Remarks
by
Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Minister of
Foreign Affairs of Estonia
Mr. Chairman,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me welcome here the colleague
from the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia. This is a sign of true
normalization of the whole region.
I recall that a year ago in Florence
we all welcomed Croatia among the
EAPC partners. I hope we all welcome
the FRY at this EAPC table as soon
as possible.
The NACC/EAPC/PfP framework has provided
for better security cooperation during
the last ten years and will do so
in the coming future.
Some remarks in this context, concentrating on the most challenging
tasks and regions.
First, the issue of priorities and persistence. A process is
on track as long as priorities are clear and they are pursued
persistently. Since we are concentrating on South-East Europe
this means that the priority of stabilising the region should
not change.
It's quite natural that the process is frustrating now and
then. But any sign of our frustration could initiate some of
the forces involved to try and exploit the situation. This holds
for the conflict in Macedonia as well as Kosovo or Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
We all understand that this is not an easy and short-term process,
but it must be constantly stressed that it is the only acceptable
one.
Second. There is an aspect of the
EAPC cooperation and experience that
I would like to stress: regional cooperation
and using the experience of stable
regions. At our December meeting in
Brussels we talked about regional
aspects of cooperation. I said that:
"... we can all agree that the
tools and aims of the regional security
cooperation can, and indeed do vary
from region to region in line with
different challenges the participating
countries face. Equally importantly,
the successes of one region are indeed
transferable to others ... This success
(of the Baltic region) represents
the
lasting effort of all countries around
the Baltic Sea who work in this direction.
The cornerstone of cooperation - as
we see it - is the general acceptance
of a common set of democratic values,
remarkable transparency in discussing
security issues and the good performance
of our economies." No experience
can be implanted in a different setting
in its entirety, but some of it could
be useful.
Third. Talking of the South-Eastern
Europe we can acknowledge that recent
developments have been marked with
solid steps in building the foundation
for the regions future. Through KFOR
and the UNMDC the contributing
countries are working for the lasting
solution to the problems in Kosovo.
Nonetheless efforts to create a working
financial and economic system in the
region are as important as having
peacekeeping forces on the ground.
When we speak of post-conflict rehabilitation
in its broadest sense we are not talking
about years but a much longer period.
Estonia is ready to provide aid in
the form of our experience in building
up a working market economy.
Among the regions only South-East
Europe has been mentioned thus far,
but equally important for the EAPC
and its cooperative activities are
areas such as Caucasus and Central-Asia.
This regional focus is highly relevant
to the EAPC as we should not and can
not deny any country the right of
expressing its security concerns and
our support to any country interested
in assistance. Estonia, for example,
has been concentrating its bilateral,
and trilateral with the UK, cooperation
to Georgia.
To sum up I would like to underline
again that we have to concentrate
our work in the EAPC on real issues,
use the experience of other countries,
stress the importance of regional
cooperation and not forget that there
are other regions which need our attention.
Thank you.
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