Address
by HE Mr.
Herbert Scheibner
Minister of Defence of the Republic of Austria
First of all I wish to welcome with sincere appreciation Croatia as new
participants in the framework of Partnership for Peace. We are happy to
see that our Croatian friends have initiated this important step for intensifying
the co-operation towards the Euro-Atlantic community. With this Croatia
has also created an important condition for further stabilizing and implementing
peace in the region.
The stability in the Balkans is for Austria of great political importance
also in the light of our responsibility within the EU and the international
community. When NATO has been forced to use military assets in the Balkans
Austria was immediately prepared to pick up its share. Since then some
3,500 Austrian soldiers have participated in various operations in the
Balkans. Due to the tragic development in the Balkans we must be aware
that in the future a sound security policy solution can only be achieved
by a solidary contribution by all of us. Therein the full freedom of action
of our contingents achieves great importance. Therefore we have only recently
adapted the national rules of engagement of our KFOR contingent.
Duration and size of this mission force us, like many other nations as
well, to a concentration of efforts. I herewith inform you that in light
with the stabilisation of the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina we are envisaging
to terminate our military participation in SFOR in the spring of 2001
and by that consolidate our military participation in KFOR in a mid-term
perspective. Finally the lessons learned of this operation represent a
valuable contribution for the adaptation of our forces for international
missions and thereby for the enhancement of interoperability with the
Alliance.
For us as a partner nation the instrument for achieving and implementing
this aim is and remains the Planning and Review Process. This mechanism,
the most important and ambitious sub-programme of PfP, has recently reached
a new dimension. To my mind the PARP is also an important link between
NATO and the efforts of EU in force planning for future crisis response
operations. This avoids any unnecessary duplication within NATO and EU.
This also harmonises the Euro-Atlantic as well as European efforts and
enable the interoperability of our forces. Nevertheless, a greater transparency
in this filed as well as in DCI would be desirable. Thereby non-allied
member of the EU should be granted access to the relevant force planning
, which is in support of crisis-management, in order to guarantee the
interoperability of forces.
Austria will also continue, besides its engagement in the framework of
the development of the European Headline and Capability Goal, to participate
actively in the enhanced and adapted PARP. I don't see any contradiction
therein, on the contrary, in time of shrinking resources this represents
an excellent opportunity for focusing and adapting our efforts. Our aim
thereby must be - by avoiding unnecessary duplications - to guarantee
a sensible task-sharing within the Euro-Atlantic framework and thus improve
decisively the capabilities for adequate reaction towards any kind of
crisis.
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