Statement

Mr Secretary General, distinguished Colleagues,

During five years, PfP has developed from a visionary idea into one of the most important instruments for developing a common Euro-Atlantic crisis management capacity. It's significance is manifested every day in our joint efforts in SFOR.

Further decisions to deepen and strengthen PfP should be taken at the Washington Summit. A centrepiece in Washington will be the adoption of a political-military framework for future NATO-led crisis-management opera-tions. Partners ability to participate in crisis management operations will be highly facilitated if they are involved in planning and discussions well before Nato has taken the decision to launch an operation.

We also need to enhance our capabilities to prepare for Peace-Support Operations. PfP Training Centres, PSO Gaming Facilities and the PfP Simulation Network just presented by my distinguished colleague from the United States, are substantial contributions to this development.

The PfP Simulation Network, open to all Partners, will be jointly demonstrated by Sweden and the U.S. at the Washington Summit. The demonstration, a CJTF staff exercise, will include staffs located in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Hungary, The Netherlands, Sweden and the U.S.. Sweden will host the Final Planning Conference for this demonstration at the end of next month. I encourage all nations to participate!

The first exercise to utilise the PfP Simulation Network will be the VIKING-99 in December next year. VIKING 99, an in the spirit of PfP exercise to which all Partners are invited, will include a multinational Task Force HQ at the PfP Training Centre. Subordinated staffs will be located in other participating states. It will represent a step into the next generation of command and control simulation including the possibility to train the participating staffs without having to deploy them to the same location.

VIKING 99 will also be the first real application of the Swedish Peace Support Operations Gaming Facility at the PfP Training Centre. The Gaming Facility, together with the Simulation Network, will enable complex exercises in a more cost- and time- efficient manner.

Mr Secretary General,

It is of great importance to further deepen and develop the environmental cooperation in the EAPC region. Defence-related environmental cooperation is an area to which Sweden gives high priority within the EAPC-framework.

The NATO/CCMS EAPC Workshop on "Military Activities and the Environment" in Warsaw last June was a great success. Its main result, The Model Work Programme establishes a good foundation for future necessary cooperation and joint actions.

The Model Work Programme suggests that certain actions be taken at the EAPC Defence Ministers Meetings, for instance that Defence Ministers should make commitments to conduct environmental work within the military sector, and that they should report on a regular basis on national progress to the EAPC Defence Ministerial Meetings. It is necessary that we take clear responsibility in these issues.

Although each country clearly is responsible for developing its national defence environmental programme the EAPC provides an excellent basis for joint discussions on guidance and progress on the political level.

Thank you!