NATO HQ 23 January 2003

Statement to the Press by NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson on the Alliance Headquarters Building Good morning ladies and gentlemen. You have been invited here this morning to witness an important moment in the history of the Alliance. Today, the North Atlantic Council met and designated the winner of the International Architectural Design Competition for the new NATO Headquarters. This decision is based upon the recommendation of a renowned International Jury of Architects and senior NATO officials under the Chairmanship of the Dean of the Council, Ambassador David Wright from Canada. It was a difficult decision to make given the quality of the designs submitted to the Selection Committee. The Selection Committee nominated three projects, a winning design and two runners up which I am now going to announce in order. The winning design is SOM + Assar - Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Inc. This is a multinational consortium led by SOM, an international company based in London, together with a Belgian associate, Assar. This project won the first prize of €200,000. You see a projection of the model behind me. After this session, I will unveil the real thing just outside of the theatre. The second prize of € 150.000 went to the firm AAG-INT2-SHCA Swanke Hayden Connell International Ltd., and the third prize of € 100,000 was awarded to the firm Koetter, Kim Association, both multinational consortia based in London. You can find details of the second and third runners up on our website. The selection of a winning design for the new NATO Headquarters is a very important decision. It is the concrete manifestation of the desire of NATO nations to build for themselves new facilities in line with modern times and the needs resulting from the enlargement. Many of you visit the Headquarters regularly; you can see for yourself that the old building is no longer suitable to NATO’s evolving requirements. It is very difficult to adapt and expensive to maintain. Some parts of it are even beyond repair. This building was constructed 35 years ago as a temporary facility. It needs replacement. The winning design is quite remarkable. The graceful structure of the new building, the striking fluidity of its lines are a testimony to NATO’s modernity and efficiency. I have no doubt that NATO’s new Headquarters will stand at a landmark of Brussels’ architectural landscape. A new Headquarters for NATO is also a tangible manifestation of the Alliance’s ambitious agenda for transformation, adaptation, renewal and change. It is also a signal that NATO is projecting itself in the future with confidence and that it is determined to equip itself with the best tools available to achieve its objectives. The project is at a very early stage in its development. It is our hope that the new facilities can be inaugurated before the end of the decade. Many aspects of the project, including elements of budget and design, will require further work and refinement before we can actually start building. So don’t expect trucks and cranes to be at work next week. We will be engaging significant sums of taxpayers’ money and we must make absolutely sure that we are planning rigorously, in the best interest of nations and of the Alliance. It is an enormous challenge and we want to get it right. Now that we have a design, and that is only the beginning, we will start discussing contractual arrangements with the winner. Detailed architectural and engineering studies will be undertaken. This will take some time. This is a good day for the Alliance, for Brussels and for everyone who works here. I will now take your questions with Ambassador Wright. Questions and Answers Q: Just one question. This design was supposed to be unveiled in Prague, if I’m not mistaken. Could you tell us exactly, what happened between then and now? What problems there were? Lord Robertson: We wanted it to be unveiled in Prague, along with everything else, but the process of getting consensus in a 19 nations alliance sometimes takes time. This is a very, very big project and people wanted to make sure that it was right. And we achieved consensus and therefore have chosen the winner out and it is there. It’s only a few weeks after the Prague Summit and the news is good. Yves Brodeur (NATO Spokesman): Paul Deans. Q: Secretary General, could you give us indication as to how much it’s going to cost and who exactly is going to pay for it? Lord Robertson: The 19 nations will pay for it. I can’t give you an indication of cost at the moment. And I can assure you that with a Scotsman in charge at the moment, good value for these 19 nations is a prerequisite. Q: But what is the principle of payment? Is it in equal parts or it’s according to some percentage? The second question is whether you allocated some place for executives of NATO-Russia Council there, who are not on these premises still? Lord Robertson: The answer to your first question is that we have a cost-share formula that is based on the national wealth of the individual countries concerned and that is how NATO is generally funded. And the new headquarters will work on exactly the same basis. The new headquarters is being built with a view to the enlargement of the alliance, but also to the fact that we are not simply an alliance of 19 nations about to become 26 nations, but we’re also a partnership of nations, which includes Russia as well. And as with the present site, where the partner nations are accommodated on the campus, then that would be the objective in the new building and new headquarters as well. Q: What kind of press facilities will there be at this conference, TV, Radio studios? (Laughter) Lord Robertson: They will be absolutely extraordinary! And if you’re around at that time, I’m sure that you’ll agree with me. I should merely say... Let me answer the question seriously, because the press here is our eye on the world. It’s our window for the view of this democratic alliance and we take great care, I hope, of those who report our activities. And therefore, it is one of the fundamentals of these new headquarters, that it is not some sort of military headquarters surrounded by high security, although that is a key factor. It’s also a window on the world, an alliance of free nations. And therefore, our ability to look after those who report is going to be one of the priorities Q: Secretary General, yesterday, you announced that you are leaving NATO at the end of the year... Lord Robertson: Well, I think we’ll separate out questions about my future from the future of the building. Yves Brodeur (NATO Spokesman): Can we just go back to the questions related to the building. Q: (inaudible)... to the building... (Laughter) Q: You say that you won’t be able to oversee the building of this new headquarters? Lord Robertson: Well, I will be overseeing the project until the end of this year. The project will go on beyond me. Of that there is no doubt. Who knows? It might go on beyond my successor as well. But what we’ve done is to put in place procedures, very strict supervision by the nations themselves and a very clear management chain. We are absolutely intent on making sure that this building is delivered on time, on price and that it is fit for the purpose that we set out to do. And I can assure you that meticulous attention has been paid to the management structure, so that we get what we paid for and so, whoever follows me, and whoever follows them, will be part of a tight, heavily-controlled process that is designed to produce the headquarters as quickly as possible, but also within the cost parameters that we’ve laid down. Q: Just a follow-up to this question, Secretary General: What were the basic data and the basic conditions which were set at the basis for this competition of architects? I mean, the delays, the money, the number of people who will work, the number of offices and so on, they must have been given some thresholds? Lord Robertson: Absolutely and I... Ambassador Wright, as Chairman of the jury, can answer that much more effectively than me. David Wright (Canadian Ambassador to NATO): Each of the competitors was given a package of information on the requirements of the alliance and that package was updated as we moved forward on questions like enlargement and, after September 11th, on issues like security. And we’ll have available in the public information that will be made available in this press conference, all the details that were given to the architects and, indeed, the deliberations of the jury itself, which will talk about all of the criteria that were used. Q: I’m Dietrich (inaudible)... with the Polish Press Agency. Secretary General, could you please tell us what are the next steps, when we can expect some tenders and who will manage? There will be some outside managers? And also, you said that you would see it that it’s delivered on time and on price, but if we don’t have the exact delays, and exact price, how can we check, afterwards, whether it was delivered on time and on price? Lord Robertson: There is a schedule, which I think you can be given in more detail. It’s not really possible to define the timeline with exact precision prior to the completion of the detailed design itself. But I think that early 2003 is the target for the selection and announcement of the concept design team. So we’re on time with that. This is what we’re talking about here. Mid 2003, the selection of an external project management team. Between 2003 and 2007, detailed design studies will take place, and 2005 to 2008 or 2009, the demolition of existing structure and the subsequent construction of the new headquarters on the new site. Can I emphasize that the Belgian government have given us unparalleled help with this huge project and instead of having to build on this site, with a sort of demolish and build, in a very tight and difficult situation, there has been a land exchange and we have been given the site across the road, which is going to facilitate that. That is the broad timeline. Yves Brodeur (NATO Spokesman): : No more questions? Q: Secretary General, could I ask you, how concerned are you about the failure yesterday to reach an agreement on the military planning on Iraq? Lord Robertson: Well, we have not yet achieved consensus on tasking, on particular proposals that have been put forward. There is a disagreement over timing at the moment, by a small number of nations, but no disagreement on substance at all and we will continue, as we always do, to try and build consensus in a dignified and a calm way and that was the characteristic of yesterday’s debate. There is only a disagreement about timing and that relates specifically to the time-lines laid down by the United Nations in relation to inspections. So this is not some sort of bus stop. It is a disagreement over timing, not of substance and that debate will go on and I have absolutely no doubt that the alliance will, as it has promised, stand by it’s ally, Turkey, which happens to be a neighbour of Iraq. There is no dispute about that at all. Detailed military thinking is not yet at a tight critical point. Yves Brodeur (NATO Spokesman): : Thank you. I think we’ll just move on. The Secretary General will unveil the model just outside. So if the cameras want to position themselves there. It will take two minutes.