Meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council Brussels 8 December 1998

Address of H.E. Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania, Mr. Algirdas Saudargas "Future security challenges and NATO-Partner Co-operation in the context of EAPC and PfP" Secretary General, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen: Today's topic give us good opportunity to discuss wide issues of our common concern. Over the past several months, all of us have closely followed the development of the situation in Kosovo. It has become a major subject to the Alliance and also us because of humanitarian sufferings and violations of the basic rules of liberty and democracy. Lithuania has strongly supported the position and the efforts of the Alliance directed to ensure full compliance of the Yugoslav federal government and Kosovo's Albanians to UN Security Council resolutions (No.1199 and 1203). To that end we proposed 10 people, 3 already in place, two on the way, to participate in OSCE's Kosovo Verification Mission and remain ready to contribute with troops and other means, if necessary, to allied efforts in Kosovo. Kosovo crisis once again confirmed the need to develop further the Alliance interaction with partners. PfP enhancement is contributing to the founding of the new security architecture and fostering ability to address future security challenges. It is a way to follow in strengthening and deepening of interested partners practical readiness and ability to contribute to non-Article 5 missions. In this regard, the development of the political-military framework for NATO-led PfP operations, development of the future multinational units concept and expansion and adaptation of PARP are central elements. Progress achieved in developing Political-military framework for NATO-led PfP operations and the trends of ongoing discussions on modalities for participation of Partners in operational planning, in command arrangements, and involvement in political consultations and decision making in such operations promises encouraging results. We expect that political-military framework, together with the implementation of the CJTF Concept, will strongly underpin our practical interaction on the ground and would create a basis for rapid crisis prevention in the Euro-Atlantic area. We should enforce our efforts to develop the framework in time of the Washington Summit. A great part of our joint efforts is devoted to the participation in multinational initiatives in Baltic sea region. We are committed to further develop joint Baltic defence-related projects such as BALTBAT and joint Lithuanian-Polish peacekeeping battalion LITPOLBAT, which will be operational in 1999. Multinational regional military formations involving Partner or NATO and Partner forces contribute to security and stability in the respective region and Euro-Atlantic area as a whole. Bearing in mind our activities and experience we welcome the work undertaken in developing common modalities encompassing guidelines and principles for Multinational regional formations involving Allies and Partners and believe that Lithuania is ready to share experience in this area. We give special emphasis to the strengthening of PARP. We look forward to receive initial Partnership Goals next year. The initiatives and progress that Lithuania has achieved so far in this area together with Danes leaves us confident of the ability to make another step ahead in this important endeavour. Implementation of PSE's give new input to military co-operation and enhances interoperability. In this regard, we look toward to further deliberations, as reported in May EAPC ministerial, on the PSE's involvement in the third level of command structure. It is simply natural to complement implementation of PSE's with the creation of opportunities for civilian to assume role of PfP internships at NATO HQ. We are satisfied that already two initial stand alone NSIP/PfP projects were given life. We know complexity of the process, but in 1999 we would expect other infrastructure projects to be considered by the Allies in order to start their implementation. Dear colleagues, With the view to the continuation of the enlargement process, we welcome today's Allies decision to task the North Atlantic Council to develop for the Washington Summit a comprehensive package that will continue the enlargement process, operationalise NATO's commitment to the open door policy and underscore NATO's willingness to assist aspiring countries in meeting NATO standards. We count on NATO's vision and support to launch the subsequent round of enlargement in 1999 so as to make movement through NATO's open door tangible reality for every qualified aspiring member. Thank you.