NATO HQ 16 July 2003

Press Conference by NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson and Mr. Abdullah Abdullah, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Afghan Interim Government Lord Robertson: This is a pretty historic day for NATO, to welcome the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan here. Not just as a casual visitor, but as the Foreign Minister of a country where NATO will take over responsibility for the stabilization force in Kabul less than a month from now. We very much welcome Minister Abdullah Abdullah because he is somebody who has fought for the independence of his country against the Taliban and al-Qaeda who were not seen as just enemies of the people of Afghanistan, but of the whole international community and whose tentacles were to reach out to New York and to Washington on that fateful day on the 11th of September. Now NATO has picked up the responsibility for the long-term future of the international stabilization assistance force in Kabul, helping to give a framework of stability for the interim administration in Kabul and therefore we hope contributing towards the eventual integration of Afghanistan into the mainstream of the international community. ISAF will continue to work within the mandate laid down by the United Nations. Troops from Canada and Germany will lead the first phase of NATO's force there; some troops that are already there as part of the interim deployment for the full takeover on the 11th of August. And today's session highlighted the information that people already have about Afghanistan and ambassadors of the 26 countries were very keen to underline the commitment to making a success of this operation. NATO does not go into any operation casually or easily or without thought. Nor do we ever go into an operation believing that we're going to fail. But Afghanistan is now the subject matter of the NATO Council every week. Twenty-six ambassadors from 26 countries will now have Afghanistan as part of their weekly menu of activity and attention and I hope that that will make sure that Afghanistan feels that it has an audience to talk to, both for its problems, but also for its successes as well. So we give a very warm welcome today to Minister Abdullah Abdullah. I've spoken this week to President Karzai himself and we're looking forward to a very close connection between this headquarters and Afghanistan as it tackles its future and we're with Afghanistan as it makes its trail-blazing efforts to become a new and prosperous and safe and stable country. Abdullah Abdullah: Secretary General, thank you for inviting me to the Council and providing for me this opportunity to listen and to talk about different aspects of the situation in Afghanistan and the historical role which NATO would play... would start playing since August 11th in Afghanistan and the ISAF mandate. The view of the government of Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan is very positive in that regard. We welcomed the idea right from the beginning because... when it was just an idea for discussion, and we are very happy and delighted to be witness to a phase that we are just a few weeks from the deployment... from full assumption of NATO as lead country... lead in ISAF. Today was an opportunity for me to get reassured once again from the commitment... by the commitments of different member states, representatives of different countries, about their willingness and determination, in fact, to continue their contributions in assisting Afghanistan in stabilization efforts, as well as reconstruction of the country. The stability in Afghanistan is, of course, the stability in the region and a major contribution of global peace and stability. So was instability in my country and everybody suffered as a result of that situation. So NATO's role in Afghanistan will be a further assurance of the commitment of the international community in a very clear and visible manner and I'm sure that with such commitment success is guaranteed. Questions and answers Q: Nordi Fridi from the Arab Television MBC. I would like to ask a couple of questions, one for Minister Doctor. Do you still believe that Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar are somewhere in Afghanistan or Pakistan and maybe did you ask today as you've been, I think, in Rome and United States etc., did you ask NATO to expand its mandate later on, outside the area of Kabul. And if you can allow me to ask question to Secretary General about Iraq as United States Senate asked of NATO to do... to do a kind of peacekeeping mission in Iraq, Secretary General, can you tell me which kind of task that NATO can achieve in Iraq? Abdullah Abdullah: The first question, Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden, they are not in Afghanistan, definitely they are not in Afghanistan. They're outside Afghanistan. But if I talk about the likelihood of their location then they ask me that if you know then let me know... let us know, we find them. But it's likely that he is in the neighbourhood of Afghanistan. They are not in Afghanistan. The issue of expansion of ISAF was not being discussed today. It was touched upon but the main issue was the situation in Afghanistan, different aspects of the situation and the concerns as well as the hopes for further stabilization of the situation in Afghanistan and NATO's role in that field. That was the main topic. Lord Robertson: On Iraq, NATO is already committed to helping in Iraq. We made a decision that we would provide support for Poland and the division that it will be taking over later, next month, and other NATO countries like Spain are making major contributions to the Polish division, so that is already a commitment by NATO to the reconstruction and stabilization of Iraq at the moment. No formal approach has been made about NATO doing more than that, largely because that is a fairly major commitment in itself. And clearly we would want to see the Polish-Spanish division in place before we looked at any further role that NATO might play in Iraq. I've spoken to some of the American senators in the last couple of days to make that perfectly clear. There is no unwillingness to face up to the issue, and I think some people have not yet caught onto the fact that we have already got that involvement in Iraq. We want to make a success of that, and after that it may well be that some of the nations would want to do more. But I think we should focus on making a success of what we're doing at the moment. Q: Alexandra Kapel, MBC too. This is your first outside Europe mission now to Afghanistan, just in your opinion could Iraq be the second outside mission for NATO? Lord Robertson: Well, I say again, we are already in Iraq. NATO is helping Poland with its division, with Poland and Spain, two NATO allies there as well. So the major decision has already been taken. NATO will assist in Iraq through the Polish-Spanish division. We're organizing the logistic help that is required and the other elements that Poland requires for that as well. But we're not at the stage yet of looking at any broader involvement in Iraq largely because we're trying to make a success of the help that we're doing. So this is the new transformed NATO. Afghanistan, we're dealing with in August. We're helping Poland and Spain in Iraq. So we're well out of area, but we're going where the threat to stability is and we're helping with stabilization in areas that have a direct impact on all of the countries and the Alliance. Q: John Chalmers with Reuters. A question for the Foreign Minister. You have been quite critical of the international community's efforts to bring stabilization back to Afghanistan. There today you were full of praise for the efforts by the NATO nations. What do you think the international community can do more to prevent Afghanistan descending into a mess? Abdullah Abdullah: Rather than being critical of the efforts by the international community I've always been praiseful and grateful of the international community for their contributions to Afghanistan, in security as well as reconstruction assistance. But my point has been to maintain that attention and focus on Afghanistan, to raise the consciousness about the situation in Afghanistan and to reenergize their efforts in all fields; security as well as reconstruction, humanitarian efforts for Afghanistan. I think NATO taking the lead will be one step in reenergizing these efforts, and one major step and one historical step as I put it in my remarks today to the North Atlantic Council. As far as reconstruction assistance, as far as Afghanistan is concerned, I think it is time to have a review of the situation and to plan for the future. The commitments made, the pledges made in Tokyo conference will be dispersed almost all next year, so what about the future of Afghanistan. So it's there that we called for international conference, international donor conference to have a review of the situation and to see for long-term commitment of reconstruction of Afghanistan. Q: Cameron Romero from the Spanish News Agency EFE. Mr. Robertson, do you think that the mission in Afghanistan will be the most dangerous peace mission of NATO? And how long do you think that NATO should stay in Afghanistan? Lord Robertson: Well, we've already been involved in Bosnia and Kosovo and Macedonia. We're now taking on a role in Afghanistan. All of these missions have been dangerous, and they have been difficult. And Afghanistan is certainly no less than that and it may well be one of the toughest that we've taken on. But that is what this Alliance is about. We don't go for easy jobs. We go where we're required. Now long will we be there? I give you the same answer as we say for every other mission that we do. We're there until we succeed. We're there until the job doesn't need to be done. So it's not a brief commitment. This is a lasting commitment and we don't intend to fail.