Istanbul, Turkey 29 June 2004

Address by Mr. Anton Rop, Prime Minister of Slovenia, at the meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council at the level of Heads of State and Government Events NATO Istanbul Summit Chairman, Colleagues, I would like to welcome President Karzai. He had marvellous speech in which he shared with us his and people of Afghanistan great will to fight for democracy, freedom and future of Afghanistan. Afghanistan needs security and peace for successful elections and successful elections are needed to ensure democracy and development of Afghanistan. There is no doubt. We have to support democracy and freedom. That is our duty and responsibility. I am sure we all will do that. Slovenia is one of those nations that had a very close and profitable experience with its participation in the Partnership for Peace Programme and Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council during the 10 years of its existence. In spite of our clear objective to obtain the full-fledged membership in the Alliance, we have all along appreciated its wider importance and relevance and we acted in the Partnership activities accordingly. In this vein we also support further efforts to stabilise the Western Balkans. We believe it is of vital importance to bring Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro into the Partnership for Peace Programme (when all the requirement are met); their membership would be both a contribution to the Partnership and have a positive domestic effect in speeding up the necessary reforms. Slovenia will continue to invest both in the security and economy of the Western Balkans. Thank you.