Presentation
by Minister
of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic
H.E. Mr. Eduard Kukan
Dear Mr. Secretary General, Dear Colleagues,
It is a great pleasure and honor for me to have the possibility to open
our today´s EAPC Ministerial Meeting as the Président d´
Honneur. In the name of whole EAPC I would like to use this opportunity
and warmly welcome Ireland as the forty-fifth member of the EAPC cooperation
framework. I am convinced that Ireland, which is well known for its active
foreign policy and particularly for its share in peace operations, will
be a significant contributor to the fulfillment of our cooperation goals.
The co-operation between NATO and countries of Central and Eastern Europe
has achieved an important progress over last ten years. The development
of European security environment in post Cold War era was marked by confidence
building and strengthening of co-operation ties between old adversaries
that became today´s partners. The particular place in this belongs
to the EAPC and PfP. Both frameworks have been and remain important tools
in the enhancement of European political and military co-operation. I
am convinced that without both platforms it would not have been possible
to start the NATO enlargement process and the solution of security problems
and defending of democratic values would have been much more difficult.
When addressing key questions of our today´s discussion - whether
we have made use of all existing capacities in deepening the cooperation
and how we are prepared for future challenges - I would like to highlight
two basic aspects.
First, NATO has comprised the partnership to be its another basic function
by which the Alliance responds to the political changes after the end
of the Cold War. From my point of view this decision has been an inevitable
answer to the significant contribution of partners to the cooperation.
Thanks the partnership which has been proven by concrete events in Bosnia
and Herzegovina and especially in Kosovo the Alliance has added to its
core function - the organization of collective defence role - the role
of an active "projector" of peace and stability.
Secondly, the PfP has got important impulses aimed at its strengthening
this year. Right in the middle of the Kosovo crises the Alliance and partners
embarked the concept of Enhanced and More Operational Partnership. Kosovo
has clearly showed that our common vision of real and capable partnership
does not end only with declarations but furthermore, we are able to underpin
respective mechanisms. Of course, there have been existing reserves we
all know about. I consider the NATO and partners willingness to cooperate
and to be capable of taking actions as substantial.
Nevertheless, Kosovo remains a challenge. Recently, I visited Pristina
and held talks with representatives of United Nations Administration (UNMIK)
and local Albanian and Serb leaders. I have to say that the situation
in Kosovo remains very difficult. The KFOR presence is central to any
possible steps of international community, particularly NATO countries,
towards Kosovo. UNMIK is doing its utmost despite limited resources. Good
progress has been made in rebuilding Kosovo, but political progress is
less encouraging.
What I see as an immediate priority is the necessity to enhance the safety
environment in Kosovo. Neither UN Police (UNCIVPOL) in its present numbers
nor KFOR can sufficiently guarantee the safety of the population. The
fate of Kosovo Serbs remains extremely precarious and shows the limits
of KFOR protection. In this respect, it is essential to strengthen the
UN Police Force. At present, 1800 police officers are deployed. The requested
increase up to 6000 police officers was not met and only 4,718 has been
authorized by the UN Security Council. Not even this number has been achieved
yet. Unless we guarantee sufficient safety environment, we will not be
able to rebuild Kosovo as a place of multiethnic co-existence of Albanians,
Serbs, Moslims and other ethnic groups.
Another important point is general and local elections. OSCE is aware
of all challenges connected with preparation of elections. It is clear
that elections will be very important, if not a turning, point in the
future development of Kosovo. Therefore, they must be well prepared and
organized. Given the present state of affairs, the elections could be
held in the autumn 2000, which itself is a very ambitious goal.
The success of international community in Kosovo will be measured by time
and conditions in which it will be possible to withdraw from the province.
In this respect I see a big role of NATO in cooperation with partners
to keep necessary military presence in Kosovo. It is obvious that the
reconciliation and society building will be a long time process, but we
have to pursue objectives set forth in the UN Security Council Resolution
No. 1244.
Mr. Secretary General, Dear Colleagues,
We all have welcomed the decisions taken by the Heads of States and Governments
at their Summit Meeting in Washington which represents a landmark in the
history of NATO. The Slovak Republic highly appreciated especially the
reconfirmation of the NATO open door policy.
The Slovak Government is fully aware of the decisive importance of the
irreversibility of political stability in the country for its integration
ambitions. However, it is important to emphasize that as the internal
political stability leads to the acceleration of our integration, the
successful integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures will further
enhance the political stability and democracy in Slovakia as well.
The Slovak Republic has already proved at various occasions that both
its capacity to contribute to the security and stability in Europe as
well as its ability to act in accordance with goals and principles of
NATO are growing. Let me mention that we supported the preparation of
the IFOR mission and contributed to SFOR in Bosnia - Herzegovina, took
an active part in AFOR, and participated in UNPROFOR and UNCRO. During
the Kosovo crisis Slovakia fully supported the NATO air campaign against
FRY. At present our engineering unit is an active part of KFOR.
Starting MAP process has been a very important step in the course of
preparation of the candidate countries for their future membership roles.
The Slovak Republic uses its MAP as a tool for improvement of its political,
defence, economic, and legal structures and regulations in order to accommodate
them to NATO standards as closely and as soon as possible. Following the
Washington Summit we have created an internal framework and an effective
control and coordination mechanism for complex improvement of the Slovak
Republic preparation process.
Implementation of MAP and its close link and relationship with the Enhanced
and More Operational Partnership, including Training and Education Enhancement
Programme, Operational Capabilities Concept, and Defence Capabilities
Initiative create a mechanism for our complex preparation for NATO membership.
In this regard we highly appreciate the work done by NATO International
Staff and International Military Staff.
Slovakia is prepared to work with other aspirant countries. Our aim is
to use and build on experiences of others especially on the three new
NATO members. Although MAP does not represent a direct and automatic way
into NATO for any aspiring country - that will be a political decision
- we are convinced that our progress in preparation will be the decisive
impetus for necessary political resolution in our favor.
Thank you for your attention.
|
