Press Communiqué M-NAC-1 (95)48 Issued by the North Atlantic Council in Ministerial Session at Noordwijk, The Netherlands 30 May 1995

Final Communiqué 1. Earlier this month, we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. We remain convinced that democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights, and a strong transatlantic link are key to maintaining a lasting peace. Over the past fifty years, the countries of Western Europe and North America have forged lasting bonds of peace and friendship, as embodied in our Alliance. Today, we have a unique opportunity to build cooperation and partnership in the whole Euro-Atlantic area. We reaffirm our commitment to work for a peaceful, secure, stable and undivided Europe. 2. As our Alliance approaches the fifth anniversary of its London Summit, it is opportune to assess the progress we have already made in transforming NATO, and our future course in helping to build the safe and prosperous Europe which has been our Alliance's goal since its inception. We have worked to make the Alliance an agent of change, even as it promoted security and stability throughout Europe. Throughout that time, we have worked to help build the structures of a more united continent by extending the hand of friendship and cooperation across former dividing lines. Our leaders initiated profound changes in NATO's approach to defence in a new, undivided Europe and began the hard work of re-orienting NATO's military strategy and re-structuring our military forces. As a result, the missions of today's NATO have evolved and its forces are being significantly reduced and re-structured. These smaller and more flexible forces which include multi-national elements are not directed against any country and can better address the range of security challenges in the post-Cold War environment. We accelerated NATO's transformation at the Brussels Summit in January 1994, where Alliance leaders gave new directions to adapt further the Alliance's political and military structures and procedures. They made even more concrete NATO's new role through the adoption of a broad strategy of practical cooperation throughout Europe. They approved the CJTF concept as a means to facilitate the conduct of the Alliance's missions and in order to provide separable but not separate military capabilities that could be employed by NATO or the WEU. They further strengthened NATO's outreach to its East by adopting the Partnership for Peace initiative and inviting all the new democracies to join us in new political and military efforts to work alongside the Alliance. They also decided that the Alliance expects and would welcome NATO enlargement that would reach to democratic states to our East, as part of an evolutionary process, taking into account political and security developments in the whole of Europe. The Summit reaffirmed the enduring value of a strong transatlantic partnership in sustaining the Alliance's core functions and enabling the Alliance to contribute to security and stability in the whole of Europe. In implementing the Summit decisions, we will further strengthen the transatlantic link between North America and a Europe which is developing a Common Foreign and Security Policy and taking on greater responsibility on defence matters and give our full support to the development of a European Security and Defence Identity. We support strengthening the European pillar of the Alliance through the Western European Union, which is being developed as the defence component of the European Union. The Alliance's organisation and resources will be adjusted so as to facilitate this. The Alliance and the European Union share common strategic interests. A strengthened, renewed and balanced transatlantic partnership will underline the Alliance's essential role for security and stability in Europe and its determination to intensify cooperation with the countries to our East. 3. With the North Atlantic Cooperation Council and the Partnership for Peace, we are building lasting ties of cooperation in the political and military fields between each Partner and NATO and among Partners. The Partnership for Peace has already become a permanent feature of European security. We are determined to develop this initiative to its full potential. It will become increasingly important as an enduring instrument for active relations and practical cooperation with the Alliance for all Partners, as well as helping to prepare those countries which aspire to membership in the Alliance. The relationship between NATO and its Partners is developing on a broad scale, fostering the ability of Partners to join in possible future action with the Alliance in dealing with common security problems. We are encouraged by the solid progress in the implementation of Partnership for Peace achieved since our last meeting in December. We welcome Austria, Belarus and Malta as new Partners, bringing the number of Partners to twenty-six. Implementation of Individual Partnership Programmes has quickly progressed in accordance with our instructions of December 1994. We are pleased that the Planning and Review Process has attracted such wide interest. Fourteen Partner countries participated in the first round, which has just been completed. Based on a biennial planning cycle, this process will advance interoperability and increase transparency among Allies and Partners. Other encouraging developments include: - the increasing number of major NATO/PfP exercises with Partners, including the first one outside Europe in the United States, together with preparatory training activities; - the wide Partner participation in the Partnership Coordination Cell, which is now playing a key role, in particular in coordinating exercises; - the increasing number of regional and bilateral activities in the spirit of PfP; - the elaboration of a more focused and graduated PfP exercise concept; - the completion of a PfP Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA); - the adoption of a PfP funding policy; - the launching of a regular process of information exchange on activities which support the Partnership; and - ongoing efforts of Partners engaged in reform processes in establishing effective democratic and civilian control over their militaries. We are looking forward to tomorrow's meeting with our Partners in the North Atlantic Cooperation Council to discuss the state of our cooperation and to consult on topical security issues. The NACC provides a valuable forum for common consultations between all Partner countries. In order to strengthen our cooperation, we have instructed the Council in Permanent Session to explore the scope for integrating our existing cooperative structures and procedures for NACC and the Partnership for Peace. 4. As recognised by our Heads of State and Government in January last year, the admission of new members will take place as part of an evolutionary process, taking into account political and security developments in the whole of Europe. When the members of the Alliance decide to invite new members, their objective will be to enhance security for all countries in Europe, without creating dividing lines. Enlargement will be part of a broad European security architecture based on genuine partnership and cooperation in the whole of Europe. It will complement the enlargement of the European Union, a parallel process which also, for its part, contributes significantly to extending security and stability to the new democracies in the East. We are satisfied with the progress achieved to date in the internal study on NATO enlargement, which we set in train at our last meeting in December to determine how NATO will enlarge, the principles to guide this process and the implications of membership. We are well on course and will continue to make steady, measured progress. In this context, we will complete the study in accordance with the agreed timetable, and the results will be presented to all interested Partners collectively in Brussels and where requested, individually, including in Partner-country capitals, sufficiently in advance of our December meeting for us at that meeting to assess thoroughly the results of our presentations and consult on the way forward in our examination of enlargement. 5. The Alliance welcomes Russia's acceptance of its Individual Partnership Programme under the PfP and of our dialogue and cooperation beyond PfP and looks forward to their implementation. This dual step paves the way for renewed and extended cooperation between the Alliance and Russia which we believe will enhance stability and security in Europe. We also affirmed our belief that it is desirable to develop the NATO-Russia relationship even further as part of our broad approach to developing a cooperative security architecture in Europe. We propose that NATO and Russia initiate a dialogue, to be pursued in our newly established relationship beyond the PfP, on the future direction our relationship should take. Our aim would be to achieve by the end of this year a political framework for NATO-Russia relations elaborating basic principles for security cooperation as well as for the development of mutual political consultations. We reaffirm our strong support for the political and economic reforms in Russia. We trust that the scheduled legislative and Presidential elections will strengthen the democratic process in that country. This would underpin security and stability in Europe and reinforce the basis for our cooperation. The construction of a cooperative European security architecture requires the active participation of Russia. In this context, it is our desire to have Russia play its proper, important role. We are committed to a close relationship with Russia, based on mutual respect and openness. This relationship can only flourish if it is rooted in strict compliance with international commitments and obligations. 6. While respecting the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, we remain deeply concerned about the developments in Chechnya, which are causing so much suffering and so many casualties in the civilian population. We welcome the establishment of an OSCE assistance group for Chechnya, which is assisting the civilian population and supporting a political settlement of the conflict under OSCE auspices. We call for an immediate ceasefire and urge the parties to pursue negotiations. We urge Russia to facilitate the free passage of humanitarian assistance and hold elections. 7. We want to develop further the relationship with all newly independent states, whose independence and democracy constitute an important factor of security and stability for Europe. We look forward to the fullest possible use of established NACC and PfP mechanisms in enhancing our relations with these states. We attach particular importance to our relations with Ukraine which we will further develop. We welcome progress achieved in Ukraine's economic and political reforms. We hope that Ukraine will pursue this course, to which we lend our support. We welcome the fact that Ukraine chose to participate in the Partnership Planning and Review Process and look forward to the early completion of Ukraine's Individual Partnership Programme. Along with the accessions of Belarus and Kazakhstan, we value greatly Ukraine's accession to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as an expression of a responsible security policy. This was a significant contribution to the recent agreement on the Treaty's unlimited extension. 8. We attach great significance to the strengthening of the relations between NATO and the WEU, based on the agreed principles of complementarity and transparency, including through joint Council sessions and improved cooperation in a number of fields. We are pleased at the way in which our organisations work together in the conduct of the joint NATO-WEU Operation SHARP GUARD. We welcome the decisions of the WEU Council of Ministers in Lisbon of May 1995 on the improvement of the WEU's operational capabilities through the creation of new decision-making and planning mechanisms and structures, including the progress achieved in defining the conditions in which a WEU Humanitarian Task Force would undertake humanitarian operations. We also follow with interest WEU's ongoing "Common Reflection on the New European Security Conditions", which could lead to a "White Paper" on European security, and look forward to using our regular consultations with the WEU to exchange views on this project. The Allies support initiatives to develop multinational operational arrangements and force structures which would strengthen the European pillar of our Alliance while enabling the European Allies to take greater responsibility for the common security and defence and, accordingly, took note of the initiative taken by France, Italy and Spain to organise a land force (EUROFOR) and a maritime force (EUROMARFOR). We also took note that these forces would be open to WEU member states, that they would be declared "forces answerable to WEU", and employed as a priority in this framework, and could likewise be employed in the framework of NATO. This initiative was announced on the occasion of the recent WEU Ministerial Meeting in Lisbon where an agreement was also reached on the participation of Portugal in those forces. We look forward with interest to a high-level briefing on this initiative and to the expeditious definition of the relationship of these forces with the WEU and NATO. 9. An essential part of the Alliance's continuing effort to adapt and adjust its structures and procedures to the new strategic environment lies in the development of the CJTF concept endorsed at the Summit in January 1994. This concept is primarily designed to facilitate contingency operations, including operations with participating nations outside the Alliance. In coordination with the WEU, work has started to develop this concept. A worthwhile and extensive exchange of views has taken place to identify the essential issues and to develop a political-military framework for the CJTF concept. We have made progress but more remains to be done to adapt Alliance structures and procedures and to develop the CJTF concept. We have therefore tasked the Council in Permanent Session to complete, as a matter of urgency, its work in developing the CJTF concept to the full satisfaction of all Allies and look forward to a final report at our next meeting. 10. An important element of the evolving European security architecture is the unique framework provided by the OSCE. Its combination of democratic standards of human rights with the political, economic and military aspects of security establishes a special credibility in dealing with the new challenges of the post-Cold War era. In particular, its ability to apply human rights standards operationally in conflicts has enabled the OSCE to develop into a primary instrument for early warning, conflict prevention and crisis management in its region. Decisions at the Budapest meeting significantly enhanced the ability of the OSCE, as a regional arrangement in the sense of Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter, to contribute to the maintenance of common security in Europe. We welcome the enhancement of the operational role of the OSCE and will support its goals. We tasked the Council in Permanent Session to review the current pattern of contacts between NATO and the OSCE and to improve it as appropriate. We will strongly support discussion within the OSCE of the Russian proposal for a common and comprehensive security model for Europe in the 21st century, to which all Allies will actively contribute. We welcome also the agreement of the OSCE to help implement the Pact on Stability in Europe, which supports development of good neighbourly relations among its participants. We reiterate our pledge made at the OSCE Budapest Summit to provide the OSCE with the political support as well as the human and financial resources and needs to fulfil its tasks, and call upon other OSCE participating states to do likewise. We value the OSCE's role in preventive diplomacy through, inter alia, conflict prevention missions and the activities of the High Commissioner on National Minorities, and commend the Chairman-in-Office for his efforts to ensure that OSCE principles and commitments are respected in the conflict in Chechnya. We call on Russia to observe agreed OSCE documents, such as the Vienna Document and the Code of Conduct on Security Matters. The situation in the Southern Caucasus continues to be of special concern. We welcome the fact that the cease-fire in the area of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict continues to be generally effective. We support the efforts of the Minsk Group to achieve a political settlement of the conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, which would, along with other conditions, allow the deployment of an OSCE multinational peacekeeping force, as agreed at the Budapest Summ it. 11. We want to achieve better mutual understanding with the countries to our South and to contribute to the strengthening of stability in the Mediterranean region. We are pleased that our initiative for dialogue has been met with a positive response and that exploratory discussions have been launched with five Mediterranean states outside the Alliance. We hope further discussions will lead to the establishment of a fruitful dialogue with these and other Mediterranean countries. Such exchanges will foster transparency and a better understanding of security issues of mutual interest. In addition, we mean to make the Alliance's aims and objectives better understood, also with regard to its new missions of peacekeeping under the authority of the UN or the responsibility of the OSCE. 12. We welcome the agreement reached at the Conference in New York to extend the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)indefinitely. This is a decisive step in strengthening the international nuclear non-proliferation system and, thus, international security. 13. We continue to attach great importance to full compliance with and fulfilment of all obligations resulting from existing arms control agreements. They remain fundamental to European security and stability, providing an essential foundation of confidence and mutual trust among European countries. The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) is central to the cooperative security structure we have begun to build in Europe and to stability and security for parties and non-parties to the Treaty alike. Its integrity must, therefore, be preserved. We will abide by the commitments we have undertaken. We expect all other States Parties to implement fully the CFE Treaty, which serves the interests of all parties to the Treaty and is fundamental to European security. Full implementation of the Treaty by 15 November 1995 will provide the essential basis for a constructive and comprehensive review process at the CFE Review Conference in 1996, as foreseen in the Treaty, in the spirit of cooperative security. We reiterate our hope that all signatories to the Open Skies Treaty who have not yet ratified the Treaty will do so and that all instruments of ratification necessary for the entry into force of the Treaty will be deposited at the earliest possible time. We also attach great importance to: - the negotiations on a universal and verifiable Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; - a universal ban on the production of fissile material for weapon purposes; - the early entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention; - completion of work to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention; - the full implementation of START I and the early ratification of START II. 14. We attach high importance to the ongoing work inside the Alliance on the Summit initiative on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery means. We took note of the report of the Alliance's Joint Committee on Proliferation on the activities in the Senior Political-Military Group on Proliferation and the Senior Defence Group on Proliferation. We welcome the progress made in intensifying and expanding NATO's political and defence efforts against proliferation which remains one of the greatest concerns for the Alliance. We have instructed the Groups to continue their work, without replacing or duplicating efforts underway in other international fora, and to report again to us at our next meeting. We welcome the consultations with Cooperation Partners in the NACC and the consultations with Russia on proliferation issues. 15. International terrorist crimes constitute a serious threat to peace, security and stability which can threaten the territorial integrity of states. They cannot be justified under any circumstances. We condemn all acts, methods and practices of international terrorism regardless of their origins, causes and purposes. We reiterate our strong commitment to combat this scourge. 16. We remain committed to the Alliance's common-funded programmes. We consider these programmes vital elements in underpinning our military structures, providing essential operating capability and strengthening Alliance cohesion. We need to ensure that appropriate human and financial resources are directed towards those programmes which will have the highest priority. We welcome that work has begun on the examination of Alliance budgetary management, structures and procedures which we set in hand last December, and look forward to progress being made towards a successful conclusion of this exercise by the time we next meet. 17. We express our deep appreciation for the gracious hospitality extended to us by the Government of The Netherlands.