Opening Statement

Our meeting today is the sixth in the two years since our Council was formed. We have succeeded in establishing a pattern of consultations on security issues of common interest and concern. Only by making extensive use of it can we increase the understanding and confidence among us and support the far-reaching and difficult reforms underway in Partner countries. The success of those reforms and the establishment of durable democratic institutions throughout our area is basic to the security of all of us.

In this way our North Atlantic Co-operation Council has become an important element of stability in our area and one of the building blocks of any new Euro-Atlantic security structure. When the NATO Allies originally extended the hand of friendship to the states of the old Warsaw Pact, the goal was to overcome the adversarial confrontation that had divided Europe throughout the 40 years of Cold War and to fill security gaps. Our political consultations are evidence that division is now being replaced by a spirit of constructive co-operation and practical partnership.

We have to overcome those forces of the past which still cling to the old thinking and maintain or even try to revive the image of NATO as the enemy. Nothing could be more wrong and furhter away from reality. We in NATO have overcome confrontation and turned it into co-operation. You know it and everybody can test our sincerity. NACC is the best example of it. We substitute dynamic, joint endeavours for sterile, competitive enmity. Our activities complement the essential work of other institutions, notably the CSCE, and the EU, in the security field.

A large variety of cooperative activities supplements our consultations on security issues.

We have fostered extensive interaction among civilian and military defence planners and specialists. These contacts have promoted democratic control of armed forces and defence planning and encouraged levels of armed forces which do not threaten neighbours and are consistent with international commitments and obligations. We have also sponsored co-operation in other areas -- information, defence conversion, science and environmental concerns, and air traffic management -- which has reinforced the ties we have established in the NACC framework. But while we have made significant progress, more remains to be done.

Our Work Plan for 1994 will intensify work in all these areas, and add important new ones related to such subjects as non-proliferation, defence procurement, civil emergency planning, air defence and CFE Treaty implementation.

Parmi les domaines cles dans lesquels nous avons lance la cooperation, au cours de la reunion que nous avons tenue a Bruxelles il y a un an, il faut citer la preparation des operations de maintien de la paix dans le cadre des Nations Unies ou de la CSCE. Cette cooperation revˆt une importance particuliere si l'on considere les imperatifs auxquels doivent faire face les Nations Unies et la CSCE. Pour pouvoir mener a bien notre travail, nous avons cree un groupe ad hoc du CCNA sur la cooperation en matiere de maintien de la paix. Nous sommes deja parvenus a nous mettre d'accord sur la fa‡on d'envisager le maintien de la paix et, sur cette base, un vaste programme de cooperation pratique est deja en cours. Aujourd'hui, nous allons ˆtre saisis d'un deuxieme rapport de ce groupe ad hoc et nous allons voir comment nous pouvons continuer a nous preparer a de reelles operations multilaterales de maintien de la paix le moment venu.

Si les anciennes divisions que connaissait la zone euro-atlantique se sont estompees, on voit cependant apparaitre de nouvelles fissures qui en menacent la securite; je veux parler ici des conflits violents qui ensanglantent diverses regions.

Nos consultations et notre cooperation sont d'autant plus importantes si nous voulons encourager la solution pacifique des differends actuels et eviter les conflits futurs. C'est cela qui est au coeur mˆme des travaux du Conseil lorsque nous nous efforcons de contribuer a la mise en place d'un monde libre et d'un avenir plus pacifique. Nous voulons etayer et completer les activites de la CSCE dans ce domaine.

Il est clair que les efforts que nous avons deployes jusqu'a present ne sont pas suffisants. Nous devons faire encore mieux. Toutes les potentialites que recele le Conseil de cooperation nord-atlantique sont loin d'etre epuisees et c'est a vous tous qu'il revient d'exploiter encore mieux cette plateforme de dialogue et de cooperation.

With the NATO Summit before us, I expect that our partners will also want to give us their views on NATO's future, on their desired relations with us and on ideas how to strengthen NACC.

The issues that I have outlined represent an ambitious agenda for today's meeting of our Council. I look forward to a productive meeting that advances our partnership.