EMBARGO: CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EXPECTED
      ABOUT 10:15 BRUSSELS TIME, FRIDAY, 3 DECEMBER 1993

              NORTH ATLANTIC CO-OPERATION COUNCIL
               OPENING STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN

                       (Public Session)

Our meeting today is the sixth in the two years since our Council was
formed.  We have succeeded in establishing a pattern of consultations
on security issues of common interest and concern.  Only by making
extensive use of it can we increase the understanding and confidence
among us and support the far-reaching and difficult reforms underway in
Partner countries.  The success of those reforms and the establishment
of durable democratic institutions throughout our area is basic to the
security of all of us.

In this way our North Atlantic Co-operation Council has become an
important element of stability in our area and one of the building
blocks of any new Euro-Atlantic security structure.  When the NATO
Allies originally extended the hand of friendship to the states of the
old Warsaw Pact, the goal was to overcome the adversarial confrontation
that had divided Europe throughout the 40 years of Cold War and to fill
security gaps.  Our political consultations are evidence that division
is now being replaced by a spirit of constructive co-operation and
practical partnership.

We have to overcome those forces of the past which still cling to the
old thinking and maintain or even try to revive the image of NATO as
the enemy.  Nothing could be more wrong and furhter away from reality. 
We in NATO have overcome confrontation and turned it into co-operation. 
You know it and everybody can test our sincerity.  NACC is the best
example of it.  We substitute dynamic, joint endeavours for sterile,
competitive enmity.  Our activities complement the essential work
of other institutions, notably the CSCE, and the EU, in the security
field.

A large variety of cooperative activities supplements our consultations
on security issues. 

We have fostered extensive interaction among civilian and military
defence planners and specialists.  These contacts have promoted
democratic control of armed forces and defence planning and encouraged
levels of armed forces which do not threaten neighbours and are
consistent with international commitments and obligations.  We have
also sponsored co-operation in other areas -- information, defence
conversion, science and environmental concerns, and air traffic
management -- which has reinforced the ties we have established in the
NACC framework.  But while we have made significant progress, more
remains to be done.  

Our Work Plan for 1994 will intensify work in all these areas, and add
important new ones related to such subjects as non-proliferation,
defence procurement, civil emergency planning, air defence and CFE
Treaty implementation.

Parmi les domaines cles dans lesquels nous avons lance la cooperation,
au cours de la reunion que nous avons tenue a Bruxelles il y a un an,
il faut citer la preparation des operations de maintien de la paix dans
le cadre des Nations Unies ou de la CSCE.  Cette cooperation revˆt une
importance particuliere si l'on considere les imperatifs auxquels
doivent faire face les Nations Unies et la CSCE.  Pour pouvoir mener a
bien notre travail, nous avons cree un groupe ad hoc du CCNA sur la
cooperation en matiere de maintien de la paix.  Nous sommes deja
parvenus a nous mettre d'accord sur la fa‡on d'envisager le maintien de
la paix et, sur cette base, un vaste programme de cooperation pratique
est deja en cours.  Aujourd'hui, nous allons ˆtre saisis d'un deuxieme
rapport de ce groupe ad hoc et nous allons voir comment nous pouvons
continuer a nous preparer a de reelles operations multilaterales de
maintien de la paix le moment venu.

Si les anciennes divisions que connaissait la zone euro-atlantique se
sont estompees, on voit cependant apparaitre de nouvelles fissures qui
en menacent la securite; je veux parler ici des conflits violents qui
ensanglantent diverses regions.

Nos consultations et notre cooperation sont d'autant plus importantes
si nous voulons encourager la solution pacifique des differends actuels
et eviter les conflits futurs.  C'est cela qui est au coeur mˆme des
travaux du Conseil lorsque nous nous efforcons de contribuer a la mise
en place d'un monde libre et d'un avenir plus pacifique.  Nous voulons
etayer et completer les activites de la CSCE dans ce domaine.

Il est clair que les efforts que nous avons deployes jusqu'a present ne
sont pas suffisants.  Nous devons faire encore mieux. Toutes les
potentialites que recele le Conseil de cooperation nord-atlantique sont
loin d'etre epuisees et c'est a vous tous qu'il revient d'exploiter
encore mieux cette plateforme de dialogue et de cooperation.

With the NATO Summit before us, I expect that our partners will also
want to give us their views on NATO's future, on their desired
relations with us and on ideas how to strengthen NACC.

The issues that I have outlined represent an ambitious agenda for
today's meeting of our Council.  I look forward to a productive meeting
that advances our partnership.