EAPC Ministerial Meeting Brussels, 8 Dec. 1998

Address by H.E. Mr. Andrei Gabriel Plesu Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania Agenda topic: "Future Security Challenges and NATO-Partner Cooperation in the context of EAPC and PfP" Mr. Secretary General, Your Excellencies, Allow me, first, to welcome the Secretary General's comments on the outcome of the NAC Ministerial meeting, as well as the decision to concentrate the EAPC ministerial agenda on a single topic, thus enabling more focused and pragmatic interventions and therefore sharper conclusions. The timing and contents of this reunion do indeed serve the purpose of anticipating the far-reaching decisions expected from the coming NATO/EAPC Summit in Washington. For this Summit shall not only celebrate half a century of enduring commitment on both sides of the Atlantic to preserve freedom in peace, stability and prosperity. It shall also lay the foundation of a stronger Alliance more adapted to come to grips with the new security risks confronting Euro-Atlantic space and common values. We are confident that the April 1999 summit shall represent far more than an otherwise well-deserved celebration. We can legitimately expect it will genuinely bring the Alliance into the next century. Certainly, whatever thoughts I express with regard to the next NATO Summit, they proceed from a vision centered on the fate of my country, and of those other countries in the region. Accordingly, since we obviously could not make it into the Alliance when it was created, at least we should be allowed now to bring our share to a more ambitious NATO, empowered to cope with new challenges. For 50 years, NATO has lived up to its mission. Such an outstanding tool is now certainly worth being upgraded to live up to the bolder goals of the Allied countries and partners. The Alliance shall enter the new century equipped with an updated Strategic Concept that carries on the hard-core collective defense and grows through partnership and cooperation. For quite sometime now, Romania has joined those trying hard to lay down the foundation for this new philosophy and has come forward with serious and solid contributions to this end. Whether we are talking about regional cooperation, good neighborly relations or involvement in PfP and peace keeping and peace support operations, Romania significantly upheld the implementation of the main tenets of cooperative security in Europe. I am persuaded that Romania's strategic approaches to, and meaningful involvement in, regional cooperation, are to a large extent known to you. Romania's foreign and security policy is based on the principles of integration, cooperation, good neighborliness and confidence-building. As a Central European country, closely connected to South East Europe, Romania tried hard to respond to the challenges of regional and sub-regional cooperation as an important pillar of cooperative security in Europe. She did so while at the same time pursuing resolutely the fundamental goals of integration into the European Union and accession to NATO. Our strategic approach to regional cooperation is extensive, all-encompassing, four-layered: on the bilateral plane, Romania has partnership-type relations with Hungary and Poland, concluded basic treaties with Ukraine and the countries on the Eastern shore of the Black Sea, and is possessed of a unique portfolio of excellent, substantial bilateral relations with all countries in the region a series of trilateral cooperation schemes - Romania-Greece-Bulgaria, Romania-Turkey-Bulgaria, Romania-Poland-Ukraine, Romania-Hungary-Austria, Romania-Ukraine-Republic of Moldova - were built upon the intense political dialogue and potential for cooperation, existing in each of the respective bilateral frameworks. All these trilateral schemes comprise security targets, such as the joint action against non-conventional threats - cross-border organized crime, terrorism, illegal immigration, arms and drugs trafficking. participation into a wide range of sub-regional multilateral schemes, such as the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), Central European Initiative (CEI), Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), South East European Cooperation (SEE, which includes a substantial defense cooperation dimension, and will be presided over by Romania in 1999), South-Eastern Cooperation Initiative (SECI), the Royaumont Process. at the multilateral European and Euro-Atlantic level, Romania is an active and responsible member of the OSCE - where her bid for assuming the Chairmanship-in-Office in 2001 already reached an advanced preparatory stage - and of the Council of Europe. Romania is, of course, fully taking part in programs aimed at preparing her future membership of NATO and the EU. We do not believe in regional cooperation that is not meant to achieve concrete, practical results to the mutual benefit of the participants. We do not believe in cooperative arrangements that duplicate work done in other fora, or do not make best possible use of existing resources. We do support, consequently, initiatives aimed at improving our military training by implementing NATO standards and increasing our cooperation with NATO Allies and other Partners in a spirit of like-mindedness among our military establishments. I would only refer in this respect to the Romanian-Hungarian battalion, the Central European Cooperation /CENCOOP, the Multinational Peace Force South-East Europe/MPFSEE and SHIRBRIG, where serious work and tangible progress has been accomplished in good-faith in an accelerated manner. As far as "soft security" is concerned, allow me to bring to your attention the achievements we had in setting up in Bucharest a Regional SECI Center for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption. Romania already proved - by costly deeds - that it is committed to directly contribute in peace support operations carried out in the region. The performances of her battalions in the ALBA operation in Albania, as well as in Bosnia's IFOR/SFOR are well known. Romania's genuine commitment to NATO stood the test of an open conflict in the neighborhood. At present, a Romanian contingent of 50 military and civilian personnel are on their way to joining the OSCE Kossovo Verification Mission, while our Army stands ready to attach a specialized aircraft to NATO's Kossovo Air Verification Mission, as approved by the Government and our legislative. Romania, its Armed Forces, are fully prepared to embark in an even broader and more ambitious PfP cooperation with NATO, as well as bilaterally, with the Allied countries. We are currently working, on the basis of a comprehensive and thorough capability study, at putting the reform of the Romanian Armed Forces, on strategically-oriented, target-precise tracks, with a view to ensure the highest degree of NATO-interoperability, as well as the proper performance of sub-regional tasks that will be assigned to Romania within the Alliance. We attach great importance to the cooperation with the Alliance and within the framework established by NATO and Partners together. The documents submitted to our endorsement today show how far the Allies-Partners cooperation has gone. These are fields in which we can safely say this relation is an 'Allied-fashioned' one. EAPC has become a significant element for implementing the new security system based on inclusiveness and transparency. We believe that flexibility and effectiveness should characterize more the EAPC in the future. In this respect, the development of EAPC as a more flexible and operational framework, with a "variable geometry" structure, could be envisaged. The setting up within the EAPC of more open-ended groups centered on concrete topics would represent a target-oriented approach thus enabling both self-differentiation and participation of partners according to their specific interests and needs. For Romania, PfP has always had a dual role: an instrument for strengthening cooperation between all the countries in the Euro-Atlantic region and a vehicle for NATO membership. Romania has a very significant Individual Partnership Program. We support the development of the PfP initiative through: more complex military exercises, participation of the partners' officers in the NATO command, better use of the NATO standards, joint training for peace support operations and the adaptation of the Planning and Review Process (PARP) using the NATO model of planning. Each year, lately, Romania hosted several working meetings of various NATO bodies. In 1999 Romania will host the joint meeting of the NATO Transport Committees in May. Bucharest, as capital of the country that was first to join the PfP, will host the international seminar "Partnership for Peace - 5 Years", from February 28 to March 1, next year. Let me stress again that whatever Romania is doing in these cooperative frameworks proceeds from her own choice and is an organic consequence of shared Euro-Atlantic values. That is why we acted as if we already were NATO members. We will do so irrespectively of when the Alliance will be ready to launch new invitations for membership. Naturally, we see ourselves as a committed candidate for Washington, as it was the case in Madrid. Let me conclude by briefly mentioning the main points underscoring our hopes for April 1999: First, we are of the view that the integration within NATO of the three Madrid invitees and the credible continuation of the Alliance's enlargement should be considered processes that may run in parallel. NATO has the capacity to balance the allocation of resources, be they of a conceptual, political or financial nature, between these processes. Second, the Washington Summit is of crucial importance for the configuration of the security environment in Europe and it has to be a success in all respects. We therefore do hope that for the next step of enlargement the Allied countries shall take into consideration the following principles: The decision in Washington should be based on the consensus reached in Madrid; That decision should comprise a precise and short time frame and a clear-cut road towards Romania's integration into NATO; The decision on Romania's candidature for NATO membership should have the same essentially political and strategic basis and be measured against the same requirements applied to the first three invited countries.