M-NACC-
2(92)109
Issued
at the
Meeting
of the
North
Atlantic
Cooperation
Council
NATO HQ,
Brussels
18 Dec. 1992
|
Final Communiqu
- We, the Foreign Ministers and Representatives of the
member countries of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council
have today continued our consultations to contribute to
enhanced security and cooperation in the area from Vancouver
to Vladivostok.
- Our area faces new and difficult challenges which
give rise to serious concern. Its stability and security will
depend on how we are able to respond to these challenges and
thereby to manage the process of change.
- During the first year of its existence, our Council
has proved its usefulness for dialogue and cooperation and for
strengthening security. Its potential will be further
developed and applied. To that end, we have adopted today a
substantial Work Plan for Dialogue, Partnership and
Cooperation for the year 1993. It builds on the positive,
mutually beneficial results of our initial Work Plan for 1992
in the political, military, economic, scientific,
environmental and information fields, including defence
conversion and civil/military coordination of air traffic
management.
We agreed to strengthen and broaden further our
partnership as a dynamic process and to give it a more
practical focus. This would support the continued progress in
democratic and market-oriented reforms which is essential for
the success of our cooperation. Our cooperation could also
take the form of activities agreed by all the partners but
carried out by some of them in open-ended groups which reflect
specific shared interests, for example the pilot projects on
defence conversion and on defence-related environmental
issues.
Active cooperation on defence matters and military
contacts under our Work Plan are an important contribution to
better mutual understanding among armed forces and fostering
responsible and cooperative behaviour in the military field,
which are essential to our efforts to help safeguard peace.
We intend thus to contribute to achieving a pattern of
democratically controlled and smaller military forces which
are structured with defensive intent, at minimum levels
consistent with legitimate security requirements. These
objectives should be reflected in military doctrines.We
welcome progress already made in these areas.
Cooperation will be significantly increased in the
science and environmental fields on priority issues.
- The further development of our cooperation is linked
to respect by all our countries for international commitments
undertaken inter alia within the framework of the CSCE. We
are determined to implement these commitments fully and
thereby to enhance the security and stability in our area.
- Regional tensions, conflicts and ethnic violence are
threatening stability and security in our area and hampering
the achievement of our goal of enhancing peaceful cooperation.
We cannot allow the current process of transition in Europe to
be undermined in this manner.
- We welcome the decisions taken by the CSCE Council
in Stockholm to enhance the CSCE's operational and
institutional capacity to prevent conflicts, manage crises and
settle disputes peacefully. We are determined to contribute
to achieving these goals.
- Our countries are ready to support and contribute on
a case by case basis to peacekeeping operations under UN
authority or CSCE responsibility, which ensure international
legitimacy for such operations.
Taking into account the decision of the 1992 CSCE
Summit Meeting in Helsinki, we will exchange experience and
expertise on peacekeeping and related matters; we will
continue our consultations leading to cooperation on this
subject in conformity with the Work Plan we have adopted.
- Our Council is continuing to contribute to the
building of a new security architecture based on cooperative
relations among states and a network of mutually reinforcing
institutions.
- We condemn the use of force not sanctioned by
international law as a means to pursue political goals.
Permanent solutions to regional conflicts can only be reached
through negotiations as well as equal and full respect for
human rights, including those of persons belonging to national
minorities, the territorial integrity of all states and the
inviolability of their borders in accordance with CSCE
principles and other relevant international commitments and
norms. We pledge to use our dialogue and cooperation within
the NACC to help prevent conflicts.
- We are profoundly disturbed by the deteriorating
situation in the former Yugoslavia, which constitutes a
serious threat to international peace, security, and
stability. We fully support the efforts of the UN, the CSCE
and the UN and EC Co-Chairmen of the International Conference
on former Yugoslavia to find a negotiated and just settlement
to the tragic conflict in the former Yugoslavia and call on
all parties, especially the leadership of Serbia and
Montenegro and of the Bosnian Serbs to cooperate with these
efforts, in particular to implement strictly the decisions of
the London Conference and the mandatory resolutions of the UN
Security Council. Any taking of territory by force or any
practice of "ethnic cleansing" is unlawful and unacceptable
and must not be permitted to affect the outcome of the
negotiations on constitutional arrangements for the Republic
of Bosnia and Herzegovina. All displaced persons must be
enabled to return in peace to their former homes. We support
all humanitarian efforts aimed at alleviating the plight of
the population and at preventing further dislocation, e.g.
through the development of safe areas for the protection of
the civilian population and a provision of refuge for
particularly vulnerable categories of refugees.
We are gravely concerned about the risk of conflict
spilling over into other areas. This would have serious
implications for the region. In this connection, we are
disturbed by the dangerous situation in Kosovo, developments
in the Sandjak and Vojvodina and some recent events in the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. We stress the
necessity of urgent preventive measures and support the steps
that have already been taken by the United Nations and the
CSCE. We welcome the UN Security Council decision to place
preventive peacekeeping forces in the former Yugoslav Republic
of Macedonia. We believe that a UN presence in Kosovo would
be a positive step.
We urge all parties concerned to strive in the
framework of an overall settlement of the crisis for a
significant reduction in the level of armaments in the region,
in particular through a comprehensive regional harmonization
of arms control obligations.
We deeply regret the ongoing hostilities in the
conflict being dealt with by the CSCE Conference on Nagorno-
Karabakh. We urge the parties involved to take immediate
steps in order to establish an effective ceasefire. We
strongly support UN and CSCE principles as well as all steps
and decisions taken by the CSCE in relation to the present
conflict. We continue to believe the proposed CSCE Conference
in Minsk offers an immediate opportunity to achieve a peaceful
settlement of this conflict and we support efforts to convene
the conference on the basis of the continuation of the work
begun in the framework of the Rome meeting.
We welcome the continuation of the democratization
process in Georgia. We are pleased that the ceasefire
agreement between Georgians and Ossetians in the area of
conflict has held so far. We welcome the dispatch of the CSCE
mission to the area. We hope that it will play a constructive
role in promoting a political settlement. We hope that the
Georgian-Russian-Ossetian Peacekeeping Force will develop a
relationship of cooperation, consultation and trust with the
mission. We remain deeply concerned about the conflict in
Abkhazia.We call on the parties involved to establish an
effective ceasefire and to work together with the CSCE and the
UN Secretary-General's representatives for a lasting peaceful
solution.
We are pleased that the ceasefire in the Republic of
Moldova is holding. We urge further efforts towards an
expeditious permanent solution to the problem of the Left Bank
Dniester Areas without further violence and towards agreement
on the status and the early, orderly and complete withdrawal
of foreign troops from the Republic of Moldova. We support
CSCE efforts to contribute to a peaceful resolution of the
current situation.
We urgently call for a halt to the civil strife in
Tajikistan. We welcome the election of a new chairman of the
national assembly and head of state of Tajikistan. We hope
that this transition will help end the fighting. The
restoration of peace will allow Tajikistan to focus on the
challenges of democratic development in the interest of its
people.
- Completion of the expeditious withdrawal of foreign
troops from the Baltic states under appropriate withdrawal
agreements is important in view of the overriding principle
that military forces may be stationed on the territory of a
foreign state only with the consent of that state. The
continuation of the withdrawal process will be a major
contribution to stability in the Baltic region. We recognize
that practical difficulties have to be overcome but they
should not be allowed to unduly delay the overall process. We
hope that international cooperation will help overcome those
difficulties. This withdrawal should not be - and is not-
linked to other issues. All parties must exercise
flexibility and moderation in negotiations to resolve
remaining problems, including those of social and material
nature.
- We have already achieved historic advances in arms
control, disarmament and confidence building. Full
implementation of existing agreements, further dialogue,
transparency and confidence and security building measures, as
well as the enhancement of consultation and cooperation are
fundamental to increased security, taking into account new
political and military realities. To this end,
- We welcome entry into force and successful
completion of the baseline validation period of the
CFE Treaty, which has always received the support of
our Council. The High Level Working Group which our
Council established on 20 December 1991 has
significantly contributed to this success. We are
committed to full implementation of all provisions
of this vital Treaty, including those on reductions,
information exchange and verification.
- We will work with all CSCE countries to make the
Forum for Security Cooperation a success,
particularly in the areas of harmonization of
existing arms control commitments, transparency in
defence planning, and non-proliferation. We urge
all CSCE participating states to take part in this
important forum.
- We support development and definition of the concept
of a code of conduct in the security field and we
welcome pioneering work undertaken in this respect
within the framework of the CSCE.
- We urge those states concerned which have not yet
ratified the START Treaty, including the Lisbon
Protocol, to do so speedily in order to permit its
prompt entry into force.
- We are committed to preventing proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction. We reiterate our
support for the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and for its indefinite
extension in 1995. We urge all countries that have
not yet done so to become parties to the NPT as non-nuclear weapons states.
- We welcome the successful achievement of a draft
Chemical Weapons Convention. We pledge to become
original signatories and commit ourselves to its
early ratification. We urge other countries to do
likewise.
- We call on all countries, particularly those located
in regions where the risk of proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction has increased
alarmingly, to take all appropriate steps to prevent
the proliferation of such weapons.
- We are equally committed to responsibility and
restraint with respect to transfers of conventional
weapons. We call on all countries to submit full
relevant data to the UN Register of Conventional
Arms by April 1993.
- Those of us who are signatories of the Treaty on
Open Skies are committed to early ratification and
entry into force. Those of us who have not yet
signed the Treaty will consider the question of
accession as soon as possible. We look forward to
wider adherence to the Treaty by interested states
which are participating in the CSCE but are not
original signatories to the Treaty as provided for
by Article XVII of the Treaty and called for in the
CSCE Open Skies Declaration of 24 March 1992.
- While we recognize the resource constraints faced by
many of our members, we nonetheless encourage the widest
possible participation in activities within the framework of
our Council.
- Having taken due notice of the statement by the
Representative of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic, we
state our readiness to welcome the Czech Republic and the
Slovak Republic as members of the North Atlantic Cooperation
Council as of 1 January 1993.
- Finland attended the meeting as an observer.
|