[ NATO SPEECHES ]

Meeting
of the Euro-
Atlantic
Partnership
Council in
Defence
Ministers
Session

Brussels,
13 June 1997

Logo
Speech
of Mr. M. Vborn

Minister of Defence
of the Czech Republic



Ladies and gentlemen,

The Czech Republic, which I have the honour to represent on this forum welcomed with satisfaction the establishment of Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council in Sintra. In this way, Europe acquired a consistent and efficient security structure, which could serve as very good warranty of 21st century security. On one hand, the security of the next century will be constituted by the established Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, on the other hand by strong political military organisation -- NATO. Between these two poles, there are several levels as the programme of Partnership for Peace, Combined Joint Task Forces concept and the role of the Western European Union and the Alliance within it as well as the European Security and Defence Identity concept. In this context, it is to be mentioned that even the role of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe is not underestimated in my country, especially as regards its role in the current necessary adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.

The mentioned concepts and programmes will certainly differ in their developments but they will complete each other in a harmonious way. We are aware of the fact that the building of a knotty structure of security architecture is not an end in itself, but on the contrary, it responds to the new challenges and needs of the security risks by the end of the century. The Czech Republic intends to contribute to all these structures. In this context, I would like to underscore that it is because my country aspires to become a full member at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation soon, we attach a lot of importance to the overall security in Europe. We cannot and do not want to imagine that whichever European country may stand aside of the interests of the others. We have learned from the recent history how bitter retaliation could follow from such an approach. Nonetheless, we all know that Europe is not culturally, politically and economically a homogeneous whole. Efficient Europe wide security policy can be done only by means of several levels of international organisations.

The establishment of Euro-atlantic Partnership Council is considered also a great challenge and a great obligation for the future. It appeared logically in situation when the North Atlantic Alliance enlargement is being discussed, in the time when it is necessary to increase the quality of the political consultative mechanisms and to strengthen the military co-operation by getting these two areas closer. I assume that all of us are aware of the fact how important is not to throw away the challenges which I am speaking about.

As a Minister of Defence, I am responsible for both, the military co-operation with other countries and the preparation of Armed Forces of the Czech Republic for joining the North Atlantic Alliance. We consider both are very seriously. European Partnership Council and the Enhanced Partnership for Peace constitute for the Czech Republic, and probably even for other countries, a favourable external environment of mutual approaching, confidence building and preparation for a full membership in NATO.

Czech Republic intends to engage in the Enhanced PfP intensively. Our intention applies ourselves to the regional co-operation, especially the co-operation with neighbours including the possible building of joint units; within the planned exercises, we want therefore to focus our attention mainly on peace enforcement and peace support operations including conflict prevention and ;during the individual exercises we want to select the general subject as to be always concurrently oriented to the training of the concrete interoperability objectives which were adopted within the second cycle of PARP. Within this, cycle, the Czech Republic will fulfil much more interoperability objectives compared with the first one. The adoption of these new interoperability objectives should also demonstrate our serious interest to be prepared on the military level to become a full member of the Alliance. The lessons learned of the first cycle of PARP were closely analysed and in the future, we will concentrate on the activities of units available for the co-operation within the PARP and then on spreading their way of work into the other parts of armed forces.

We also welcome the prepared project of PfP Staff Elements, which will enable the Alliance and the Partner countries to work on programmes from the level of planning of activities within the several headquarters of NATO. The implementing of this project will also provide officers from the Partner countries with the opportunity to get familiarised with the standards of the work within the Alliances staffs as well as to contribute to these works with their experiences and skills. In addition, our officers are being prepared within the education and training activities of the Czech MOD so that in the moment of invitation of the Czech Republic to join NATO, we could fully participate in the activities of the Alliance.

In the framework our international and military activities, for example the active work within the EAPG and the Enhanced PfP, we do not think only about the security of the Czech Republic and its joining to NATO. We also intend to continue our contribution to the European security as a whole. Our participation in IFOR and SFOR proved our capability to fulfil missions under the operational control of NATO and there is no reason to assume that we would not be able to take part in the missions under the operational command of the Alliance. In order to contribute to the successful course of municipal elections, I have decided to increase our unit in Bosnia and Herzegovina by further fifty men as well as to provide it with further two helicopters Mi17. Especially in these days, when only several weeks divides us from the historical Summit in Madrid, I would like the Czech Republic be perceived as a firm and stable element of the Euro-Atlantic security. We are aware of both, the advantages and the price for this security, which must be paid by every country.


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