Working Session of the EAPC, Madrid 9 July 1997

Statement By H.E. Martti Ahtisaari, President of the Republic of Finland Mr. Secretary-General, The changes since the end of the Cold War have exceeded what most people could have imagined. Democracy is now rooted everywhere in our continent, even though we have experienced painful civil strife. For decades we managed to prevent war by means of deterrence and containment. Now our task is primarily to prevent military conflicts and manage crisis situations as well as to create stability through engagement and cooperation. Today we have brought the dream of cooperative security much closer to reality. Stability through political and economic integration will be the key to European security in the coming century. We are well on the way to accomplishing an effective system of multilateral military cooperation in Europe. We have already done so in the Balkans. The IFOR and SFOR operations were based on the ideas of the Partnership for Peace and have provided experience that will prove useful in the further development of collective security operations in the Euro-Atlantic area. There are, of course, many different ways to pursue security. Every country has the right to make its own security choices. Europe is finally enjoying a state of affairs in which no responsible government seeks to challenge the right of others to exist. The new NATO is opening up to a new and unified Europe. The establishment of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) is a decisive step in building a cooperative security system in Europe. Finland has been fully supporting those efforts. Isolation is no security solution in today's Europe. Instead we have to build on concepts like transparency and interoperability. I wish to underline the need for maximum openness and inclusiveness as well as for appropriate interaction between the North Atlantic Council, the EAPC and the NATO-Russia Council. We have been pleased to note that the parties involved in the NATO-Russia Council have declared that it will on the basis of transparency. The capability of the EAPC and of the enhanced PfP will depend - to a crucial extent - on the Alliance's willingness to share with its Partners as much as possible the issues of substance that it deals with. However, it is equally important that the Partners use the EAPC by feeding into it, individually or in groups, topical issues of national and European security for joint consideration. We need a realistic and practical work programme for our Partnership Council. This should include both a political agenda and putting the PfP on a more operational footing. It should put into practice the principles and purposes of the OSCE, and it should enhance the work done within the framework of the PfP. The EAPC can create added value for both regional and sub-regional solutions. We welcome the idea of strengthening security in South Eastern Europe as a suitable topic for our political agenda. It also comes naturally to us to suggest security in the Baltic Sea region as another political topic. I am sure that further ideas will be forthcoming. Here, however, we have to acknowledge that any subregion should not be seen as separate, but rather as an integral part of the Euro-Atlantic security area. We are experiencing a historic moment. The time for "bloc-thinking" and a new confrontation has passed. To my mind the EAPC is the right tool in the face of new demands for cooperative security as we approach the 21st century.