Video background briefing

Hello and welcome to the April edition of our monthly briefings onwhat's taking place at NATO. It has been in March a relatively quietmonth. The Easter break allowed for all of us to take a little bit of arest but we are now starting to hit high gear again.

The Secretary General at the end of March spent a lot of time in theplane on a very long tour to the south, to Asia, to Australia, to NewZealand and to Japan. These are three countries that contribute quite alot to peace and security in areas where NATO is heavily engaged aswell--in Afghanistan, also in Iraq and in the Balkans--so it only madesense that the Secretary General make what was the first visit of anySecretary General to Australia and New Zealand and the second visit ofany Secretary General to Japan.

The discussions inAustralia and New Zealand as I mentioned focused on what all of us cando together, NATO and these countries, and can do alongside each otherin these critical, strategically important areas of Afghanistan, theBalkans and in Iraq of course. New Zealand has contributed very much,this was the first stop on the Secretary General's trip and he met withall of course the senior leaders as he did in Australia as well.Australia and New Zealand are countries with which NATO has what youmight say are ad hoc relations.

With Japan, NATO has aslightly more structured relationship, a strategic dialogue, wherethere are biannual strategic level, high level discussions heldalternately in Japan or here at NATO Headquarters and led generallyfrom the NATO side by the Deputy Secretary General. These of coursemirror the practical cooperation on the ground that we do do and theSecretary General in his visit of course took the political dialogue toa higher level, made a public speech, but also of course discussedwhere we might be able to work together more fruitfully. NATO and Japanhave a security agreement, in other words an agreement on the exchangeof classified information.

The Secretary Generalsigned a similar agreement with Australia when he was there so that wecould, between Australia and NATO, exchange classified information.This can only help of course to share views but also where and whenpractical cooperation is appropriate to do that.

Letme turn now to the agenda in April and the meet- the month began with avisit from Bob Zellick. Bob Zellick is the number two at the US StateDepartment, Deputy Secretary of State, and he came as part of hisinaugural tour as Deputy Secretary of State to Europe, to NATO and hada very broad ranging discussion with ambassadors touching of course onthe areas where NATO is engaged, in Afghanistan, in Iraq, in theBalkans, but also a much broader agenda.

There was avery open discussion of Darfur and what the international communitymight do to help assist in bringing peace and security to Darfur notjust in the context of the peace agreement but also- the peaceagreement between north and south, but also in the context of Darfuritself.

There was also a discussion as I mentioned ofthe political future for Afghanistan and a very open discussion of theMiddle East, the Middle East peace process, and what role NATO mightplay potentially in the future, if asked and if required, to helpsupport any kind of a peace agreement.

This visit byBob Zellick was the first in a series of high level visits which willinclude the High Representative in Bosnia, Paddy Ashdown, who has alsocome to the Council, who has also discussed with ambassadors the futureof that country, the future of its integration into Euro-Atlanticstructures; and of course the month will proceed with a whole host ofother visits.

One major landmark on our calendar forApril is the Secretary General's Transformation conference which willtake place 14th of April. This conference which takes place at a veryhigh level, concentrates on NATO's political and militarytransformation. Transformation at NATO, of course, is an ongoingprocess as it should be. It is not something that is an event, it is aprocess, it doesn't start on Monday and end on Friday. It justcontinues at all times because of course the security environment ischanging constantly and NATO needs to adapt to it and help to shape it.

The Secretary General will present his views, hisinitial views, on how to transform the political dialogue within theAlliance. This is something which has of course gotten a lot ofresonance in the international community; something ChancellorSchroeder has mentioned himself in a rather well known speech a fewmonths ago at the Wehrkundetagung, the Munich Security Conference.

The Secretary General will lay out some of those ideas; he may lay outsome other ideas as well on the military transformation. NATO's twosenior military commanders will also be there. They will also lay outtheir ideas on military transformation.

General Jones,the Supreme Allied Commander for Operations, will lay out his vision ofhow military operations are changing and how NATO needs to change tooand to create new capabilities such as the NATO Response Force to helpto be able to meet the requirements of 21st century peace operations.

Admiral Giambastiani - Ed Giambastiani, who is the Supreme AlliedCommander for Transformation based in Norfolk, Virginia, will share histhoughts on other elements of transformation, for example, newtechnologies, new doctrine, the way in which NATO needs to change theway it works and the way it thinks to, again, be most effective as apeace actor in the 21st century.

Then other seniorministers, ministers of defence from newer and older NATO members, willcome to share their transformation experiences. This will be an eventthat's open to the press so I hope there will be a significant amountof coverage of it. It is something which I believe we need to keep ourfocus on as publics, as press, as parliamentarians and as politicians,because of course transformation is essential if we are to be able asan Alliance to have the capabilities and the mindset we need to take onthe many, many challenges that this Alliance faces.

The next major event on our calendar will be an informal foreignministers meeting in Vilnius. This is part of the regular series ofmeetings at the ministerial that the Alliance holds. This particularmeeting comes at an opportune time because it's a time when theSecretary General will discuss with NATO foreign ministers his ideasand their ideas on how to make NATO a more useful, a more fruitful,forum for transatlantic political discussions.

Clearly, there is a requirement for Allies on both sides of theAtlantic to share views and to have more open, more profound, politicaldiscussions on a broader range of issues early on in the decisionmaking process to ensure that we have the best possible cohesion,concertation, and cooperation when we face issues together and that isexactly what NATO could be. It is a privileged political forum wherethe United States and all of its Allies sit on a regular and dailybasis. It also has something unique and that is an integrated and veryeffective military structure to deliver results on the politicaldecisions that are taken.

So it only makes sense touse NATO more as a political forum; the past few months and years havedemonstrated how important and valuable that kind of politicalcooperation is, that kind of political consultation is, and theSecretary General will have a discussion with foreign ministersprecisely on that subject.

It will not be the onlysubject of course; the usual agenda for NATO: the political future forAfghanistan beyond the Bonn Process; how to take forward the mission inIraq; the political future for Kosovo, something where of courseministers will want to have a very open discussion, a very profounddiscussion, as the political situation in Kosovo evolves, as we movetowards a discussion- an assessment, of how Kosovo is doing in meetingthe standards set by the international community and as we potentiallymove, even this year, towards the beginnings of discussions on thefinal political stages of Kosovo. There are clearly issue for foreignministers to discuss here as well.

Also during themeeting there will be an informal meeting of the NATO-UkraineCommission at the level of foreign ministers. Foreign Minister Tarasyukwill, for the first time, hold a discussion with his NATO counterparts.This is, of course, a very important meeting. There is a new governmentin Ukraine that is finding its path, that is setting out its ownagenda, for how it wants to develop its relations with Russia but alsohow it wishes to develop its relations with the West and that includesNATO and the European Union. Ukraine wants to move closer to NATO. Thisis a stated goal of the Ukrainian government and Foreign MinisterTarasyuk will come to Vilnius and will share with his counterparts inthe NATO-Ukraine Commission how Ukraine wants to take that forward. Andof course his NATO counterparts will respond with their own vision andhopefully a shared vision of how NATO can assist Ukraine in its reform,in its aspirations, to move closer to Euro-Atlantic structures.

On the same day, we will have a meeting at the foreign ministeriallevel, of course, of the NATO-Russia Council. This is one in a seriesof regular meetings; Foreign Minister Lavrov will come to Vilnius anddiscuss with his NATO counterparts the NATO-Russia agenda and how wecan take forward our cooperation. There's a whole host of areas whereNATO nations and Russia are working together. We are now working, ofcourse, on agreeing a Status of Forces Agreement which will allow forNATO countries to have their forces on Russian territory, to traintogether, if necessary to transit Russian territory to other areas.This is an essential building block in closer military cooperation; wehope very much that it will be possible to agree this Status of ForcesAgreement if not in Vilnius then as soon as possible- very possibly inVilnius.

There are other areas of cooperation, forexample, Russian support for Operation Active Endeavour, NATO's navaloperation- its anti-terrorist and counter-terrorist naval operation inthe Mediterranean. That too is moving forward and I'm sure ministerswill want to discuss that in Vilnius.

That will bringout month to an end. I'm sure much will happen between now and thenthat I have not yet mentioned but that is the broad agenda.