Poiana Brasov, Romania 14 Oct. 2004

Opening Statement by NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at the Informal Meeting of the NATO-Russia Council Events 13-14 Oct. 2004 Informal Meeting of Defence Ministers Multimedia 13 Oct. 2004 Audio file of the opening statement by NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer .MP3/618Kb 13 Oct. 2004 High resolution photos of the NATO-Russia Council Biographies NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer Ministers, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Dobriy Dyen’. Bonjour. Welcome to this NATO-Russia Council in Defence Ministers’ informal session. Our informal discussion today will be an opportunity to take stock and reaffirm our solidarity and commitment to working together in the face of terrorism and other shared threats - only a few weeks after our public statement in the wake of the Beslan and other tragedies. It will provide a chance to exchange views on the current situations in Afghanistan, the Balkans and Iraq. And it will allow us to focus on issues of particular interest to Defence Ministers, such as defence reform, military-to-military cooperation and the development of interoperability between Russian and NATO forces – in brief, on what we need to do to turn our words into actions and to make NATO-Russia partnership increasingly operational through result-oriented practical cooperation. We will also review progress in implementing previous decisions, for instance with regard to Russian support to NATO’s operation Active Endeavour in the Mediterranean, and consider the way forward in developing next year’s work programme of the NRC in its various areas of cooperation. I would now ask the members of the press to leave the room, so that we can begin our closed session.