Colloquy on "The European Security and Defense Identity" Madrid, 5 May 1998

"Multinational Forces and their relations with NATO and WEU" Admiral Rafael de Morales Director of the WEU Planning Cell Good afternoon. Monsieur le President Ladies and gentlemen Una vez mas la Asamblea de la UEO, a traves de su presidente, el seor de Puig, me honra con su invitacion a dirigirme a este foro que goza de gran vitalidad, conocimientos e influencia en el futuro de Europa. Tambien quiero agradecer la oportunidad de dirigirme en mi ultima intervencion como director de la celula de planificacion, precisamente con la feliz coincidencia de que se produzca entre estas paredes, donde nos sentimos representados todos los espaoles. I would venture to say that the Western European Union is a military international organisation whose mainly vocation is to cope with Western European security and defence matters. The evolution of this organisation, since the end of the Cold War has been pointed out to achieve its operational development to be able to deal with the new challenges to European security. Two very important components of this evolution are: the creation of the multinational forces and the relations with NATO, which are the topics I would basically like to developed. The main worry of the WEU nations is still a common defence structure, as it always has been. New tasks and missions have been assigned to our armed forces. Mutual co-operation, solidarity amongst nations and respect for international laws have led to compromise and the ability to use military forces in tasks of humanitarian aid, rescue missions, disaster relief and peacekeeping tasks which are very different to conventional engagements. However military doctrines in a broad sense remain unchanged, but military forces training and requirements must be adapted to the new tasks. WEU nations need also to consider how their militay forces can contribute to carry out non-military roles in combating new risks such as organised crime, illegal drug and arms trafficking and international terrorism. It is my opinion that within the WEU all of our work is channelled to the development of a European defence concept in all its aspects. The WEU is working to develop its own operational capability and enhancing our already considerable co-operation with NATO to make maximum use of its established expertise, capabilities and assets. In our relation with NATO a very substancial progress has been achieved. I would like to mention three areas of interest: defence planning, operational planning and exercises. First: we are just at the beginning of our defence planning collaboration with NATO and a big horizon lies open before us. Our impressions of the work NATO has done on our behalf, having now attended two joint screening meetings, are very positive. For the future, joint work with NATO should be improved by increasing our dialogue with the major NATO Commanders, SACLANT and SACEUR, as they develop their force proposals. In particular it would be necessary to determine how WEU missions profiles may best be included in NATO planning situations. This process would also allow us to take a view on the capabilities needed for European nations to perform Petersberg missions. Second: in operational planning area, we are ready to contribute to NATO's follow-on work on WEU's illustrative mission profiles. I have to emphasise that in my opinion we should consider NATO planning capacity, experience and potencial capabilities of CJTF HQ as a tremendous help. Third: WEU-NATO exercise co-ordination is going reasonably well. However, there will be the need for a joint crisis management exercise planning group for specific work on Joint WEU-NATO exercises, such as the one planned for the year 2000. Succesful co-operation in all these fields will greatly enhance the capability of the WEU to conduct operations in a general sense and petersberg tasks in particular. In this context, there are two specific areas of interest: logistic and communications. Particularly in these disciplines we could take advantage of elements of NATO, or NATO's nation' assets, such as airlift, and communication and information systems, as well as IFOR\SFOR experience in coalition operations. I must say that we always try to avoid duplicity which is an important principle for our nations. It is up to them to decide which forces are going to be used in a NATO operations or in WEU operations. There is not any priority, it is always a decision of the nations case by case. Yesterday in this chamber, very relevant and authorised voices gave a precise opinion about the european security and defence identity, which is one of the final steps of this evolution. I know that it is, at present, little more than an idea, but it is an idea which is rapidly coming of age. Of course, the concept needs further progression and we need to make practical arrangements. The multinational forces are a clear indication of reinforcing the esdi among nations. As a natural evolution of the new security concept European nations have realised that they must increased their own contribution and commitment to their own defence. Multinational forces are a very flexible and useful tool in our days. As you know the headquarters and the multinational forces which could possibly serve at the military strategic and the operational level are designated as forces answerable to the WEU (FAWEU). They constitute the backbone of a WEU military command chain. For these national and multinational headquarters and forces close co-operation with the military side of the WEU and regular training is of great importance- even more because these HQs are not tied in a permanent command structure. We have intensive contacts at working level and have just recently conducted the first-ever FAWEU HQ conference, which gave us valuable inputs for our planning work. Some of the multinational formations considered as FAWEU collect a very interesting experience of years working together. Some others are just recent iniciatives following ageements among nations which share mutual interests. But all have in common a great deal of operational flexibility, readiness, adaptation to different circumstances and great capabilities to face a wide range of tasks. These HQs should be able to become the core of the HQ that WEU could need to carry out operations, reinforced by other components as required. During the frequent contact that WEU planning cell have with the multinational formations, we concentrate our efforts in the following topics: WEU crisis management procedures. Command and control structures. Role and task of the operational commander and the operational headquarters. Communications. Logistics. Intelligence. And a very important aspect which is the interchange of experts between the planning cell and the multinational formations for a much better mutual understanding, trying to work together in the same direction. The multinational forces which WEU nations are willing to provide for WEU operations constitute a great potential as a clear reflection of the European defence identity. You can see I always return to this concept. Let me now to add some words about the current internal evolution of WEU, which only aim is to be more efficient. As many of you know, the new military structure will be ready after my hand over next week, and it is not going to change the main task, which is to provide military advice to the permanent council. But the quality of this advice is going to be reinforced. The new military structure will be under the authority of a 3 star flag officer commanding the two WEU military components: Planning Cell and Situation Center. The director of the military staff will commnd an international staff which has 55 persons on board. As director of the WEU planning cell I view the work of the palnning cell as a genuine reflection of esdi and this is of special importance when we look at our relationship with NATO. Broadly speaking, any european defence identity has to take into account the transatlantic relationship. Pour conclure, l'UEO est prte maintenant mener des oprations militaires ainsi qu'a conduire les tches de Petersberg, avec ou sans le support de l'OTAN, et quelque soit le cas, chaque fois que l'on utilise les moyens ou les capabilits de l'OTAN, le support de planification de l'OTAN et la possibilit d'utiliser le quartier gnral du Groupe des Forces Interarmes Multinationales sont d'une importance particulire. La continuit du dveloppement oprationnel de l'UEO est une indication claire de la volont des nations de l'UEO de renforcer cette organisation afin de prendre en main les tches du management des crises diriges par les Europens. Je vous remercie pour votre attention. Merci monsieur le president.