Address
given by
H.E. Janez Janša
Minister of Defence, Republic of Slovenia
at the EAPC In Defence Ministers' Session
Lord Robertson, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a pleasure for me to join
you this morning for this, my initial, Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council
in Defence Ministers session, in my new capacity as the Defence Minister
of the Republic of Slovenia.
May I use this opportunity to briefly stake out the policy of the new
Government on Slovenia's accession to NATO. Membership in the Alliance
is one of the two top priorities of the Government, based on a strong
and binding cross-party parliamentary support. May I also underline that
the parties forming the coalition have had a long track record of support
for Slovenia's NATO membership.
While we have built a powerful partnership with the Alliance, which has
contributed to Slovenia's growing role in conflict prevention and crisis
management, that has been clearly demonstrated mostly in our neighbourhood
to the South East, especially in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, partnership
as a long term proposition is not enough to us. It is a pleasure that
I can announce today that Slovenia will contribute a police platoon to
UNMIK in Kosovo.
My Government will make an extra push, on the basis of what has already
been done, to transform our armed forces so that they can play their full
part in contributing to the collective defence of the Alliance. While
Slovenia has already clearly shown by our concrete support for the Allied
Force campaign that we understand how to take on Allied responsibilities
in crisis management the new Government will introduce a number of further
initiatives to make Slovenia an even greater contributor to overall Euro-Atlantic
security.
We expect that by the time of the NATO Summit of 2002 the Allies will
recognise this fact by inviting Slovenia to join their ranks.
Let me now shortly address reports which are to be endorsed or noted
today. We highly value the progress made since the Washington Summit in
implementing initiatives regarding ways how to enhance Partnership for
Peace and make it more operational. Given the importance of these initiatives
and a potential payoff they could have on the overall interoperability
of Partner forces with those of the Alliance in the ongoing operations,
we support their further development to the point where detailed analysis
of the resource implications becomes possible. It is at this point when
we will be able to assess, plan, and commit national resources needed
in support of more structured and more effective participation of our
forces in NATO-led Peace Support Operations. I would like to mention in
this framework, that Slovenia will also announce shortly its offer to
contribute to the EU Headline Goal.
In this regard I would also like to support 2000 Partnership Goals Summary
Report. For Slovenia, as an aspirant for full-fledged Alliance's membership,
many of 2000 Partnership Goals represent demanding but achievable force
planing targets which take account of the requirements implicit in future
collective defence guarantees. My Government shall ensure that a high
priority is given to them in our national force plans, and that resources
are allocated as necessary.
Last but not least, I would also like to highlight the importance we
attach to the full implementation of the Political Military Framework
for NATO-led PfP operations. We think that the recent analysis proposed
on increased Partner involvement is the right way ahead and we would like
to encourage NATO to press ahead with the implementation of these proposals.
Thank you.
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