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Updated: 16-May-2003 NATO Speeches

NATO HQ

15 May 2003

Video-interview

with General Harald Kujat,
Chairman of the Military Committee

Video-interview

Q: General Kujat, thank you for joining us in the studio today. You've been chairman of the Military committee since July 2002. Could you explain to us what your role actually is?

General Harald Kujat (Chairman of the Military Committee): Well the Military Committee is the highest military body of NATO. All 19 Chiefs of Defence meet here at least twice a year, and in the interim time they are represented here by five three-star generals.

I'm the chairman of that group, but not only that group, also there is a Military Committee of NATO-Russia Council, the NATO-Ukraine Commission and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. So a group of 46 representatives of nations.

I'm chairing these groups and the meetings of these groups, and I'm of course responsible for the work in the interim from one meeting to the other.

And the primary task, the primary responsibility of the Military Committee is to give advice to the political side, to the Council, be it the Council of Permanent Representatives or Defence ministers or Heads of States and Government. So that's our responsibility into one direction.

Our other responsibility is to overlook the work of the two strategic commanders, give strategic guidance to them, instructions to them, and of course, in one sentence, to harmonize the national military views at the highest military level in both direction, the political side and down, so to say, the command structure.

Q: So you would the Military Committee has both a political and a military function.

General Kujat: Well, I wouldn't say it has a political function. It has a military function. But it has a role to play in advising the political side on military aspects.

Q: I see. And from what I understand General Kujat you're of German nationality. Are your responsibilities shared between NATO and Germany?

General Kujat: No, not at all. Well, I have... as you can see, I wear a German uniform, but every international officer here in this headquarters has a national background of course. But once we take off our duties here in the international domain we have no national responsibility. We are not responsible vis-à-vis our homeland, so to say, the national authorities. We are responsible to this Committee, to the Military Committee, or the Military Committee as I said, as a whole vis-à-vis the Council.

So I'm not influenced by any national decision. To the contrary I try to be as neutral as possible, and I hope this is the case in every day's work.

Q: Could you tell me how long you are appointed for?

General Kujat: The normal tour is three years, and that is... the way the chairman of the Military Committee is appointed is a unique one, because he's elected out of the group of the Chiefs of Defence and he is elected by the group of the Chiefs of Defence. So he's always a former Chief of Defence. He must have been a former Chief of Defence. He must, of course, be nominated by his government, but there is full autonomy of the Military Committee to elect their chairman.

Q: I see. Earlier on you mentioned your relationship with the two strategic commanders. Could you give us a few more details on that?

General Kujat: Well, you know that we are in the process of changing the command structure. Up to now we have two strategic commanders with subordinate commands, of course, that are the chain of command. They have geographical responsibilities that will change in the future. In the future we will have one strategic commander for operations and one strategic commander for the transformation of the Alliance. So the way this relationship works is, as I said, we're giving strategic guidance, this group of CHODS, the Military Committee gives strategic guidance and directions to the two strategic commanders. They report back to us and we represent the whole military chain of command on the political side in the Council.

Q: So in fact, your relationship with them won't change even after the restructuring?

General Kujat: No, it won't change. No, it won't change. It is a complementary task of course. As I said, the most important issue is that we have to represent the views... all national views on the highest military level have to be harmonized in the Military Committee. These are national views. The strategic commanders are neutral, as I am personally as well. So they have no national responsibilities, but they support the Military Committee in their work, and normally they attend when we meet at Chiefs of Defence level, they attend the meeting as well, and they report to the CHODS on ongoing issues.

So that is basically the relationship.

Q: From a more practical point of view, could you explain the role of the Military Committee, for instance, in increasing military support for Afghanistan or in peacekeeping missions in general?

General Kujat: Well, in general, maybe I should explain how the sequence of work is taking place. Normally it works in a way that the Council takes a decision, or is about to take a decision and wants to base that on military advice. But let's say when we talk about Afghanistan there was a request by two nations that NATO expand the support for them... Germany and Netherlands, who have been in the lead. So we get a tasker from the Council that says in essence please give us advice. Can we do it? What does it need to do it? What are the implications?

And then we forward a Concept of Operations that... and our advice, which is in essence this Concept of Operations and again, this will be done... the strategic commanders will provide some support to us, we will consolidate that in the Military Committee, include all the views of the nations and come to a common decision.

Then based on this Concept of Operations the political side, the Council will decide, yes, we'll do it, we'll do it this way, or we want to do it with changes, according to our proposal, and then we would again, again, be ... the Military Committee will again be tasked to work out the details and we would instruct the strategic commanders to prepare an operational concept and do everything that is necessary to prepare to plan and prepare that operation. So for instance to have a fourth generation conference, to take care of the necessary support and everything else.

And so... and they will report back to the Military Committee in the process of complying with that task. That's the normal way it works.

Q: Okay, thank you. I understand that the Military Committee meets on a regular basis and it certainly meets three times a year at the level of Chiefs of Defence Staff. This week there was one of those meetings. Could you tell us whether anything special came out of it?

General Kujat: There's always something special that comes out of it. Of course, we were in the interim between two meetings. The Military Committee is taking decisions, of course, normal decisions, but the most important issues have been left for the Chiefs of Defence to discuss and take a decision.

We had on our agenda basically three important items. One is the NATO command structure, which is the work is still ongoing. The other one was the NATO Response Force. And the third one was capabilities, in very general terms, but more specifically the Prague Capability Commitment.

As far as the first item is concerned, I think we've achieved a lot of progress in the command of CHODS. Not everything has been solved so far, but we are confident that we reach a final decision before the... on the military side before the defence ministers will meet in early June. So I think we made a lot of progress.

The second item is a very important one as well, the NATO Response Force. We have already in the Military Committee agreed on the concept of this force that is, I think, a very excellent concept. So what we did is we updated the Chiefs of Defence and I had asked SACEUR to report on where we stand as far as the implementation plan is concerned. So that is... you can see the relationship here again. On the basis of the Military Committee the strategic commanders are tasked to work out the details of implementation and of course they keep us informed, and at some point in time they will deliver this project and we will agree it or offer changes or whatsoever.

And the third very important issue was capabilities again. You know, know that at the Prague Summit of States and Government, this initiative was issued. It is very important to prepare the Alliance forces for the challenges and tasks of the 21st Century. We are in the process of transforming the Alliance forces. We want to make them more flexible, more effective, more efficient. We want to spend the money right, of course, for the right projects.

That is very, very important. Of course, for the moment the responsibility likes more or less with the nations concerned. Some of the nations have accepted to take the lead in very specific areas, but of course, there is a very important... it is very important, I think, that the military take an interest in the ongoing work and advise the political side what we've got to do where deficiencies are from our side, strategic deficiencies, and how we could do better.

Because it's the military at the end of the day that have to advise our political authorities when it comes to the question can we do an operation, yes we can or we can't because we are lacking the necessary capabilities. And the second question will always be, can we do it? And at the same time, guarantee utmost security for soldiers participating in the operation, because this is a very important aspect as well. And we would need to answer yes, we can do it. We can guarantee that.

And to be in the position to answer these two questions positively, of course, we need to push for better capabilities in both areas. So there is a responsibility of the Chiefs of Defence, and here specifically the Military Committee to press on as far as capabilities is concerned, and that's what we did.

Q: I see. I see that you have to deal with very complex issues and you're dealing, as well as with military, with the political side. From your experience, what are the main qualities a chairman of the Military Committee should have?

General Kujat: That's very difficult. That's a question... I think I would wish to answer maybe you should ask me at the end of my tour again, and then I will tell you. And I think that my successor should have specific qualities.

But in very general terms, I should say the chairman of the Military Committee is representing 19 Chiefs of Defence, 19 different, sometimes very different security policies are represented by the national Chiefs of Defence.

What he needs to do is to harmonize these different views in a way that it strengthens the Alliance as a whole because that is my responsibility, to make this Alliance more effective, more relevant, better prepared for the future. And to achieve some kind of a synergy effect out of the contributions of all individual nations. Because all nations have something that they could contribute to this Alliance and for a better future of this Alliance.

But to harmonize it, to achieve this synergy effect out of all these contributions that is, I think, the main purpose and if this works well, of course, then we comply with the tasks that are given to us, guaranteed security, welfare, peace, stability for our peoples.

Q: General Kujat, thank you very much indeed.

General Kujat: Thank you.

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