Statement
by Mr Anders
Oljelund, Ambassador of Sweden
to NATO and WEU
Mr Secretary General, Your Excellencies, Colleagues,
First of all, I would like to thank High Representative Petritsch for
an interesting briefing. Developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina are of
great importance for all EAPC countries, for the prospects of enhancing
security and stability in the Balkans and in the wider Euro-Atlantic area
as manifested through our common engagement in SFOR. And hopefully, developments
in Bosnia and Herzegovina will in due time make participation in the PfP
cooperation possible.
Sweden regards the cooperation within PfP and the EAPC as essential tools
for building confidence and security - within and between different regions:
the Baltic Sea region, South Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central
Asia.
The work carried out in the EAPC regional working groups for South Eastern
Europe and the Caucasus respectively fills an important function in this
context. From a Swedish point of view, we welcome the practical character
of the work and that the activities are open for all EAPC countries.
Arguably, the results of these working groups provide a practical example
of enhancing Euro-Atlantic security through regional cooperation. In addition,
we follow with great interest work undertaken within NATO's South-East
Europe Initiative in support of the Stability pact.
Sweden welcomes the report on the role of PfP and the EAPC in conflict
prevention. It reflects an issue of immediate importance closely connected
to practical regional cooperation. The report states that the EAPC has
a vital role to play - in the long term as well as in the short term -
not least in supporting and supplementing the work carried out in other
fora, such as the UN, the EU and OSCE.
Let me take this opportunity to express my appreciation of the common
efforts by NATO and Partner countries to improve the implementation of
the political-military framework for NATO-led PfP operations. Especially,
Sweden welcomes the weekly meetings in SFOR and KFOR format for consultations
with troop contributing Partners. However, there is still room for enhanced
consultations with Partners, not least on the military side.
Mr Chairman,
Next month Sweden will take over the Presidency of the European Union.
We do so when the EU is in the process of developing its capacity to prevent
conflicts and to manage crises. The European Council in Nice gave a most
challenging task to the Swedish Presidency in the area of the ESDP: Make
the EU operational as soon as possible.
We will do our utmost in implementing the Nice decisions in order to
make substantial progress in all areas of the ESDP - military and civilian
crisis management, and conflict prevention.
The main tasks will be to establish the permanent structures, and on
the military side to take forward work on capabilities as well, following
up the November Capabilities Commitment Conference with the aim of enabling
the Union to reach the Helsinki goal by 2003. On the civilian side we
will take further work on reaching the police target set in Feira, as
well as on establishing concrete targets in other key areas.
Developing the EU-NATO relationship will be one of the most important
tasks of the Swedish Presidency. Another will be the implementation of
the decisions on relations with EU accession countries and non-EU NATO
members on the military aspects of ESDP, and the elaboration of similar
decisions on the civilian side.
Finally, on conflict prevention we will follow up on the report presented
in Nice by the Commission and the High Representative with the aim of
Göteborg approving a concrete program for improving the EU's capacity
in this area.
As transparency will be a key word during the Swedish Presidency, we
will regularly brief the EAPC on the development of the ESDP.
Thank you for your attention!
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