NATO HQ 28 Feb. 2005

Video Background Briefing by the NATO Spokesman, James Appathurai Multimedia Audio file .MP3/1658Kb Video interview Biography James Appathurai Hello, and welcome to the March edition of our monthly NATO update. It has been, in February, probably one of the most active months of high-level diplomatic activity that certainly I've seen since I've been at the Alliance for the past six and more years. First, with the visit from Condoleezza Rice to meet her fellow Foreign Ministers now that she has been named Secretary of State, followed immediately by an informal Defence Ministers meeting in Nice, in France; and then of course, at the end of the month, a Summit meeting where President Bush met with his fellow 25 Heads of State and Government here in NATO Headquarters, where the full range of political and military issues on NATO's agenda have been addressed, and a lot of important files move forward as well. Let me start with Condoleezza Rice's visit here early in the month to meet, as I mentioned, for the first time, her fellow Secretaries of State or Foreign Ministers, depending on what label each country uses. This was very much a political discussion amongst Foreign Ministers that prefaced the Summit, helped set the stage for the Summit later on in the month. Secretary Rice had a very profound discussion with her colleagues about, for example, the Middle East. She reported to them on her visit to the Middle East, about the ongoing process between the Israelis and the Palestinians and there was a very open and political discussion amongst Allies on this issue, amongst many others. Indeed, Secretary Rice called it the best discussion on Iraq that this Alliance had had for many years, and it was certainly one of the most profound discussions on the Middle East that Foreign Ministers have had in this Headquarters for many, many years; indeed, if ever. So it was a very good discussion, a very open discussion, and of course, it addressed a number of political issues beyond the Middle East, including the future of Kosovo, the political process there, which is, of course, gaining in importance and gaining in complexity this year. And of course, the future political process in Afghanistan, beyond the upcoming elections, beyond the end of the Bonn process, how will the international community as a group work together to help support the Karzai government as it builds increasing peace and stability, including to combat... the influence of narcotics in the country. So it was a very open and very political discussion, a very positive political discussion within NATO when Secretary Rice came to visit. The next day the NATO Alliance moved down to the south of France where Defence Ministers had an informal meeting. This was, of course, the second leg of preparations for the Summit. While the political discussions amongst Foreign Ministers were very important, it's also important for Defence Ministers to discuss the nuts and bolts of NATO's missions and operations. And they did just that. The most substantive area of progress was on Afghanistan. Defence Ministers agreed that they had, now, the resources necessary for the expansion of NATO's ISAF mission, International Security Assistance Force, in Afghanistan from the capital and the north, also now into the west, where NATO Provincial Reconstruction Teams and NATO assets and equipment will now be helping to provide security assistance in 50 percent of the country, slightly over 50 percent of the country. Defence Ministers also discussed how NATO should enlarge also to the south. Hopefully by the end of this year. One element of that has to be closer synergy between the NATO peacekeeping operation and Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led coalition that is still there, particularly in the south and the southeast, fighting the Taliban, fighting al-Qaeda and others. Clearly these two operations need to work closely together. As NATO expands that need for close cooperation will only get stronger. So Defence Ministers discussed command arrangements, closer synergy between the two operations as we look forward to the expansion towards the end of the year. And of course, Defence Ministers also looked at how NATO will support the upcoming elections. We will surge in, fly in more assets, more capabilities, more troops, to help ensure that these elections run properly. Defence Ministers also looked at the broader scope of NATO's transformation. That includes very much military transformation. How we plan for our operations, how we fund our operations as nations, and how we work together in terms of interoperability. And also, of course, the very important modernization of forces to move away from the old heavy tank-based armies of the past and help to develop the kinds of armed forces that we, the international community, and particularly NATO, need in future. And that means forces that are light, that are mobile, that are sustainable far away from home for as long as necessary. These are the kind of operations that we face today and we can see this very much, of course, in Afghanistan. So this issue too was addressed. Defence Ministers agreed that while a lot of progress has been made a lot more needs to be done, so they will certainly keep a strong focus on this as time goes forward. These two legs, the political leg with Secretary Rice, and the military leg with the Defence Ministers meeting in Nice, were the essential foundations for a successful Summit at the end of the month. And it was very much a successful Summit when the 26 NATO Heads of State and Government met on the 22nd of February here in NATO Headquarters to discuss, of course, at the highest strategic level, the NATO agenda and how to move it forward. There were probably two key areas of discussion. One was coming together to look forward and work together to support the new government in Iraq. The very successful elections at the end of January were a demonstration that the Iraqi people were willing to take the greatest possible risk to exercise their democratic right to vote. The new government in Iraq is now no longer the creation of an outside body. It is no longer a coalition exercise. It is very much a new sovereign government, and all 26 Allies recognize this. They also recognize that it's in everyone's interest for Iraq to be stable, to be secure, and it is of course in everyone's interest to support that. That is why it was a very positive outcome from the Summit, that now all 26 NATO Allies are together in a demonstration of their solidarity, working to support the NATO training and equipment mission for Iraq: either by providing training assistance to Iraqi security forces inside the country; providing training for Iraqi security forces outside of the country; by helping to fund that training; or by providing equipment; or the best of all outcomes, all four or any combination of these four ways in which all 26 NATO allies are supporting the training and equipping mission for the new democratic Iraqi government. This was a strong demonstration that NATO countries are no longer looking in the rear view mirror. They do not want to dredge up any disputes of the past in the run-up to the Iraq conflict. They now want to look forward. They are looking forward, and they are all pulling in the same direction together, through NATO, as well as, of course, bilaterally through the European Union. So we have really turned a corner on this issue. The second issue that was discussed most substantively was NATO's political role. All Alies agreed that we need to use NATO more as a place where the two sides of the Atlantic, the 26 nations, can come together and not only deliver security in terms of practical military cooperation--that is something that NATO does very well--but also to use this privileged political forum, where the United States sits with its 25 Allies on a daily basis, at all levels, and with the structure behind it, to help make that consensus forum and help to deliver that security. All Allies agree that we need to use this forum, the unique transatlantic forum that it is, more substantively, more fully, to help to forge political consensus amongst allies. That means having early discussions, it means having open discussions, and it means listening to each other. All Allies agreed that this should be done. And the Secretary General has taken that agreement and has taken it upon himself to put some concrete ideas on the table for allies, to see how we can make this work. There is a will to do it, there is a requirement to do it and it will happen in the upcoming months. The day after the summit the Secretary General left for Israel for a very interesting leg of his ongoing series of visits to Mediterranean Dialogue countries. Israel has made quite concrete proposals for more profound cooperation between NATO and Israel, all in the framework of the expanded Mediterranean Dialogue. NATO Allies agreed last December to put more on the table in terms of a menu of options available to all seven Mediterranean Dialogue countries. That offer remains. Israel has come with a concrete list of proposals. NATO allies are now looking at those with a positive eye, that is, in the spirit of what NATO had offered to all NATO Allies... excuse me, to all Mediterranean Dialogue partners. And as these decisions are taken in the Alliance they will be communicated to the Israeli government. As I say, this is looked at in a positive sense. There will be more profound cooperation with Israel. But of course, NATO remains very much open to the same kind of cooperation with each and every Mediterranean Dialogue country. Finally, looking forward, March is not a month with any high-level meetings planned at NATO Headquarters, but in April, there will be an informal defence ministers meeting in Vilnius. And at that meeting should be a good, informal and open discussion amongst foreign ministers of many issues, of course, including Kosovo, including Afghanistan, but also very much the political role of NATO and how to use the Alliance more to help shape and forge transatlantic political consensus on the broad range of issues that North America and Europe face together.