And that is why NATO hasturned from a “Eurocentric” Alliance into a much more flexibleinstrument with which we can project stability wherever our commonsecurity interests demand it.

Having said this, let mebe clear on one thing; NATO is not turning into a global policeman –patrolling the world to root out evil wherever it may occur. Our membercountries have neither the political will nor the military means to doso. But if our vital interests are at stake, and if there is consensusamong the Allies to act, then NATO has to be ready. That is why we areconducting an anti-terrorist maritime operation in the Mediterranean.It is why we took charge of the International Security Assistance Forcein Afghanistan. And it is why NATO launched a training mission inpost-Saddam Iraq.

It is also why we have set in train acomprehensive programme to make NATO better capable of responding tosimilar challenges in the future. And that leads me to the secondfeature of our new security environment, which is the need for modernmilitary capabilities.

Today, forces that are gearedmainly to territorial defence are – to put it bluntly -- a waste ofmoney. What we really need are forces that can react quickly, that canbe deployed over long distances, and then sustained over an extendedperiod of time in order to get the job done.

NATO hasbeen pushing this kind of military transformation. We have adapted ourstrategy and concepts, our military command and force structures, andour internal organisation and procedures. With our Chemical,Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defence Battalion and the NATOResponse Force, we have multinational force packages in place that arespecifically geared to some of the most pressing requirements:requirements that most Allies could not meet alone. And each of our 26member nations is taking a hard look at its own defence programmes andstructures, to make sure that they are relevant to today’s demands.

We have already done much to transform our military capabilities, butwe still have more to do. We have to make improvements in areas thatare critical to modern operations, such as strategic lift andair-to-air refuelling. We have to make sure that a much largerproportion of our military forces are readily available for operationsaway from Alliance territory. And we have to arrive at a better mix offorces capable of performing both high intensity combat tasks andpost-conflict reconstruction work.

I want to elaborate abit more on a third and final feature of today’s environment. Namely,that tackling the new security challenges requires the broadestpossible international coalition. The reason for this is clear enough.It is because the new risks and threats themselves defy borders. Andbecause we will only be able to get a grip on them through amultilateral approach that effectively combines multiple disciplines,countries and organisations.

NATO is an importantplatform for this kind of cooperation. In recent years we have givenfresh impetus to our Partnership relations with 20 countries all overEurope and into Central Asia. We are helping many of our Partners withthe reform of their militaries, and the development of effective,democratically controlled defence institutions. And we have also madethe new security challenges a major focus of cooperation with all ourPartners – including our special Partners Russia and Ukraine – andtheir response has been very encouraging.

We have, atthe same time, been working hard to enhance our cooperation with otherinternational organisations. This applies to the United Nations and theOSCE, with whom we have cooperated increasingly effectively in theBalkans over the past ten years, and who are now active in Afghanistanalongside the Alliance. But it applies in particular to NATO’srelationship with the European Union.

The European Unionis developing as a security actor in its own right – which is not onlynatural, but also desirable. It is now widely acknowledged – on bothsides of the Atlantic -- that a stronger Europe will widen our arsenalof response options to the new security challenges. And it is widelyaccepted in Europe that a stronger security role for the EU should notamount to a duplication of what is already available through NATO. Wehad a very smooth handover of NATO’s peacekeeping responsibilities inBosnia and Herzegovina to the European Union late last year. I amoptimistic that NATO and the EU can build on that momentum to extendour cooperation to other areas where we have a common securityinterest, where we can complement each other, and reinforce eachother’s efforts. And here I mean functional areas – such as the fightagainst terrorism and the modernisation of military capabilities – aswell as geographical areas – such as the Caucasus and Central Asia.

One region that is bound to affect our security for the foreseeablefuture is the southern Mediterranean and the broader Middle East.Luckily, we have seen quite a positive dynamic in that entire regionover the past few months. NATO is keen to help sustain that momentum,and to promote greater stability for all. Which is why we are workinghard to deepen our Dialogue with seven countries in Northern Africa andthe Middle East. And why we have launched a new initiative last year tobuild new relationships with countries in the Gulf region. Bothprogrammes have met with a very positive response from the countriesconcerned.

Finally, NATO has also been eager to fosterdialogue and cooperation with countries even further afield, includinghere in this region. Given the fact that NATO troops are now deployedin Afghanistan, it is no surprise that countries such as neighbouringChina and Pakistan have shown interest in talking with us. We arealways open to developing such contacts and promoting better mutualunderstanding. But I am sure that our Chinese, Pakistani and otherdialogue partners would agree that the strong interest of this country– Australia – in further developing pragmatic cooperation with theAlliance, is of quite a different order – and most welcome indeed.

Australia has long been aware of the relationship between its ownsecurity and wellbeing and that of countries and regions elsewhere onthe globe. Australian soldiers fought to help end the two World Warsthat tarnished this past century and through their heroics, Gallipollibecame a byword for bravery in Europe. Your country has a very proudtradition of contributing to crisis management operations in regions asdiverse as East Timor, the Middle East and Iraq. Your record indisaster relief is equally impressive, and highlighted by your strongresponse to last year’s Tsunami disaster. Moreover, for the past fewyears, Australia has worked hard, and with considerable success, togalvanise cooperation among countries here in the Asia Pacific region –to engage them in the fight against terrorism and in a common effort tocounter the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

We,Australia and NATO, have started to explore cooperation in these twoareas as well, and that looks very promising. But our scope forpractical, mutually beneficial cooperation is far greater than this.Missile defence is another area of common interest, on which ourexperts should continue to compare notes. There is a lot that we canlearn from our respective experiences in crisis management,reconstruction and disaster relief operations. And we should strive todevelop greater interoperability between our military forces, to allowthem to work together effectively in any future contingencies that theymay be asked to deal with.

Afghanistan is one country inwhich I could well see us working together in the future, and I willdiscuss the possibility of greater Australian involvement in thatcountry’s security with my interlocutors here in Canberra today. NATO,for its part, is determined to stabilise Afghanistan and to returndemocracy to this troubled country, and so to reduce the risk of terrorthreatening our societies and drugs ending up on our streets. But thateffort is also very much in Australia’s interest; drugs from Kabulcould as well end up in Canberra as in Copenhagen.

Australia and NATO are already present together in Iraq, and we have toget the most out of our common effort in that country. The recentparliamentary elections were a hopeful development, I would say ahistoric landmark with millions of Iraqis defying all those who sawtheir country sinking ever deeper into chaos. Yet it will take time forthe political process to take root in Iraq, to build strong andeffective institutions, instil respect for the rule of law, andencourage economic progress. All those efforts will depend criticallyon the ability of the Iraqi authorities to provide basic security fortheir people. And that ability will benefit greatly from the trainingof Iraqi security forces in which Australia and NATO are now bothclosely involved. I am not in doubt that there is much we can learnfrom Australia’s efforts, such as embedding trainers in Iraqi units, inthis regard.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In aninterview a few weeks ago, your country’s Defence Minister said thatdefence alone cannot defeat the threat of terror, that victory in thewar against terrorism required a multi-agency, multinational approachnecessitating new levels of cooperation.

I agreewholeheartedly with this assessment, and so do the 26 members of theNATO Alliance. NATO alone cannot defeat the serious new threats to ourvalues and our security. We are well aware that we must work togetherwith other nations and organisations to uphold these values and topreserve our freedom and security.

Australia and NATOtake very much the same view of the new security environment, thethreats that it poses, and how we should respond. That means that ourcooperation is bound to deepen, and to become more effective. And Ivery much welcome and look forward to that.

Thank you.