Meeting of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council in Ministerial Session NATO HQ Brussels 11 Dec 1996

Opening Statement by the Secretary General Official Public Opening - 10.15

Your Excellencies, dear friends and colleagues, Welcome to this, the twelfth meeting of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. Looking around the table, I see several new faces. A very warm welcome to the newcomers. I would also like to extend a special greeting to the Secretary General of the WEU, Ambassador Cutileiro, and to the Chairman in office of the OSCE, Foreign Minister Cotti of Switzerland. We are very pleased that you are with us today. This month the NACC marks its fifth birthday. In those five years, we have come a long way. The NACC started by building transparency, confidence and trust between Allies and the newly-emerging democracies of Central and Eastern Europe. We developed and implemented a work plan designed to cooperate with those countries in their transition to civilian controlled, democratically accountable armed forces. Our activities ranged from political consultation to practical exchanges of expertise on a whole range of military, civil and scientific matters. This success led to another. The creation of Partnership for Peace demonstrated that we had entered a new stage, where we could, for example, envisage joint training and exercises for peacekeeping operations. The purpose of NACC remains unchanged: to strengthen European security and stability through dialogue and cooperation. But it has proven its ability to move with the times. We shall discuss today how NACC and PfP should develop for the future. One key challenge is to enhance Partnership for Peace. Within NATO we have developed some ideas on the future of PfP - and ways in which we can use it to bring Partners, who so wish, closer to the Alliance. The Allies want to share those ideas and develop a common way forward. We need also to consider how we can move beyond the present form of dialogue and enhance our regular security and political consultations. Yesterday, the Allies agreed to work with Partners on the initiative to establish an Atlantic Partnership Council as a single new cooperative mechanism, which would form a framework for enhanced efforts in both practical cooperation under PfP and an expanded political dimension of Partnership. Yesterday, the North Atlantic Council recommended the convening of a NATO Summit in Madrid on July 8-9 1997, to set the course for the Alliance as it moves towards the 21st century. Alliance Heads of State will have to address a number of key issues, including the opening of the Alliance to new members, an enhanced Partnership for Peace, the development of a security partnership with Russia, and further developing the relationship with Ukraine. The Summit decisions will set the seal on a new NATO. They will also mean that the relationship between Allies and Partners will become closer and that our common security will be seen to be visibly linked. A notre réunion, aujourd'hui, nous devrons étudier certains des problèmes de sécurité qui se posent à nous. Cet après-midi nous débattrons de la situation en Bosnie-Herzégovine et alentour, ainsi que des perspectives de coopération régionale. Nombre des pays présents ici ont fourni des troupes à lIFOR et ont signalé leur intention de prendre part à la Force de stabilisation que les autorités militaires de l'OTAN préparent actuellement. Nous sommes reconnaissants à nos Partenaires de leur participation et leur engagement ainsi que du soutien qu'ils continuent à apporter. Les échanges de vues que nous aurons aujourd'hui devraient permettre d'envoyer un message très fort aux dirigeants politiques en Bosnie. Nous sommes tous désireux d'apporter une aide militaire et économique. Mais la paix et la prospérité de la Bosnie-Herzégovine dépendent, en dernière analyse, des parties eux-mmes. Les progrès remarquables que la communauté internationale a enregistrés en Bosnie sont à porter à la fois au crédit de l'IFOR et à celui des organisations qui ont travaillé aux ctés de l'IFOR ou avec elle. Je tiens à féliciter tout particulièrement l'Organisation pour la sécurité et la coopération en Europe qui a organisé les élections générales décisives de septembre dernier. M. Cotti, Ministre des affaires étrangères et Président en exercice de l'OSCE, qui est présent parmi nous aujourd'hui contribuera à nos échanges de vues. Après la réunion, M. Cotti signera le Document cadre du Partenariat pour la paix, faisant ainsi de la Suisse le dernier pays accédant au Partenariat. Ceci démontre une fois encore que le PfP est un élément permanent et d'une valeur inestimable de la nouvelle architecture de sécurité européenne.