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| Updated: 14-Oct-2004 | NATO Speeches |
| Poiana Brasov, Romania 13 Oct. 2004 |
Press conference by NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
De Hoop Scheffer: Let me say that
I'm very pleased to announce that the NATO Response Force has achieved
its, what we call, initial operational capability.
And I think this represents a milestone in the development of this initiative because, as you know, the NRF is at the heart of the ongoing transformation of NATO's military capabilities. It is a subject we have discussed with Ministers all morning. So in conjunction with the so-called Prague Capabilities Commitment and the establishment of the new command structure, it will help to ensure that the Alliance can successfully conduct the full range of its evermore demanding missions. The judgement that the NRF meets the required military criteria is not up to me to make, but is up to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe and I'll... that's why I'll turn to him in a moment. Let me first give you a few elements to underline the significance of this event. As you know the concept of the NATO Response Force was launched only two years ago at an informal meeting of Defence Ministers like the one we are now having here in Poiana Brasov. So it's really a very brief period of time; we have gone from what I would call preliminary design and conceptual work to the achievement of a real military capability and it's a capability by the way that will continue to mature as we progress towards full operational capability by October 2006. The NRF will be, and indeed it is already, a highly ready and technologically advanced force that the Alliance can deploy quickly wherever it is needed. It can be given, as you know, a variety of missions: standalone for collective defence of crisis response operations; it can support national authorities in managing the consequences of natural or man-made disasters; it can serve as an initial entry force for a large or follow-on force; it can show the Alliance's determination and ability to act effectively in the early stages of a crisis when such a display can often serve an important role in crisis prevention. As you know Allied forces--land forces, naval forces, air forces--will rotate forces through the NRF. A six-month period of training and exercise is followed by a six-month standby period during which the ready certified force can be committed to the kinds of missions I have just mentioned. We are already well into this continuous cycle of identifying forces, training them, preparing them, and then having them on standby for operations. But I think, to conclude, the NRF is more, much more, than a cutting edge force for critical operations; I think it is a catalyst and should be a catalyst for the wider continuing transformation of Alliance capabilities. It is a test bed for advanced doctrines and technologies and, as the Allies rotate their forces, lessons will be learned that can be applied I think across the full structure of the Alliance. So, in all, in the coming periods we will go on working to ensure that this initiative and the similar work which is underway in the European Union on high readiness--you know about the so-called battle group concept--will be fully complementary and I'm happy to tell you that consultations are taking place, of course, between the European Union and the Alliance to this end and they give us confidence, these consultations, that the two efforts will indeed be mutually reinforcing as they should be. I think we need to be imaginative in working out ways that will permit the Alliance's partners, our many partner nations, to contribute in appropriate ways to NRF operations. Many of the kinds of operations for the NRF have been designed are likely to involve the partners; after all the partners already contribute in significant ways to most of the Alliance's current ongoing operations. So while there is reason for satisfaction that we have reached this key phase in the development of the NRF we have much further work to do before the concept is fully realized in the Alliance, in the ongoing consultations of course as I mentioned with the battle groups of the European Union, and as far as the participation of our partners is concerned. So I'm glad and indeed I repeat and then I'll turn to General Jones, it's up to General Jones, to SACEUR, to declare the initial operational capability. General Jones, perhaps you can do what you're supposed to do (laughter) and after sending me the formal letter saying a few words.
General Jones: Thank you Secretary General and ladies and gentlemen.
Really the... I can only echo what the Secretary General has already said that as it says on the background the NRF is the engine for NATO transformation of that we are all persuaded and this morning we had some very good discussions at the ministerial on the NRF, where it is today and where it can go in the future. It's exciting to be involved in this process; the NRF is by concept expeditionary in nature. It's the first time in NATO that we've fused air-land-sea and special operations under one command. It forces us to look at some of our other shortfalls that we didn't fully appreciate perhaps in the twentieth century when the Alliance was more static and more linear in terms of its missions. And so we are focusing on things like intelligence that we absolutely have to have if we're sending our troops over long distances, the concept of multinational logistics to support an expeditionary force is something that also drives us towards new concepts for how we support the force and we've already demonstrated a proof of concept in Izmir/Turkey within the first year. Elements of the NRF were used to support the very successful Olympics recently held in Greece. We had a wonderful learning experience there as well with some units from the NRF being used to guarantee and to help guarantee the security of the Olympic Games. We have a unit from the NRF, an Italian battalion, currently in Afghanistan to provide a short-term reinforcement for the security of the elections. And so, you can see that the force is, in addition to achieving initial operating capability which we're all proud of because we achieved it on time, is still... is already being used and as we get closer to full operational capabilities in '06 I'm quite confident that this transformational vehicle will serve the Alliance very well in the years ahead for the variety of missions that the NRF is supposed to be able to do. And so I look forward to working with the Secretary General and the ministers and my fellow chiefs of defence to bring this reality and capability into the Alliance because this is in fact the centre mass for the transformation of the military capability of our very important NATO Alliance. Thank you Secretary General.Questions and answers
Q: (inaudible) Romanian Public Television. I have two questions, Secretary General, have you discussed or are you going to discuss about the Transnistria problem and this one for General Jones, do you have any (inaudible) or military feedback on (inaudible).
de Hoop Scheffer: We have not discussed, and I do not expect the Defence Minister of NATO to discuss Transnistria. I've discussed Transnistria a lot in a previous capacity as Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE but as you know NATO does not play a direct role in trying to find a solution for the question. I was in Chisinau not that long ago; I discussed the question over there but NATO has no direct role in finding a solution which is necessary for this moment. General Jones: I'll answer the question in my capacity as the Commander of the United States European Command with regard to a future (inaudible). We are still very much in the discussion stages with friends and Allies and so while there has been no specific decisions made we are... this is all very current in terms of topics and these are discussions that are ongoing. So there's been no announced decision with regard to specific locations but it's clear that the vision for the transformation of the United States European Command is topical; we know what the end-state should be, we have to go through some national events with regard to the base realignments and closure commissions before all those decisions are made. Q: General Jones, (inaudible) I'd like to ask two questions if possible. One is how many people are already (inaudible) how many forces does it have and the other one is, is the liberation of the two nations in Afghanistan being discussed in this meeting? General Jones: The answer to your first question is that the NRF rotation which is NRF3 is about seventeen thousand soldiers, sailor, airmen, marines and special forces. That amount will vary from rotation to rotation depending on the success of the force generation conferences that are held but it's a good number to say that the average NRF rotation will be somewhere between eighteen to twenty thousand in total. The second question that you have I should defer to the Secretary General but that did not... that has not been the discussion point of this morning's conference at all. De Hoop Scheffer: If you can survive without having an answer until my press conference after lunch we'll be very good friends. But we will discuss operations over lunch, as you say, and there will certainly... certainly the element of the relationship between OAF and ISAF will be an issue we'll discuss. But this is all I can say at this very moment but come to the press conference and ask me later. Q: At the Summit in Istanbul, at least one country raised some doubts about using the NRF in Afghanistan. Are you (inaudible) confident now that the political decision making, the machinery, is adequate to allow rapid deployment of the NRF when necessary given that it's (inaudible). De Hoop Scheffer: Well of course first of all as you say, your last words, I mean the NRF will go where the Allies decide to send it to and the Allies means, as usual, that the Allies have to reach consensus on sending the NRF. The second important element of course is, which was also brought up around the table this morning, that's "if" the Allies decide to send the NRF of course national parliaments which in many countries have to give the green light for sending soldiers abroad should have... parliament should have let's say a different procedure than they have had up until now because you cannot have, with all due respect to parliaments--I've been a member of parliament for sixteen years--you can't have parliaments to discuss, to organise hearings and to discuss for weeks if the NRF can be deployed. But my answer is the NRF will go where the Allies will send it and as you say, at the moment we have an NRF battalion in Afghanistan which was a decision made by the North Atlantic Council in Brussels after some discussion. There's nothing wrong with discussion and let's say deploying the NRF, and I've mentioned a number of the missions the NRF was set up for, will of course be a decision by the North Atlantic Council. But I think, having said that, it is an excellent tool as General Jones also has indicated an excellent tool for let's say different aspects of where the NRF could be sent. Thank you.
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