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- We, the Foreign Ministers of the Atlantic Alliance have
met at a time when dramatic developments are taking place in
Europe. The Soviet Union and the republics are undergoing
fundamental changes. Leaders there, like those in the other
countries of Central and Eastern Europe, are pursuing far-
reaching political and economic reforms. In this endeavour, they
expect support and cooperation from us. Against this background,
the decisions taken by our Heads of State and Government at their
Summit in Rome, which emphasise NATO's role as a source of
stability for the whole of Europe, assume a special importance
by adding the dimension of cooperation to the Alliance's
traditional approach of dialogue and collective defence. At the
same time, the member states of the European Community have taken
decisive steps at the European Council meeting in Maastricht to
deepen their integration and to establish their common foreign
and security policy in order to assume greater responsibility in
Europe. As all countries of Europe and North America draw more
closely together in a community of shared values, and their
relationship becomes increasingly one of partnership, we will be
able to realise in full the new and broad approach to security
which was set out in the Rome Declaration and the Alliance's new
Strategic Concept.
Relations with the Soviet Union and the Other Countries of Central and Eastern Europe
- The inaugural meeting tomorrow of the North Atlantic
Cooperation Council will enhance our liaison relationship with
the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and launch a new era
of partnership. Our consultations and cooperation will focus on
security and related issues where Allies can offer their
experience and expertise. They are designed to aid in fostering
a sense of security and confidence among these countries and to
help them transform their societies and economies, making
democratic change irreversible.
- We have consulted closely on developments in the Soviet
Union and the republics. In the interest of peace and security,
we look to all the leaders to take matters forward in an orderly
and democratic manner, as they develop towards a common ground
of cooperation. We will lend our individual and collective
support to help the Soviet Union and the republics move towards
these objectives. The Allies have a legitimate interest in
seeing viable arrangements established between the republics for
implementing the Soviet Union's international arms control and
disarmament obligations. We urge the leaders of the Union and
the republics to respect the Soviet Union's commitments under the
Helsinki Final Act, the Charter of Paris and other CSCE
documents. We call on them to comply fully with the provisions
of arms control agreements to which the Soviet Union is a
signatory.
- We expect the leaders of the Union and the republics
to ensure the safe, responsible and reliable control of nuclear
weapons and actively to prevent the proliferation of those
weapons or other means of mass destruction. We are ready to
respond as fully as possible to requests for practical assistance
in achieving these objectives. In this context, we have
discussed efforts and proposals made by individual Allies. We
will monitor the situation in the Soviet Union and the republics,
coordinate our efforts and contribute to the international effort
to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons or other weapons
of mass destruction. In particular, we will actively encourage
the Soviet Union and the republics to take firm measures to
prevent the unauthorised export of nuclear or other destabilising
equipment and technology. We will continue to consult actively
on these and on other developments in the Soviet Union and the
republics, with a view to harmonising our approach to these
rapidly unfolding events.
- We agreed upon the gravity of the problems being
experienced by the peoples of the Soviet Union and the republics,
as they grapple with the difficult transition to democracy and
a market economy, in obtaining food, medicine and other basic
necessities. We agreed that these problems pose a serious threat
to the reform process, and to stability in Europe. We recognise
the urgent nature of the humanitarian needs and stand ready to
support peace as effectively as we have deterred aggression. In
that spirit, the relevant bodies of the Alliance will now draw
up plans to make its unique expertise and capabilities, such as
the coordination capabilities in the Senior Civil Emergency
Planning Committee, available to assist in the urgent
transportation and distribution of humanitarian assistance.
Also, the efforts of the militaries of those NATO members
participating in this enterprise, working jointly and with
others, including the Soviet military, to alleviate human
suffering in the Soviet Union and the republics, can help
demonstrate again that the Cold War is behind us, and that a new
community of shared values and interests is taking root.
- We have also consulted closely on developments in the
other nations of Central and Eastern Europe. We welcome the
continuing progress towards democratic pluralism, respect for
human rights and market economies. We encourage these nations
to continue their reforms and contribute to the further
implementation of CSCE commitments and arms control agreements.
Yugoslavia
- We condemn the continuing violence and deplore the loss
of life in Yugoslavia. We strongly urge all parties to respect
ceasefire agreements in order to allow the prompt deployment of
a UN peacekeeping force. We also urge all parties actively to
pursue the peace process through UN efforts and the Hague
Conference called by the EC on the mandate of the CSCE to find
a negotiated solution to this crisis. We will continue to
consult closely on the situation in Yugoslavia.
A Security Architecture For Europe
- The peace and security of Europe will increasingly
depend on a framework of interlocking institutions which
complement each other, since the challenges we face cannot be
comprehensively addressed by one institution alone. We are
determined to ensure that our Alliance will play its full part
in this framework.
CSCE
- We are actively pursuing the initiatives taken by our
Heads of State and Government in Rome to strengthen the CSCE
process. We are determined to contribute towards decisions to
be taken at the CSCE Council in Prague in January to develop the
political structures and the institutions of the CSCE and to
provide guidelines for the further pursuit of this work at the
Helsinki Follow-Up Meeting in March. We intend to ensure that
the Helsinki Summit next summer marks an important step in
consolidating the new European architecture and in strengthening
CSCE's institutions and mechanisms. We are convinced that the
CSCE must develop the means to promote the implementation of
existing commitments. We further believe that the CSCE should
fulfil its increasingly important role in furthering cooperation
and security in Europe by fostering democratic change, securing
freedom, and developing and applying effective instruments for
conflict prevention, the peaceful settlement of disputes and
crisis management.
- The CSCE has frequently sought contributions to
meetings from various international organisations within their
spheres of competence. The Alliance stands ready to make its own
collective experience available to CSCE and will seek to
establish an appropriate relationship with the CSCE. Following
the conclusions of the meeting of the CSCE Council in Berlin, we
look forward to exchanging information and relevant documents and
to the Alliance contributing as such, on the same basis as other
international organisations, other than the European Community,
and in a manner consistent with CSCE precedent and practice, to
future CSCE meetings on subjects in which it has relevant
expertise.
European Security Identity And Defence Role
- In the spirit of our Alliance's Rome Declaration, we
welcome the decisions taken at Maastricht by the European Council
on the common foreign and security policy of the European Union
which shall include all questions related to the security of the
European Union, including the eventual framing of a common
defence policy, which might in time lead to a common defence, and
by the member states of the Western European Union on the role
of WEU and its relations with the European Union and with the
Atlantic Alliance. We note with satisfaction the European
Council's agreement that the common foreign and security policy
of the European Union shall be compatible with the common
security and defence policy established within the framework of
the North Atlantic Treaty. Enhancing European responsibility on
defence matters while strengthening the solidarity and cohesion
of the transatlantic partnership will greatly contribute to our
common security.
- We support the objective of developing WEU as the
defence component of the European Union and as a means of
strengthening the European pillar of the Atlantic Alliance. We
welcome the fact that in stating their aim of introducing joint
positions into the process of consultation in the Alliance, the
WEU member states have affirmed that the Alliance will remain the
essential forum for consultation among its members and the venue
for agreement on policies bearing on the security and defence
commitments of Allies under the Washington Treaty. We are
appreciative of WEU's stated intention to strengthen the role,
responsibilities and contributions of the WEU member states in
the Alliance and to act in conformity with the positions adopted
in the Alliance. We welcome the invitation to member states of
the European Union to accede to the WEU, or to become observers
if they so wish, and the simultaneous offer to other European
member states of NATO to become associate members of WEU, giving
them the possibility of fully participating in its activities.
This will help ensure the necessary transparency and
complementarity between the emerging European security identity
and defence role and the Alliance.
- We reciprocate WEU's preparedness to develop further
close working links between WEU and the Alliance. We stand ready
to implement practical arrangements to this end, including close
the synchronisation of dates and venues of meetings and the
harmonisation of working methods. We have today tasked the
Council in permanent session to develop as soon as possible with
the WEU proposals for the appropriate arrangements.
Arms Control
- Stability and security on the European continent
require the full implementation of all arms control agreements,
in particular the CFE Treaty. We urge all CFE signatories which
have not already done so to move forward promptly with the
Treaty's ratification. It is critical that all relevant
political authorities assume their responsibility in the new
architecture of cooperative security in Europe and take all
necessary actions to ensure that the CFE Treaty is respected,
ratified and implemented.
- We are hopeful that the new proposals introduced by the
Allies in Vienna will enable us to conclude successfully the
CFE 1A and the CSBM negotiations by the time of the Helsinki
Follow-Up Meeting. We urge our negotiating partners to work
constructively with us towards this goal. We welcome the
progress made in Vienna in the Open Skies negotiations and
express our strong hope that agreement can be achieved in time
for the Helsinki Follow-Up meeting.
- The Helsinki meeting will mark a turning point in the
arms control and disarmament process in Europe, and we are
actively engaged in developing a common approach. The CSCE
Council of Ministers on 19th-20th June 1991 launched informal
preparatory consultations aimed at establishing at the Helsinki
Follow-Up Meeting new negotiations on disarmament and confidence-
and security-building. They decided that formal preparatory
negotiations for the new forum would take place at the Helsinki
Follow-Up Meeting. We have followed closely and participated in
these informal preparatory consultations, carefully noting the
views of CSCE partners. A broad measure of consensus is already
apparent. In the period leading to the Helsinki meeting and at
the meeting itself, we propose that our negotiators and those of
our CSCE partners should be guided by the following broad policy
objectives:
- in order to achieve our goal of a new cooperative order in which no country need harbour fears for its security, we should establish a European security forum in a manner which preserves the autonomy and distinct character of the various different elements in the process, but which also ensures coherence between them;
- we should strengthen security and stability through the negotiation of concrete measures aimed at keeping the levels of armed forces in Europe to the minimum commensurate with common and individual legitimate security needs, within Europe and beyond: these may entail further reductions of armed forces;
- we should institute a permanent security dialogue, in which participants will be able to address legitimate security concerns, and which will foster a new quality of transparency and cooperation about armed forces and defence policies. This dialogue should contribute to the strengthening of the achievements of the Helsinki process in the field of security; and
- we should enhance the ability of CSCE institutions, including the Conflict Prevention Centre, to reduce the risk of conflict, through the full and open implementation of agreed measures in the security field, and through the elaboration of relevant conflict prevention and crisis management techniques.
We consider it important that, in addition to setting
the broad objectives for the new process, the Helsinki Follow-Up
Meeting should establish a concrete work programme for the first
phase of the process. In our view, early attention should be
given to:
- appropriate harmonisation of arms control obligations in Europe, which will provide a basis for consideration of further limitations and, to the extent possible, reductions of armed forces;
- negotiated confidence-building and cooperative measures, designed to ensure greater transparency and predictability in military affairs;
- cooperation to support and enhance existing multilateral non-proliferation regimes, including in the field of transfer of conventional weapons; and
- enhancement of mechanisms and instruments for conflict prevention and crisis management.
We envisage that some measures may appropriately be devised on a selective or regional basis.
- We will continue to work for security at minimum levels
of nuclear arms sufficient to preserve peace and stability.
Ratification of the START agreement and its early implementation
together with the implementation of the decisions of President
Bush and President Gorbachev to reduce unilaterally nuclear
weapons are of fundamental importance to future security and
stability.
The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and
of their means of delivery undermines international security.
It will be our priority task to enhance the authority of the
Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and to
further its worldwide adherence. We also deem it essential to
complete a global, comprehensive and effectively verifiable ban
on chemical weapons next year. We reaffirm our belief that
transfers of conventional armaments beyond legitimate defensive
needs to regions of tension make the peaceful settlement of
disputes less likely. In this context we welcome the decision
to establish a universal register of conventional arms transfers
under United Nations auspices.
- The Spring 1992 meeting of the North Atlantic Council
in Ministerial Session will be held in Oslo in June.
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