Video background briefing

Hello and thank you for joining us in the latest inour series of monthly updates here at NATO Headquarters.

It has been an eventful month at NATO and I think the key moment wasthe informal ministerial meeting, a meeting of foreign ministers inVilnius. As those of you who click on this link regularly know aninformal meeting means that no communiqué was drafted, no formaldecisions were taken amongst NATO ministers.

But ithad a second purpose as well, the Secretary General believes verystrongly that the political dialogue at NATO needs to be broadened anddeepened to include more subjects, more opportunities for thetransatlantic partners to discuss in a profound, open and indeedinformal way the key securities on the transatlantic security agendaand that was very much the spirit going into Vilnius. I think it'sworth saying that the authorities in Lithuania did an excellent job increating the conditions, the right conditions, for just that kind ofdiscussion and that's exactly what took place.

On theevening- the first evening of the ministerial, the ministers had adinner, a private dinner, where they discussed amongst other things theMiddle East and the Middle East peace process. One minister, indeed Ithink two ministers, described it to the press as the best politicaldiscussion they've had at NATO and as someone who listened to it I cantestify that ministers certainly had a very profound discussion aboutthe immediate priorities in the Middle East peace process and the longterm prospects as well and how the international community as a wholecan and should support what is clearly hopeful signs in the region thatprogress can be made in solving this very longstanding conflict.

Ministers also had a discussion in the evening at the dinner of NATO-EUrelations and how to broaden them. One minister proposed an idea thatseemed to get broad support around the table and that is to have,again, informal meetings of NATO and EU Foreign Ministers on asemi-regular or regular basis to discuss the broad range of issues onthe agendas of both organisations, where they complement each other,where they work together.

What is quite clear is thatin many theatres, in the Balkans but also in Afghanistan, andpolitically in reaching out to areas such as the broader Middle East,NATO and the EU are both there, they are both working, and they'reworking often side by side to the extent that the two organisations canbe aware of what each other is doing and support, mutually complementeach other, that only makes sense and so it does make sense to have abroader NATO-EU dialogue. That is exactly the purpose of this proposalto have these informal NATO-EU foreign ministers meetings and that ideawill be taken forward.

In the morning of the secondday of the ministerial was first a meeting with the Foreign Minister ofRussia amongst NATO nations and him and the NATO-Russia Council so at27. Perhaps the most substantive concrete deliverable from this meetingwas the signature of a NATO-Russia Status of Forces Agreement.

Now this is a document which provides legal guidelines and financialguidelines as well for the movement of people and things- equipment, byNATO countries in Russia or through Russia and Russian Forces andequipment in NATO nations as well. So it allows for, amongst otherthings, joint training. It allows for further cooperation oninteroperability, and it can also offer in future an easier route forNATO equipment into Afghanistan for our peacekeeping mission theInternational Security Assistance Force particularly as it continues togrow to the west and eventually to the south and to the east.

So it is a very practical demonstration of a stronger foundation ofNATO-Russia relationships on, as I say, the practical operational side.

There was also a good political discussion, not only ofareas where NATO and Russia generally see eye to eye but also on areaswhere discussion is useful because there isn't a full convergence ofagreement, that includes for example Georgia. There has been good signsof progress in the talks between Russia and Georgia recently on thefulfilment of the Istanbul Commitments for withdrawal of Russian basesand equipment from Georgia. This was an issue that was discussedamongst the 27 NRC (NATO-Russia Council) members in Vilnius as well asother issues like the Balkans. So it was a good discussion, it was apractical step forward and a positive meeting.

Thismeeting was followed by a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission and itone which certainly the press was looking very much forward to becauseit was an opportunity for NATO and Ukraine, represented by ForeignMinister Tarasyuk to welcome the real progress that has been made inNATO-Ukraine relations.

In essence, there has been aseveryone knows, a change of government in Ukraine. A government that isin a much better place to fulfil its own democratic aspirations andit's aspirations to integrate into Euroatlantic structures including ofcourse NATO and NATO wants to help this to happen.

NATO and Ukraine have agreed to have an enhanced dialogue on Ukraine'smembership aspirations and other reforms without any prejudice to aneventual alliance decision on Ukrainian membership but in the contextof Ukraine's membership aspirations, NATO wants to help and there is aconcrete plan of cooperation that has been put in place with fourconcrete measures including enhanced political dialogue, enhancedassistance from NATO for defence reform.

This issomething that was very much welcomed by the Ukrainians, they make noillusions that they have plenty of work to do. The NATO SecretaryGeneral pointed out in his press conference with Foreign MinisterTarasyuk that NATO is a performance-based organisation and that thespeed at which Ukraine moves closer to NATO, moves closer toEuroatlantic institutions, is in the hands of the Ukrainian people andthe Ukrainian government.

The quicker that they makereforms, the quicker they will move closer to NATO. But it was a goodmeeting and if any of you are interested in more details on theconcrete package of enhanced political and practical cooperation. Youcan find it on this website.

Then, we- or ministers,moved to an informal luncheon and this was a luncheon of NATO foreignministers only. In essence a continuation of the dinner that had begunthe night before, and there was a broad discussion of the areas inwhich NATO is operating where is has missions: Iraq, and the Balkans,and Afghanistan. And in all three cases, ministers looked forward notas much to the nuts and bolts of delivering militarycapabilities--that's something defence ministers will do at their nextmeeting--but they did look forward to the political processes and inparticular in the Balkans; the importance of supporting andparticipating in the political process whereby Kosovo's progress inmeeting the standards set by the international community have or havenot been met and if they have been met sufficiently, the move towardsstatus talks- final status talks.

This is somethingthat of course engages very much the Contact Group in which NATOparticipates, in the United Nations, it engages very much the EU, butit engages NATO of course as well with almost 18,000 troops on theground NATO is as much a part of the political process as it isessential to the military security and stability of Kosovo as we go nowfully into what will be a very interesting but volatile, potentiallyvolatile, political process.

Near the end of thelunch, Secretary Rice brought up an issue that has certainly been onthe lips of many of our ministers in the past and has certainly been onthe minds and the attention of all us and that is the very serioussecurity situation in Darfur. Secretary Rice said, and this was echoedby all the ministers, that this is of course a situation that needsattention, that not enough has been done and that the AU, the AfricanUnion, which is in lead and must remain in the lead in addressing thesituation in Darfur, may require support, may come to NATO to ask forsupport and that if the AU were to come to NATO that she hoped thatNATO would keep an open mind on this subject and provide that support.

Ministers around the table echoed the importance of addressing thisissue, keeping in mind of course the very important role that isalready being played by the European Union and the support that's beingprovided bilaterally by many nations, and the importance to take apragmatic approach--not to let any ideological differences orinstitutional rivalries hobble us from doing what is necessary and thatis to provide support in the most efficient way and the most effectiveway.

Subsequent to that, indeed just a week later, aletter arrived from the Secretary General of the African UnionCommission, Mr. Konare, to the NATO Secretary General asking if NATOwould consider providing logistical support to the African Union as itexpands its mission in Darfur. The African Union's own assessment isthat this mission needs to almost double in size which puts of courseenormous logistical challenges on the plate of the African Union andthey want to see if NATO could and would be willing and able to providethem some logistical support.

The Secretary Generalhas discussed this with the NATO ambassadors. Talks are beginningbetween NATO and the African Union but also between NATO and theEuropean Union and the United Nations to ensure that we know what therequirements of the African Union are, what is already being provided,as I say, by the European Union, by the United Nations and on abilateral basis, and where NATO can add value because that isabsolutely the important thing here--NATO should add value to what isalready being provided to the requirements of the African Union.

So this work is going forward, the Secretary General is of course indirect contact with his counterparts in the other internationalorganisations and the staffs at the working level are already incontact as well. We will see where this goes forward, an African Uniondelegation is expected in Brussels later in May and that will be animportant time for discussions on how and whether- whether and how NATOcan provide support to the AU in a pragmatic way in support of and inpartnership with the other relevant organisations and countries thatare providing support.

As I look forward to May, theother perhaps important milestone aside from the usual visits,important visits of various ministers to NATO Headquarters is theEuroatlantic Partnership Council - Security Forum. Now what is this? Itis a meeting which, in a sense, builds on our regular meetings offoreign ministers of the Euroatlantic Partnership Council and that NATOnations and all of our partners.

This meeting willtake place in Sweden, hosted by the Swedish government very generously,and it will have a slightly unusual format. Instead of being a regularminister of foreign ministers, it will be a more creative free flowingdiscussion of the security issues on the international agenda includingthe Middle East, including the frozen conflicts in Central Asia and theCaucasus, including of course institutional cooperation in addressingthe security challenges that remain in the Balkans includingpeacekeeping in Kosovo but also integrating the whole region into theEuroatlantic community and into the Euroatlantic structures.

And unusually, for a meeting of this kind, it will be open to the pressfrom beginning to end. Indeed the press will participate in all thediscussion panels. So we're hoping that this will be an innovative andfresh look at how we engage in security discussions amongst the NATOand partner countries, the 46 countries that will be represented thereat one level or another but many of them at ministerial level, as a bitof an experiment for how we can make this discussion more open, morefruitful, more informal in a sense along the same lines of NATOmeetings. That's it for this month, I look forward to speaking with youa month from now. Thank you.