At Exercise Compact Guard Partnership for Peace Mar 28, 1996

Closing Remarks by the Deputy Secretary General General Hansen, As our host for this visit, I thank you most gratefully for giving me and my fellow guests this chance to observe the concluding stages of Exercise Compact Guard. I would like to say how much we have enjoyed the visit and how much we appreciated being here to see at first hand what you have been doing, and indeed what you are accomplishing through this innovative demonstration of new Alliance capabilities. To those who participated in the exercise, I offer my congratulations. The skill and professionalism displayed were of the highest standard. And those who planned and directed this exercise should be praised for their months of hard work and commitment. Since Partnership for Peace was initiated in January 1994, the PfP exercise programme has grown in size and sophistication. And it is still growing. At the beginning of the Partnership, we hoped to hold at least one(!) exercise in the first year. In the event, we held four PfP exercises in 1994, which was a remarkable achievement, and demonstrated the commitment of the Alliance to give immediate impetus to the Partnership. Last year, 1995 saw 12 exercises. This year, there are 17 major PfP exercises scheduled and nine are in Partner countries. Clearly, the exercise programme has picked up an impressive momentum. They are involving more and more personnel from Allied and Partner countries at all levels and are covering a wider range of military disciplines. But it is not just the number of exercises which is important. It is their quality. They are having a far-reaching effect on the way the military forces of our countries approach peacekeeping. We are seeing greater standardisation in doctrine, in communications, and, most importantly perhaps, ever-growing mutual respect and confidence.

In terms of binding our military forces together in a framework of cooperation and mutual commitment, Partnership for Peace has thus proved a success beyond all expectations. When we began, we had little idea of how many countries would be interested in joining the partnership or how strong their commitment might be. As we have seen today, Partnership for Peace has generated not just interest, but also enthusiasm. It brings together countries of very different security traditions and of different security perspectives. But the factor which all who participate have in common is the desire to work for peace in an undivided Europe. The skills developed in PfP, and particularly the skill of conducting joint operations, are of vital importance for ensuring peace in an often turbulent world. Nowhere is this more true than in Bosnia, where countries who are represented in Exercise Compact Guard are engaged together in an operation to uphold the values we have in common. The success of IFOR owes much to the success of Partnership for Peace and the dynamic and innovative programme of exercises within it. In Bosnia we see clearly the future of multinational operations and the key importance of command and control. Without an efficient system of command and control, without a single unified command structure, IFOR could not have met the challenge of peace implementation so successfully. Compact Guard marks a new stage in the PfP process. It is unique. It builds on the lessons of Bosnia and points to the future of PfP exercises. It was conceived as a test bed for a new and urgently needed capability - the command and control of a multinational joint force. For the future, we must have such capabilities trained and already in place. And it is essential to exercise such capabilities with our Partners. Indeed, NATO itself benefits greatly from interaction with others, as we are seeing in Bosnia and as we are seeing today with Compact Guard. It is, in fact, hard to imagine a stand-alone NATO without Partners, as we had in the old days, just as it is hard to imagine a NATO peace support operation without the participation of Partners. Exercises such as Compact Guard will help prepare us for such contingencies.

Let me conclude these remarks by saying how fitting it is that this exercise, which is the embodiment of Partnership and Cooperation, should be conceived and organised under the auspices of the Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces Central Europe. It was here in NATO's Central Region where during the Cold War we saw the highest concentration of troops, the highest quantity of weapons, and the greatest intensity of exercises. All this was a reflection of the confrontational approach to security brought about by the division of Europe. It is here now in the Central Region where new cooperative approaches to security are being pioneered. Again, I wish to salute General Hansen and all those responsible for making Compact Guard a success. On behalf of the Secretary General and the North Atlantic Council, let me offer you our congratulations on a job well done, and our best wishes for the future. Thank you.