Speech

Thank you very much Cihangir for the kind introduction and for allowing me the opportunity to say a few words to celebrate NATO Standardization Agency’s participation in the 41st anniversary of World Standards Day.

Each year the NSA joins the entire standardization world to celebrate Standardization Day, which pays tribute to the efforts of thousands of experts worldwide, who collaborate to develop international standards that facilitate trade, spread knowledge and disseminate technological advances.  This year’s theme for the Standardization Day is “Standards make the world accessible for all” including the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC), the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

The importance of standardization has always been recognized by the Alliance, and the longevity of the Standardization Agency, which was the first agency to be formed in NATO, is proof of the key role standardization plays in politico-military scenarios.  This is, in fact, a concrete demonstration that NATO is strongly committed to facilitating interoperability with all interested parties in the world, knowing that the challenges of the 21st century global security environment must be faced multilaterally and well beyond the capabilities of a single Alliance.

Afghanistan has been a classic example of exactly how true this statement is.  An Alliance of 28 nations plus some 20 coalition partners from non-NATO nations can only effectively work together in joint and combined operations if provisions are in place to ensure smooth cooperation.  Just as the military is charged with ensuring the development of Afghanistan’s security apparatus, the responsibility for ensuring the country’s reconstruction and good governance lies on the shoulders of other entities that specialize in these functions.  Such organizations include the UN, the EU, non-governmental organizations and industrial partners and we must all be able to act in unison with each other.

Interoperability has proven to be a critical force multiplier for NATO since the days of the Cold War.  We witnessed how, in the Balkans, in Operations Active Endeavour and Ocean Shield, and now with ISAF, it has sought to enhance the combined operational effectiveness of the Alliance’s military forces and improve NATO’s overall defence capabilities.  It does this through the coordinated development of policies, procedures and equipment of member nations and coalition partners, allowing the pooling of resources, and even producing synergies among members.

The emergence of new threats and measures taken by the Alliance to adapt its capabilities accordingly have led to changes in operational requirements for armed forces.  These changes have significantly enhanced the importance of interoperability with respect to material, doctrine, tactics, training, communication and many other areas in which interoperability is a major factor for military forces and the systems that support them.

The NSA fully recognizes the peculiarity of profound reforms that are ongoing in the Alliance, such as the streamlining of the committees and agency reform, but throughout this transformational period, it recognizes the contributions it can make to the Alliance’s operational effectiveness, by honouring the sovereignty and voluntary status of nations in the matter of standardization.  The NSA knows better than most that interoperability does not necessarily require common military equipment, but it recognizes, however, the importance of the equipment to share common facilities and to be able to communicate with other equipment, thus putting the required measures in place to achieve this goal.

In these times of financial constraints, standardization makes a vital contribution to the combined operational effectiveness of NATO’s military forces and promotes opportunities for the better use of economic resources.  I applaud the extensive efforts that the NSA is making to improve cooperation and to eliminate duplication in the research, development, production, procurement and logistic support of defence systems, primarily through the promulgation of NATO Standardization Agreements.

Let me conclude by saying that whether readily apparent or not, it is undeniable that standardization is an inherent part of almost all of NATO’s endeavours.  It is certainly evident from our engagements in Afghanistan and Kosovo, but it is also present through the Alliance’s multinational forces such as the Standard Naval Maritime Groups supporting Operation Ocean Shield off of the Somali coast.  It is also visible in the NATO Response Force, which is a rapidly deployable multinational unit consisting of land, air, maritime and special forces components; and it is also an important aspect of NATO’s various partnerships.  In fact, the principal task of Partnership for Peace is to increase the participants’ ability to act in concert with member states.  It was no mistake that the NSA was created shortly after NATO’s inception because an Alliance without standardization would be dysfunctional and practically useless.  Thank you for your time and I wish you a happy 41st anniversary of World Standards Day.