Weekly press briefing

JAMES APPATHURAI (NATO SPOKESMAN): Just going to address two issues. I can guess some question you might add. But I'll leave those to you and not address in the main introduction.

First, I just wanted to discuss very briefly the Strategic Concept. Today, we entered a new phase in the process of developing the new Strategic Concept. As you know, from his first day in office, the Secretary General selected a group of experts to prepare a report for him and asked that the process be as inclusive and as transparent as possible so the wide consultations with the public. That was sort of phase 1.

Phase 2, once the report had been completed and submitted to the Alliance was thematic discussions... discussions with the ambassadors on specific issues to provide input to the Secretary General's thinking. He then spent his summer holiday writing it up... writing up the first draft which he presented yesterday to nations.

And now, we have entered, as I said, this new phase. What is clear already is that the process of why inclusive and transparent consultation has paid off in that... From the discussions today, we can see that the points of convergence significantly outnumbered the points of divergence. The text which the Allies now have is of course the point of departure for further discussions.

It is a short and a political document. It doesn't just reflect changes that have already taken place over the last 10 years. It aims to drive change for the next years. The Secretary General's aim which was shared around the table today was that it should be readable, not just to Alliance leaders but to Alliance citizens. All the ambassadors shared that view.

There will be discussions now, in the run-up to the Joint Foreign and Defence Ministers' Meeting on the 14th of October where the strategic concept will be the main subject of discussion.

From that discussion, the Secretary General aims to receive the main political points that ministers wish to see in the document. And then, I think we will enter a more intensive period of drafting right up until the summit, at which it will be approved. That was the first point. The second one is simply scheduling. And then I'm happy to take any questions you have so we have time to go through everything.

This afternoon, the Secretary General will go to the EU Inter-Parliamentary Committee. He'll be there a 4:15. I believe it is open to journalists. I think the Strategic Concept may well be one of the discussion issues to be discussed with EU parliamentarians. I would not be surprised to hear the Secretary General make a strong pitch for stronger NATO-EU cooperation. And as you know, he has quite specific proposals on how to take that forward.

Secondly, on Friday, two events take place. One is the Secretary General will visit Georgia. He will meet with the President, the Prime Minister, the Chairman of the Parliament, the Minister of Defence, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. And he will open the NATO Liaison Office in Tbilissi. Yes, that's about it. There should be a joint press conference with the President for your information around 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

At the same time, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan will be here. This is of course a meeting in the long tradition of meetings and the partnership between NATO and Azerbaijan. There will be North Atlantic Council meeting to discuss our partnership and practical cooperation between NATO and Azerbaijan.

Finally, just to mention, that on Monday the Australian Prime Minister will be here. And Afghanistan will be the main topic of discussion. Australia, of course, has a very important role in the ISAF mission in Guzgan.

I expect they will discuss one of the central elements of the Strategic Concept which is the... at this stage, the Secretary General's desire to see the Strategic Concept open the door more widely to partnership between NATO and countries around the globe.

And of course, Australia, like New Zealand, Japan, South Korea are countries that are not in formal structure with the Alliance but contribute to Alliance's missions and operations; and the partnership with which helps to promote international security.

So I think I can be confident the Secretary General will wish to share with the Australian Prime Minister his vision of a deeper partnership. Coming to a stop right here, I'm guessing you have questions. And I will happily take them. Please.

Q: (INAUDIBLE) It works? OK. You mentioned one element partnerships. Are you in position to mention others? I would especially be interested in how far the draft follows the works of the Albright group. And secondly, you... related to that, you stressed that the transparency of the process so far was helpful, so why it is now not transparent any more?

JAMES APPATHURAI: I can give you a good answer - not to the first part though in that... I'm not in liberty to discuss content. You would be surprised that if I start outlining out the main elements that would have the potential to compromise the privacy of the discussions. And that brings me to the second point.

There's a point at which transparency or there's a period during which transparency is very important. And I think I can say definitively that this was by far the most transparent policy development process in NATO's history. I would say on a personal basis. I don't think any other organization has ever had such a transparent process, an inclusive process for developing a major strategic policy document.

But at a certain stage, it comes time to close the door and have confidential discussions. Even something like the placement of a paragraph can have political implications. And I know, having sat through many of these negotiations that one of the things people discuss is: "Should we put this paragraph on this issue higher to give it more prominence? Should it go lower down?" That kind of discussion is best had in confidence so the discussions are not compromised. And I think that's something everybody can understand. We're now very close to the final stage of publication. And at a certain stage you do have to have discussions in private. Ici, puis Pascal.

Q: (INAUDIBLE) A report that... for NATO Forces incursion into Pakistan. And Pakistan has also protested yesterday. So you have comments on this one?

JAMES APPATHURAI: Yes. As far as I am informed what happened was that in three separate cases Afghan and international forces on the Afghan side of the border came under attack from the other side of the border. In all three cases, international forces engaged in self-defence - fired back in self-defence. And in one of those cases in positioning an aircraft helicopter to be able to fire back in defence... one of those helicopters or at least I think one or two of those helicopters did briefly cross the border. ISAF's position is that this is clearly a case of self-defence, legitimate self-defence. Attempts were made to contact the Pakistani authorities as the incident was unfolding. Those attempts were unsuccessfully. They made contact with them successfully afterwards.

We have very good cooperation with our Pakistani military colleagues and the Pakistani government, including to the tripartite structure; and quite comprehensive arrangements for mutual support and deconfliction.

So it was unfortunate the contact was not able to be made. But the position of ISAF is very clear. And by the way, it's something that we would support. Our forces have every right to defend themselves against attack. In this particular case, self-defence required the positioning of this helicopter in such a way that it briefly crossed the border. I think Pascal was next.

Q: Oui, Pascal Mallet, Agence France Presse. Concernant le Pakistan et les incursions de Talibans ou de partisans d'al-Qaïda, d'un point de vue juridique quel est le...? Parce que le Pakistan reproche à l'OTAN d'avoir frappé sur son territoire. D'un point de vue légal et juridique international, qu'est-ce que l'Afghanistan peut dire cette fois-ci et les autres avant sur le fait que depuis le Pakistan viennent des attaques. Je veux dire, il y a aussi un aspect qui n'est pas développé. C'est-à-dire est-ce qu'à chaque fois qu'il y a une attaque de Talibans ou de al-Qaïdistes venant du Pakistan, est-ce que le gouvernement de Kaboul porte plainte auprès d'Islamabad? C'est ma première question. Est-ce que l'OTAN et l'ISAF participent?

La deuxième question, c'est tu as parlé des partenaires... Tu as parlé de Nouvelle-Zélande, Australie et je crois Corée du Sud. Je n'ai pas bien entendu. Est-ce que tu as parlé du Japon aussi?

JAMES APPATHURAI: Si je ne l'ai pas mentionné, j'ai eu tort. Je pense que je l'ai mentionné.

PASCAL MALLET: Ah d'accord, donc il y avait le Japon aussi. Et dans quel cadre? Est-ce que ça fait partie du stratégique... le Concept stratégique, cette extension? Qu'est-ce qui changerait dans les partenariats? Parce que...au fond, c'est le sujet, quand même un sujet essentiel, même si le secrétaire général veut garder la haute main sur la rédaction du Concept stratégique, c'est quand même une décision politique par les vingt-huit sur l'évolution de l'Alliance. Et donc, à quel moment, comme l'a dit mon camarade, est-ce que ça deviendra vraiment transparent pour les opinions publiques ce débat qui engage militairement et diplomatiquement les pays de l'OTAN pour les décennies à venir?

JAMES APPATHURAI: OK, pour répondre à la première question, je pense que... Je ne suis pas avocat, ni juriste. Je ne sais pas la différence entre ces deux mots. De toute façon, je ne suis pas avocat. Mais je sais que le gouvernement afghan soumet des protestations envers le Pakistan en public régulièrement.

Et je peux citer le discours qu'a donné Dr. Spanta, le conseiller de sécurité nationale hier ou avant-hier à New-York où il n'a pas mentionné le Pakistan en particulier. Mais il a fait référence au sanctuaire à l'extérieur de son pays qui fait référence évidemment aux "tribal areas". Et c'est assez souvent qu'il ne mentionne pas. Alors, ce n'est pas que le gouvernement afghan ne mentionne le fait qu'il y a des terroristes et des insurgents (sic) qui traversent la frontière du Pakistan pour venir en Afghanistan.

Nous, en tant que l'OTAN, nous travaillons étroitement avec nos partenaires pakistanais parce qu'eux aussi ils reconnaissent qu'il y a un problème de l'autre côté de la frontière. Ils ont déployé des milliers de troupes pour faire face à ce défi. Ils ont perdu des milliers de soldats en combattant cet ennemi. Alors, ils sont pleinement dans la bataille avec nous pour confrontrer (sic)... confronter les extrémistes et les terroristes qui traversent les frontières. Et nous avons, comme j'ai mentionné des accords assez développés militaires et politiques, mais en particulier militaires pour les confronter ensemble.

Quand est-ce que le processus sera transparent au sujet des partenaires? Déjà, pour commencer, le secrétaire général a déjà été très clair en disant qu'il aimerait avoir plus de coopération des dialogues politiques avec nos partenaires. Non seulement les partenaires qui sont dans des structures formelles avec l'OTAN, mais aussi comme j'ai mentionné des partenaires opérationnels et politiques comme les pays que tu as mentionnés.

Je ne sais pas comment le document va dérouler maintenant. Parce que, comme tu dis, c'est maintenant la propriété du secrétaire général mais aussi des nations. Alors, mais... Pour conclure, vous ne devez pas vous attendre, très franchement, que le document soit publié par l'OTAN avant le sommet. Maintenant, nous sommes dans un processus de discussions confidentielles. Et nous n'avons pas l'intention de le publier. C'est aussi simple que ça. Je ne suis pas sûr que Wikileaks a la même intention. Mais de notre côté, on va le garder derrière les portes fermées.

Q: Question from Roma News (?). Just before Pascal's question, you mentioned these four countries by instance or are there any discussions to categorize these four countries in a special status. And maybe without going into details, but could tell us a little bit about NRC in New York. And did you get any response for... to the invitation to the NATO Summit... made as (inaudible) NRC... about MD also.

JAMES APPATHURAI: On missile defence, OK. Yes, very briefly. I mentioned these four countries because these are four countries with which we have had excellent operational cooperation. And the countries that share our values; who want to work with us. And we want to work with them to our mutual benefit. I was not intending to imply anything like formal structures or special status. But I did want to highlight those four countries as being examples of where enhanced cooperation would be mutually beneficial for them and for us. That does not imply, let me stress, that they would be specifically mentioned in a strategic concept. That was not my intention.

The NRC in New York. I mean, Secretary General spoke to this. And you will have seen his comments. The spirit around the table was very good. As you know, NATO... Sorry, NATO... the Secretary General as chairman of the NATO-Russia Council has issued an invitation to all 29 members.

Twenty-eight have already signed up. Russia has not. And Minister Lavrov... or not yet. And Minister Lavrov has more than once in the last few days identified what he considers to be issues that Russia will be looking at as they are preparing, according to him a report for the president recommending whether or not he should attend. But we don't know anymore than that.

We certainly hope that there will be a NATO-Russia Council meeting. We think there's a lot of practical work that can be done. And that brings me to the last point. We hope we can complete the joint review of 21st Century security challenges.

We think there's a lot more we can do in Afghanistan. But also Secretary General believes that there should be and hopefully will be a decision by NATO to acquire missile defence as a capability. And he would see that decision accompanied by an invitation to Russia to cooperate with us, with NATO in anti-missile defence. That point was made very clear at the meeting of course to Mr. Lavrov. And he listened to it. It was not news to him I think. And certainly, he didn't... he didn't go into extensive detail at the meeting. Let's put it that way. So I think that's about where we are. I think there was....

Q: It's a follow about the Strategic Concept. You mentioned that it will be a short political document that's readable. I understand that you won't give any information about the consent but what about the form, more specifically what was short?

JAMES APPATHURAI: (LAUGHTER)

Q: We saw the... we saw the reforms from the expert groups.

JAMES APPATHURAI: Yes.

Q: It was not what I would call short.

JAMES APPATHURAI: No.

Q: A little bit more specific?

JAMES APPATHURAI: Well, I can say... I don't think it's a profound secret that the draft the Secretary General produced was about 10 pages long. And I can tell you that when he's determined to do something, he does it. And he's determined to keep it short. So he will be quite ruthless, I'm sure, in maintaining clarity, brevity, and a political character to the document.

And I would expect that there will be either for the summit or subsequent to the summit much more developed, more precise documents, more for the bureaucrats than for the politicians which go into much more detail in terms of implementation and targets and timelines and short term decisions and actions that need to be taken.

But the Strategic Concept has to last for 10 years. And so it has to capture political principles and long-term guidance that go beyond the day-to-day, but guide the day-to-day and shape the day-to-day for the next 10 years. So that's sort of the guiding principles of the document.

There will be implementation texts which follow from it. But nobody wants to make this into an implementation text as well because that ends up just looking a lot like a Christmas tree.

Q: (INAUDIBLE) ...specify. Did you have a positive reaction concerning the Russia-NATO Summit from 28 NATO countries?

JAMES APPATHURAI: Yes.

Q: Very technical question. You said Australian Prime Minister is coming. But are you sure it's the prime minister not the foreign minister and are you...?

JAMES APPATHURAI: Well, according to the Secretary General's calendar. But maybe I got that wrong. Why... is the foreign minister coming to the EU?

Q: That's what I have from the Belgium Presidency of the (SPEAKERS OVERLAP).

JAMES APPATHURAI: Well, let us go and check it. I mean the source I got was a pretty good one. But I'll check... we'll check just to confirm.

Q: Do you expect other very important people visiting NATO headquarters because of the ASEAN meeting in particular in New Zealand, Pakistan?

JAMES APPATHURAI: These are all the visits that we have now scheduled between now and end of next week. So that's what I have.

Q: About this?

JAMES APPATHURAI: Not just the Strategic Concept but this meeting is short and crisp. General Caldwell will be here...

UNIDENTIFIED: (INAUDIBLE)

JAMES APPATHURAI: Oh, oh, OK, so (INAUDIBLE). Thank you for coming.