Press conference

Oana Lungescu (NATO Spokesperson): Thank you very much for coming. The Secretary General and the President of the Kyrgyz Republic will have brief statements and then will be happy to take a couple of questions.

Secretary General.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen (Secretary General of NATO): Madam President, first of all, I would like to welcome you to NATO Headquarters. It's really a great pleasure to get this opportunity to meet with you. We have a long-standing partnership with Kyrgyzstan and this afternoon the President and I have discussed how we can further develop our partnership in the coming years. I hope my meeting with you will give our partnership a new impetus.

NATO supports Kyrgyzstan in the important steps towards a democratic and stable political system. Today I have congratulated the President on her successful election and on the new coalition government in Kyrgyzstan.

I commend the President for her efforts to establish a more democratic system, and a stable society. NATO is an Alliance of democracies committed to the principle of individual liberty, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. And we encourage our partners to follow and to respect these principles.

No society can ignore a people's aspiration for freedom. The desire for freedom resides in every human being and political and economic freedom generates peace, prosperity and progress because liberty releases entrepreneurship and creativity.

NATO is ready to assist Kyrgyzstan in reforms that will modernize the security sector and make it more able to meet the challenges it is facing. And I'm convinced that our long-standing partnership can be broadened. We can help Kyrgyzstan to reform the defence and security sector, and the rule of law and make the country safer for its own people.
NATO and Kyrgyzstan share a common interest in a stable and secure Afghanistan. NATO is grateful for Kyrgyzstan's political and practical support to our ISAF mission in Afghanistan.

The President and I have discussed the situation in Afghanistan. I think Afghanistan is on track to start taking the lead for its security this year. Our goal is that by 2014 the Afghan government will be in the lead for security throughout the country.

In the long term we are determined to remain engaged in Afghanistan through an enduring partnership that will continue to support the government and the people of Afghanistan. I also think that will be in the interest of Kyrgyzstan.

Thank you.

Roza Otunbayeva (President of the Kyrgyz Republic): Thank you. Thank you.

Secretary General, we had today a fruitful meeting. For me after long years, because I was also with the NATO at the beginning of the partnership of Kyrgyzstan when we just started those partnership programs. And a review of those programs which we have done right now shows that there is a variety of the programs implemented in my country, but it needs such widening of those programs and strengthening of those programs.

Minister of Defence and other enforcement bodies in my country, they are implementing some good interesting programs, including the social rehabilitation of the militaries, of their work after the retirement and this is something important and new for our militaries. They've learned English in order to seek better job. Now they'll learn business knowledge and this will open for them better opportunities.

We have also some projects from NATO include science and the knowledge of our academics, which will be very important for the whole society. And we are grateful to NATO for those programs beneficial for the development of our society.

But you are rightly pointed on those... the most serious challenges which my country face over the last period of time. And first of all, I would stress on the issues of the neighbouring Afghanistan and I must tell you that my serious of worries about the borders; borders with Tajikistan and then with Afghanistan. This is a concern which we have. And so we must strengthen our border troops, and I talked with the Secretary General about this matter.

We faced terroristic acts last... late last year, of last year, and this is new chapter on terroristic work which we want to learn and really to develop among the people and also with the ministries relevant. This is what we want very much to learn from NATO.

And certainly we are talking about this partnership program, Secretary General, this acronyms which you mentioned, a purpose(?) under way, and the progress between Kyrgyzstan and NATO and we want to have a real progress. We talked about this, and I hope that in our development between NATO and Kyrgyzstan we reach concrete results of this year and we're looking forward to strengthen our security forces with the NATO assistance and we want to learn from this Alliance of free societies, democratic countries, how to make safe our country.

And I must tell that challenges of my country which we passed since April of last year shows that political development... we are on the right track, parliamentary democracy is under progress. I have in my delegation also members of the Parliament, opposition members, and so we are trying to put together and make operational parliamentary democracy. And I hope that this will work out and it is single parliamentary country in the former Soviet Union and so far we are meeting all these challenges successfully.

Thank you.

Oana Lungescu: We have time for a few questions. If you have any please say your name, your organization, and who you're addressing your question to, please.

Q: Fukushima from Mainichi newspaper, Japanese newspaper. My question goes to the first Secretary General, the second, Madam the President.

When it comes to democracy and freedom now the situation in Libya is developing very rapidly recently and Secretary General, do you think now it's the time to consider as an option of setting the non-fly zone over Libya? And are there any other military interventions, options on the humanitarian basis?

And Madam the President, now as I said, in the North Africa and Middle East the situation is very volatile, and are you have any concern that it might have some implication to your country? Thank you very much.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen: First of all, on Libya. The situation in Libya is of great concern to all of us. It's a crisis just at our doorstep. It is outrageous what the Libyan dictatorship is doing against it's own people.

However, at this stage I will not go into specifics about possible future measures to be taken. I think the framework here and now is and should be the resolution adopted by the UN Security Council last week, and that Security Council resolution excludes the use of armed forces and a no-fly zone is not mentioned in the Security Council resolution.

Roza Otunbayeva: I want to tell you I'm reading western papers starting from the Herald Tribune, and I'm wondering that for they are mentioning all countries, all sort of countries, when they are comparing with the Northern Africa and Maghreb countries events that there is a democracy in Ukraine or in Indonesia or other... today's Herald Tribune, look at this paper.

But events in Libya, they're exactly the same how it was in Kyrgyzstan last year, April of last year. Eighty-seven people been shot in front of the White House over the last... from year... on the 7th of April. People been shot just because they came to the White House and they have demanded resignation of dictator Bakiyev of that time.

And his response was shooting of those people. And opposition took the power, we draw the road map. In half a year we got parliamentary elections. In three months we've got a referendum where we have adopted a new constitution with a parliamentary system. Our election's been recognized widely by the OECD and the European Union as the most transparent and the most open in the former Soviet space, and so we got today single example of this parliamentary governance, which was predicted as catastrophe, as impossible, mission impossible. And of course this is not an easy path. It's a difficult path. But we are trying to put this... to make this workable and we hope that... this is only way how we can put stability in our country. We don't want anymore to live under dictatorship.

Oana Lungescu: We have three more minutes for any questions, if there are any. If not, thank you very much for coming.