Press point

JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER (NATO Secretary General): Congratulations also publicly on your appointment, Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister and I have had a bilateral conversation, of course mainly focusing on the topics which are the relevant ones between NATO and Macedonia . The Prime Minister confirmed that the Ohrid Framework Agreement, that is the main lines concerning reform will be implemented and executed, including the parts where extra attention should be paid to... that is equitable representation., the police law which is in Parliament, further reform should say, of the legal system.

Also important, of course, the full implementation of the Strategic Defence Review, keeping up the defence budget. I commended the Prime Minister for the fact that he is representing a nation which is not only a consumer, but also a producer of security, given the fact that in many NATO operations Macedonia is present and is helping and assisting NATO.

I called on the Prime Minister and I think we agree there that it's very important for the government to have good relations with the opposition. I told the Prime Minister that we're very glad that the EAPC, the security forum of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, will be held in Ohrid next year and I thanked the Prime Minister, of course, for the hospitality which NATO will enjoy - the EAPC I should say - will enjoy next year in Ohrid.

Finally, on a subject which is, of course, a very important one, the NATO Summit in Riga . Of course we exchanged... and the NATO position is well-known, that this is a performance-based process without automaticity, that reform should go on. That there will be, I hope and I'm sure, an encouraging signal at the Riga Summit, which is not on enlargement as we all know. But that the exact nature and the content of that signal is not yet known to me and known to us because allies are discussing this.

Thank you very much.

NIKOLA GRUEVSKI ( Prime Minister , Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ): Thank you Mr. General Secretary. I would mention that the government delegation came here to visit the General Secretary, first of all to present ourselves; to say what is our ideas in politics that we are going to implement in the next period.

We present our intention that we are going to strengthen the efforts Republic of Macedonia to be as soon as possible prepared to join NATO; that we are going to continue with all the reforms that are important for NATO and important for Republic of Macedonia . Actually, what NATO is asking for us, is to implement reforms which will improve the quality of the life of citizens of Republic of Macedonia and doing this we are actually making progress on the way of Republic of Macedonia to join NATO.

We discuss about several matters that Mr. General Secretary mentioned in his statement. We discussed about Riga Summit and we believe that there will be encouragement in the report of the Riga statement and that in the wording of the Riga Summit there will be encourage and open-door policy to give a signal that on the next summit we have a good chance, of course if we finish our obligations, to be invited as a member of NATO. That's our target, of course.

We discuss about security conference that has to take place in Ohrid and the government of Macedonia has a very serious approach to this issue. We are preparing for good hospitality and good organization. We discuss about the reforms that the government is going to do in a way to reduce the corruption and criminal in Republic of Macedonia, which in the period behind us was increased, and to undertake the measures which will give more power to the public prosecutor and more power to the people which has to stop corruption and criminal and, quote(?), reforms too.

We discuss also about different other things; about co-ordination and communication and dialogue with the opposition, which is one of our priorities... and our contacts and my going after Brussels to the The Hague, to have a meeting with President of the Court, to have a meeting with the public prosecutor and to visit two Macedonians which are prisoners there.

And that we are making efforts in this period when there is the last phase of discussions about the final status of Kosovo to be ready for all necessary logistic supports of NATO for implementing of the agreement that has to be reached.

That's mainly and briefly what we discussed.

MODERATOR: Good. Questions please? Yeah.

Q: Mr Scheffer, you mentioned that it is very important to have... for the government to have very good relations with the opposition and I think that you meant with DUI. We know that you have a telephone conversation with representatives of DUI. What is specific that you have in mind when you said good relations with the opposition?

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: My deputy, Ambassador Minuto Rizzo, had a conversation with Mr. Ahmeti, whom I know well myself. I'm saying there are no specific ambitions here, but I think it's important in any nation - as I discussed with the Prime Minister - that there is a good relationship despite difference of opinion. I mean that happens in a democracy - the opposition doesn't agree with the government - and I'm not infringing of course on anything which happened in... which is happening in the internal politics.

But I think it's important, and that is a call to the government, as well as to the DUI at the same time, I would say to have normal relations with each other in the political sense. Nothing less, but certainly also nothing more.

Q: Why do you think the signal from Riga will be encouragement when it doesn't refer to enlargement? What is encouragement?

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: You are a bit quick of the mark, Madame. We don't have a communiqué yet; we don't have a text yet; and well I'd rather hope you will appreciate when I use the word encouragement than when I say well I don't know. I'll go on saying that I hope that Riga will produce a signal of encouragement for the relevant nations, the nations in the western Balkans who have Membership Action Plan, but I can't possibly say anything about the content of the signal, but don't be too negative.

Q: Mark John From Reuters. I had a question for the Secretary General on Afghanistan if possible. What is your reaction to the call by a UN official today for NATO to do more on counter-narcotics in Afghanistan and how close are you to assembling the troops that the military... the extra troops that military authorities requested?

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: On the first part of your question - the call by the UN - as I've said many times before, NATO does not have and is not seeking a leading role in fighting the indeed very important problem of narcotics in Afghanistan . That's primarily a responsibility of the Afghan government. There is a structure in the G8 where, as you know, the United Kingdom is lead nation.

NATO does not have the intention and I'm not going to seek that either, to play the role in counter-narcotics, the UN or UNODC is now advocating. I think that's the wrong approach. I think the UN itself by the way, together with the international community including NATO, UN, European Union, NATO in its limited role, and sorry that you might be hearing me saying the same things twice, should have much higher level political attention to finding a solution for this huge problem.

But I don't think that discussion would improve by saying that NATO should do it all. NATO cannot possibly do everything in Afghanistan and NATO cannot possibly take a leading role and what is in the press release by the UN that includes all kinds of military operations, NATO is definitely not going to do. Where I do agree of course is about the seriousness of the problem. But it is really too simple to look at NATO and say well NATO will get Afghanistan right. NATO is creating the security and stability conditions for democratization and for nation-building.

On the second part of your question we are, as you know, in the process of answering the military advice which has been given to us by General Jones, by General Richards, on the ground in Afghanistan, to see that we can fill the requirements we all agreed upon not that long ago for the expansion of ISAF in Afghanistan and that is going on as we speak.

GRUEVSKI: Yes. I would add to my statement just that... it's not working.

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: It is I think. It is.

GRUEVSKI: We declare our intention as a country, as a new government, to continue our participation in the fight against the global terrorism with participation in three missions that Republic of Macedonia has at the moment in Afghanistan, in Iraq and Bosnia; which is not clear NATO, it's EU, but still is connected.

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: It's connected through Berlin Plus as we all know so there is indeed, Prime Minister, a NATO connection.

Q: (inaudible)... News Agency for Secretary General, it seems that Prime Minister of Montenegro Milo Đukanović requested officially for Montenegro to be accepted as a member in Partnership for Peace. What is your answer? What chance is for Mr. Đukanović and Montenegro to become new member, having in mind also that European Commissioner Olli Rehn yesterday announced that European Commissioner will begin... re-begin the negotiations on stabilization and association accord... agreement with Montenegro .

Thank you.

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: Let me start answering your question by congratulating Mr. Đukanović publicly with the election result in Montenegro . I know him fairly well by now. I've met him many times. You are right indeed. Montenegro has voiced the ambition to come into the Partnership for Peace and I can assure you that the necessary contacts are there and that the discussion between the allies will start very soon. But I'm looking as this, as you might expect, from a positive perspective. But I mean I can't speak for the allies yet because the discussion has not been finished.

Q: (inaudible)... Macedonia . Hi Mr. Scheffer.

The first question is for the Prime Minister. Did you get a picture from this meeting? Is it possible to get the invitation in two years? And the second question is for Mr. Scheffer. What is it what we as a country have to do in order to receive the invitation for membership in two years?

GRUEVSKI: My answer is yes. We already have this picture what we have to do even before, but now once again it was repeated. It's things that are well known: that we have to improve our legislatives to implement something so the framework agreement from Ohrid to show more results in the fight of... against the crime and corruption; to improve economy and so on and so on; the things that were discussed in the previous meetings of Macedonian government with NATO (inaudible).

Q: Do you consider that we will receive invitation in 2008?

GRUEVSKI: It's our target.

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: I can, as far as answering your first question is concerned, I can echo the Prime Minister's words. I think we all know that this is a performance-based process and the Prime Minister has mentioned the important elements and I've mentioned them as well. And as far as dates are concerned and summits are concerned, you know my mantra by now and that is that I'm not going to speculate on the when and the where. Let's focus first and the allies are focusing now... in fact we have our meetings in preparing the Riga Summit; you know we have an important Foreign Ministers meeting coming up next week in New York ; and an important Defence Ministers meeting in Portorož in Slovenia .

So we have started preparing those meetings and indirectly started preparing the Summit . So we are discussing what I said the signal, which I hope will be given at the Riga Summit at the end of November and that's where I'll stay for the moment because it would not be good for anybody, not for NATO, neither for aspiring nations, if the NATO Secretary General would start to speculate now about the when and the where exactly. But as the Prime Minister said, he knows exactly and his government knows exactly what are the major elements of what we call performance.

Thank you very much.

ªTurkey recognises the Republic of Macedonia with its constitutional name.