Weekly press briefing

JAMES APPATHURAI (NATO Spokesman): Colleagues and friends, thank you for coming. Sorry to start a little bit late, but we were doing other things. I have to say I have seen... I've been accused of serving up information on a spoon to you, but I have never actually seen a microphone on a spoon until now. I hope I’m not accused of any bias.

(LAUGHTER)

Let me do two things. One is to give you a quick update on the Secretary General's recent trip last week to Afghanistan. I accompanied him so I have a few details to give, and then I'll run through the main elements of the upcoming ministerial, and I will be very happy to take any of your questions, as soon as I find the piece of paper that I actually wanted... which is right here.

Okay, first on the trip to Afghanistan. The Secretary General met first with President Karzai. They had a long bilateral meeting.

Let me first begin by welcoming our friends, so we have a large delegation from the Mediterranean Dialogue countries, so please be welcome here.

The Secretary General met first with a long bilateral meeting with President Karzai. The discussions they had centred around two principal issues. One was, of course, the current security environment and political developments within the country. I would say the Secretary General left with some cautious optimism. There are a number of reasons why.

What we heard from President Karzai, but also from all of the military commanders was that the development of, in particular, the Afghan National Army is a sign of true progress. As you will have seen from the Asia Foundation report from last week the Afghan Armed Forces are an extremely well-trusted institution. They're also increasingly effective. They participate in over 70 percent of the operations taking place in Afghanistan. They lead over 50 percent, almost 60 percent of those operations. The program for training and equipping them is ahead of schedule and delivering real results. This is one area, one reason for real encouragement.

The ANP, the Afghan National Police are also developing more quickly; something which our military commanders welcomed.

Third reason for encouragement, and that was the voter registration process. The first two cycles of the voter registration process have been completed. In both cases largely without security incidents, successfully on time, voter registration up from the last round five years ago. The participation of women in the voter registration process, certainly in round one, was higher than it was five years ago, and progress continues for the subsequent rounds into different areas of the country.

Fourth area, fourth reason for encouragement, and this is of some political significance, and I'll come back to Pakistan in a moment, but the good relationship between the two governments, and the two presidents, in particular, is a sign of encouragement.

Presidents Zardari and Karzai talk regularly. The level of cooperation and trust between the two governments is I think higher than we have seen since NATO has been there. And this was manifested in a visit by the Secretary General to the border coordination centre in the Khyber Pass, which is jointly manned by Afghan, Pakistani and NATO forces.

We saw them working together. We saw the information they share including live feeds from unmanned aerial vehicles on a real-time basis. There was a very strong assessment by the NATO staff there, as well as by the Pakistani and Afghan personnel that this was extremely valuable cooperation, had been stepped up substantially. Even in the past months the officers there said what we are doing now would have never been possible four months ago.

So it is a qualitatively new level of practical cooperation along the border, and two more BCCs, these Border Controlled Coordination centres are in the process of  being opened.

Finally the Secretary General visited General Schloesser in RC-East, got a briefing in Jalalabad of the overall approach taken by RC-East. Very encouraging, very well-coordinated, comprehensive approach. In other words, not just military but coordinated with the civilian elements.

Final reason for encouragement is the Afghan Social Outreach Program. This is the Afghan-led process to engage in a more substantive and coordinated way at the regional and sub-regional level. This of course reflects the strength of Afghan governance at the regional and sub-regional level from a traditional point of view, and the requirement to engage with them. That is now being addressed by the Afghan government and NATO is supporting it very actively, but also with UNAMA, the UN mission. So all in all we left, the Secretary General left cautiously optimistic if a little tired.

Let me turn now to the ministerial. You have, I believe, most of you the media program, but let me run through it very quickly then I'll address the issues in more detail.

The working lunch of the Allies and invitees, and so I don't have to keep saying that let me just stress that each time I say Allies, in brackets that includes and invitees. Croatia and Albania will participate throughout the meeting, with our Mediterranean Dialogue partners. That will be from 12:30 to 14:30. At 15:00 there will be the NAC meeting, the first NAC meeting, so just the 26 plus two invitees. That will go till 18:00.

The official portrait, for those of you who want to take official portraits, will be at 18:05, and at 18:10 the Secretary General will be giving his press conference in the Luns Press Theatre. Available on EBU World Feed.

The next morning, 8:00 a.m. the second part of the NAC meeting, and I'll come back in more detail to this, but just so you're aware. Then at 10:10 the NGC, the NATO Georgia Commission will meet in Room 1. The Secretary General will give a press conference with the Georgian Foreign Minister at 11:15, again, available on EBU World Feed. 11:30 the NATO Ukraine Commission begins till 12:30. 12:35, press conference by the Secretary General and the Ukrainian Foreign Minister.

Let me now go into a little bit more detail on the various meetings, and then I'll be happy to take your questions.

First up, as I mentioned, at 12:30 will be the Mediterranean Dialogue working lunch. This will be an unscripted meeting, so there is no pre-scripted agenda for the issues that need to be discussed. This is one year after the December 2007 meeting. It will look at two things: achievements in stepping up the political dimension and as a second track stepping up the practical cooperation.

The political meetings are now taking a more regular pace. There have been three meetings of foreign ministers: 2004, 2007, 2008. Two meetings of defence ministers: February 2006, February 2007. Eight meetings of chiefs of defence until now.

On the practical side, cooperation has been very substantially stepped up. In 2004 there were about 100 areas of possible practical cooperation between NATO and our Mediterranean Dialogue partners. In 2008 that number is 800, with a substantial number, of course, of new tools as well, individual cooperation programs with the majority, or with two and soon more MD countries.

We have opened up Operation Active Endeavour to all of the Mediterranean Dialogue countries. Two have participated directly. Six of the seven have agreements on security of information which allows for more practical cooperation. We have a partnership cooperation cell, Mediterranean Dialogue partner, military officers in our military headquarters at SHAPE. All this to say a lot to discuss the regional security situation is usually discussed at these meetings of NATO Mediterranean Dialogue ministers. So we will see how the meeting goes, but as I say it is unscripted.

Following this working lunch there will be the first NAC meeting. I think you can expect two principal issues to be discussed here. One will be the first assessment of progress made in the framework of NATO's intensive engagement with Ukraine and Georgia. This is flowing from the Bucharest tasking, and Allies will agree a way forward in NATO's relations with Ukraine and Georgia. I expect that NATO's overall relations with Russia will also be an area of some substantial discussion.

The next working session, and I'll be happy to take your questions on all these issues, the next working session on Wednesday morning will focus on operations. Of course Afghanistan will be a major theme.

The Allies will wish to do two things I think. One is to assess the evolving situation, review progress in implementing the Comprehensive Strategic Political Military Plan. That was what agreed in Bucharest. This is an opportunity to assess how we are doing on the various areas of work.

I think the Allies will also wish to discuss the upcoming elections. In Afghanistan there will presidential elections in 2009 with the precise date still to be decided by the Afghan authorities, and then parliamentary elections in 2010. I expect, I think we expect, that ISAF will be asked to provide third tier security for the elections as we are doing for the voter registration process. In other words, Afghan National Police as the first tier, Afghan National Army as the second tier, and NATO support as a third tier. I think allies will wish to discuss the future of the electoral process in Afghanistan, as well in what NATO can do to support it.

Kosovo. The developments in Kosovo do warrant ministerial discussion. There is, of course, a reconfiguration of the UN mission. NATO Allies will wish to see as quickly as possible the deployment of the EU mission throughout the territory of Kosovo, and I believe we’ll welcome the reconfiguration of the UN mission as well.

They will have the opportunity to discuss the growing challenge of piracy. My understanding from what I have seen is that the number of attacks in the region of the Gulf of Aden are triple from what they were last year.

To give you an update on where we are on piracy there are four NATO ships participating in the operation that we have off the Gulf of Aden, being supported by a German oiler, as they call the supply ship. From the 24th of October, NATO ships have successfully conducted seven escorts in support of the World Food Program, World Food Program-chartered ships, delivery of  29,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid has been facilitated by these escorts. More escorts are planned in the immediate future.

To quote, as I have done before, the World Food Program, and I am simply quoting them: Chartered World Food Program ships have been a frequent target for ransom-seeking privateers, but since the naval escort system began in November 2007, no pirate attacks have been launched against ships loaded with World Food Program food, despite 2008 being the worst year ever for piracy off Somalia.

So I think our initial assessment is this has been a success. Of course, the European Union will soon be launching its mission, something which NATO has welcomed from the beginning. I think there will likely be discussion within the Alliance of what the potential longer term role for NATO might be. There is obviously plenty of work to go around. This is a very substantial challenge. I cannot prejudge whether or not NATO will launch a subsequent mission. The current mission is due to come to an end around the middle of December.

Turning to the subsequent meeting, the NATO Georgia Commission with invitees will meet, as I mentioned, at 10:10 on the second day, on the third. This will provide an opportunity to speak with the Georgian Foreign Minister about the evolving situation on the ground in Georgia, the ongoing measures of NATO support, these were decided in August, and relate to a number of areas including assessment of Georgia's military capability. This is a long-standing partnership area. Air situation awareness, cooperation, and other areas of practical support.

The prospects for further development of the NATO-Georgia relationship. I think we can assume that allies will wish to discuss practical measures in which we can further support and enhance our support for Georgia's reforms to help it meet NATO standards which it has identified as its priority as well. Undoubtedly they will, of course, discuss with the Georgian Foreign Minister NATO's first assessment relating to the Bucharest decisions.

There will then be a meeting of the NATO Ukraine Commission. Again this meeting will provide an opportunity for allies to exchange views with Foreign Minister Ogryzko on the progress made since Bucharest in the context of our intensive engagement on the implementation of the annual target plan 2008, as well as how to promote further reforms in key areas, how to enhance our practical cooperation, and of course I think the first assessment will also be discussed with the Ukrainian Foreign Minister as well.

I think that's all I wanted to raise, and I'm happy to take your questions. If you're not seated at the table, I'm afraid either if you can't make it to a microphone I'll just repeat the questions so that the interpreters can do it. Chris, please go ahead.

CHRIS DIXON (European Diplomacy Defence): Chris Dixon, European Diplomacy Defence. A couple of slight technical questions on Afghanistan. Firstly, looking at some interesting figures on the funding of the ANA, even aside from the set-up costs, the running costs look like they're going to exceed the total tax revenue for the Afghan state for the next foreseeable future. Will this be discussed, are there any specific initiatives that are foreseen to tackle that problem?

And secondly on Pakistan-Afghanistan, I'm thinking particular of a presentation given by Ahmed Rashid and Valencia, explaining that Pakistan-India relationships need to be addressed for Pakistan to be fully supportive of NATO in Afghanistan, for various reasons. What steps are being taken to assist a Pakistan-India dialogue by NATO with a view to improving the situation in Afghanistan?

APPATHURAI: Thank you. To address the first question of the support for the Afghan National Army, you're absolutely right that the bill for increasing the size of the Afghan National Army and then sustaining it will be substantial, in the billions. And it is not affordable for the Afghan state at present to do that. That is why there is an ANA trust fund that has been established which allows for countries to provide funding to, at an initial stage, fund the increase in the size of the Afghan National Army. And there is a live discussion between Allies over the longer term about how to sustain the larger Afghan National Army financially.

Allies are very well-aware that the long-term solution for Afghanistan requires that it has security forces able to provide for the security of the country on their own, and that we need to move to a situation in which they can do that in two ways. One is by providing trainers, and we need to do better at that. I believe that we now have 41 OMLTs, embedded training teams. We need to provide more and that requirement will grow, but second to provide funding. So there is some money now in the ANA trust fund. Well, it's just been passed to me... very appropriately. About just over $7 million euros has been provided already. More will certainly be required, so this is a discussion that needs to happen.

Afghanistan-Pakistan. Of course everybody is watching with great concern what is happening in the region. The Secretary General has already, as you have seen, expressed his very profound condolences to the Indian people and of course to all of those who suffered in these attacks, and his condolences to the families of those who lost their lives. His sympathies to those who have been injured. This was obviously an outrage by any standards.

It is not for NATO to engage directly in relations between Pakistan and India, and I don't think you will see NATO engage directly in relations between Pakistan and India. I do know that Secretary Rice will be leaving this meeting immediately, flying to the region. So the United States is certainly engaging, I'm sure they will not be alone as countries. Pakistan has been very successful, particularly in recent months, in stepping up its operations in the northwest of its own country against extremists who are posing a threat to Pakistan, or posing a threat to Afghanistan as well. We will continue to support those efforts from our side of the border. We certainly hope that Pakistani efforts against extremism in its northwest will not be diminished as a result of the events that took place last week.

I think you were next.

Q: (Inaudible...) Polish Radio. On Ukraine and Georgia you mentioned that there will be first assessment. I just wonder whether it will be in the form of a report with certain guidelines or it will be just a political declaration of the ministers?

And also as some countries would like to abandon the idea of MAP, do you think it is possible to state it in the conclusions that MAP is no longer compulsory for the countries that would like to get the membership of NATO? And for example that would mean that, for example Russia and Georgia would like to develop its relations with NATO during the NATO Georgia Committee... Commission and NATO-Ukraine Commission.

APPATHURAI:Sorry, could you repeat the last question?

Q: The second question?

APPATHURAI:Yes.

Q: Whether do you think it is possible to state it in the conclusions that MAP is no longer compulsory for the countries to get the membership?

APPATHURAI:First, I think you will see two things, and I think this is the most that I can say at this stage on where the discussions are.

One is, you will see an intention to deepen the practical cooperation betweenScriptVersionEditor=6.148