Press Release (2002) 109 20 Sep. 2002

Statement by NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson, in his capacity as chairman of the NATO-Russia council At their meeting in Rome on 28 May 2002, the Heads of State and Government of NATO member states and Russia identified nine priority areas in which they would intensify their cooperation in standing up to contemporary security threats. One of these was crisis management, where they agreed to continue work on a generic concept for joint NATO-Russia peacekeeping operations. Since then, the NRC Peacekeeping Working Group has met regularly in order to implement this tasking. Today, less than four months after its creation, the NATO-Russia Council at Ambassadorial level reached agreement on Political Aspects of a Generic Concept of Joint NATO-Russia Peacekeeping Operations. NRC Ambassadors further agreed that work should continue, in accordance with the Rome Declaration and pursuant to the NRC Work Programme for 2002, and that the NRC Peacekeeping Working Group should develop proposals to take work forward in this area. Furthermore, Ambassadors decided to share this paper with EAPC partners, as well as the United Nations, OSCE and European Union to ensure that they remain informed of current thinking on NATO-Russia co-operation in peacekeeping. This decision constitutes a milestone in NATO-Russia cooperation within the new NRC framework, and a further contribution to security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area.

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