|
| Updated: 20-May-2005 | NATO Speeches |
NATO HQ 19 May 2005 |
Video Background Briefing by the NATO Spokesman, James Appathurai
JAMES APPATHURAI (NATO Spokesman): Hello and welcome to the latest in our series of monthly briefings about what's happening at NATO. Thanks for clicking on the link, and I'll try to update you as much as possible. Let me begin by discussing one event that has taken place in the middle of May and that was a visit by the North Atlantic Council, led by the Secretary General, to Kosovo. This is the first trip that the North Atlantic Council has taken to Kosovo together in one year, but it was certainly a timely visit. As those of you who watch these briefings on a regular basis know, Kosovo is entering a very sensitive and important time in its development, in that the international community, principally the Contract Group, will be in the coming weeks and months, assessing Kosovo's progress in meeting the standards set by the international community; when it comes, for example, to participation of minorities and the safety of minorities; when it comes to freedom of movement, to return of refugees; and in other areas as well. They will be judging whether Kosovo has made enough progress in meeting these standards for the international community to move to a discussion of final status for Kosovo. And that is an issue, of course, that preoccupies many countries. It also preoccupies, of course, the people of Kosovo themselves. So there is a political process moving forward, and moving forward quickly, that has significant implications for the security environment and because NATO is helping to secure that environment through KFOR, where we have some 18,000 troops, the North Atlantic Council felt it was appropriate to come to Kosovo, discuss with the political leaders, and also the average people on the street, to get a sense of where the political process was going. And at the same time, to reiterate NATO's enduring commitment to provide peace and security in Kosovo. The NAC and the Secretary General had these political discussions, had these discussions with people on the street, and I believe came to certain conclusions, or at least certain strong impressions. One was that there has been progress over the past year; certainly since the riots in March of last year; that the security situation has improved. For example, some Ambassadors, led by the Secretary General, went to Mitrovica, a town divided by a river, but also divided very much between two communities, where the international community has had to, and KFOR has had to, have a very significant presence, putting up barricades to keep the two sides apart. Those barricades are now going down, and by the time you are viewing this they may well be gone altogether, and the bridge will be much more open; certainly than it was last year where KFOR soldiers stood in the middle of that bridge and took quite a lot of physical punishment to keep the two sides apart. Now the situation has improved very much. It is also quite clear from the interventions by President Rugova and Prime Minister Kosumi that the government of Kosovo is making efforts, and has the intention to create the conditions for the Kosovar Serb minority, in particular, but all minorities, to participate more fully in the provisional institutions of self-government. And some progress can be seen. So there are encouraging signs. The other side of the coin, however, is, and this is undeniable, that there is very much more progress to be made. The ethnic minorities, in particular the Kosovar Serbs, are not participating fully in the provisional institutions of self-government. The Secretary General urged them, including in his discussions with ethnic Serbs in Mitrovica, to participate, to participate more fully, to have their voices heard, to play their full role in Kosovar society. This is, of course, very much something dependent also on Belgrade, on support from Belgrade. One of the standards that the international community will be judging will be the success of the Pristina-Belgrade dialogue. There are encouraging signs now that the dialogue may take place, not just at a technical level, but at a more political level as well. So all in all, it was an important visit. It was a timely visit. It reiterated NATO's enduring commitment to Kosovo. The ambassadors and the Secretary General got a good sense of the progress that has been made, but also much more progress needs to be made. As we move forward NATO will remain engaged in the political process as well through the Contract Group. Let me now look forward to some of the upcoming events in the coming weeks. In late May the EAPC Security Forum, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council Security Forum will take place for the first time. This is a bit of an experiment. It's an experiment to bring a more open, a more dynamic, a more free-wheeling spirit and discussion to meetings of the 46 countries that make up the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. In such a large group, bringing together so many diverse nations, there is the very real possibility that discussions are too formal, too structured and too short. And so we, as an organization in NATO, but also the EAPC countries together, wanted to see if we could come up with a format that was more productive by being more informal. The Security Forum, which will take place in Åre, Sweden, hosted very generously by the Swedish government, will have as a format first an informal ministerial dinner, which will be attended only by ministers. But the next day there will be a full day of discussions, and it will be discussions in which the participants will include government ministers, senior officials, but also representatives of civil society, NGOs, senior academics and journalists. Journalists who will not just cover the event, but will be part of the discussions, and of course, can report on whatever they hear in the meetings. So we think that this has a real opportunity to be something different, something interesting. And the discussions will revolve around some of the key issues on the international agenda. For example, Europe's unsolved conflicts, and of course, this will focus very much on the Caucasus in Central Asia where there are, quite clearly, some unresolved issues, unresolved conflicts, that the international community and the EAPC in particular, the EAPC countries, are very interested in seeing resolved as quickly as possible. The panel... other panels will focus, for example, on NATO's outreach, in particular to the broader region of the Middle East, and there will be experts from that part of the world who will come and discuss it. And of course, there will be a discussion of the Balkans. There can be no question that the situation in the Balkans, while greatly improved from what it was a decade ago, still has some outstanding issues. I have mentioned Kosovo already. In Bosnia there are significant issues still remaining, including cooperation with the International Tribunal, including the relations between the two entities, and the creation of a true single unitary state that can take its full part in Euro-Atlantic structures. And of course, the broader issues of Euro-Atlantic integration and cooperation with the Tribunal of the entire region. So this panel, too, will be very interesting. That will... all these panels will take place in the morning. There will be then a lunch and a free discussion in the afternoon, all of which, as I mentioned, will be attended by and reported on by the journalistic crowd that will be participating. So we hope and expect that this will be an interesting and positive first step for this EAPC Security Forum. The Secretary General will be leaving the EAPC Security Forum early to fly to Darfur. The Secretary General will be participating in Darfur at a meeting chaired by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, by the African Union Commission Chair, Mr. Konar é , President Konar é , and which will be attended, not only by the international donor community, but key nations that are contributing to peace and security in Darfur, like the United States, like Canada, and by the European Union, of course. The Secretary General's participation in this flows from an increasing amount of activity here at NATO Headquarters to see how the Alliance could support the African Union, at their request, for their peace operation in Darfur. This began, again, as those of you who have clicked on earlier briefings know, this began with a letter from President Konaré of the African Union to the Secretary General asking for NATO to consider what support it could provide, particularly in the area of logistics. President Konaré has now come to NATO Headquarters, has met with the North Atlantic Council, and made it very clear that while the key principle remains that this will be an African Union mission, with African Union soldiers—and this is a principle which all allies share—that the African Union, in expanding its mission from the 3,000 or so soldiers that it has on the ground now, to 7,000, almost 8,000 very soon, to 12,000 in the coming months—though that latest step has not yet been agreed—the African Union needs support. They have the soldiers and the boots on the ground, but they need to be able to move those soldiers, they need assistance in command and control, they need assistance in housing, they need equipment. They are a young organization, and while they have done an excellent job by all accounts, wherever they are present, they need more support. And that's why, in the context of this larger and expanding mission, President Konaré has asked NATO for support. He has also asked the EU for support. The NATO ambassadors have agreed now to ask the military authorities to develop clear proposals, clear options, for how NATO could support the African Union in its mission in Darfur, following from close consultation and liaison between NATO and all the relevant international organizations. That, of course, includes the African Union, it includes the European Union, and includes the United Nations. NATO is operating on some very clear principles. One is the ownership of the African Union of this operation. This will be, as I said, an AU operation, and to the extent that NATO can support it, it would not be with combat troops on the ground. This would be an AU mission. The second principle is, of course, that there can be no competition between any international organizations. We must work in full transparency, full complementarity. There is plenty of support to offer the African Union. They have a long list of requirements, as President Konaré has made very clear, and all international organizations that have been asked to support, can certainly find their role in supporting them. So discussions are going on at all levels between NATO, the EU, the AU and the UN, to ensure that we all add value to what the, for example, the European Union has already done a very, very valuable contribution, that the EU has been making for quite some time, as well as individual nations like Canada. Canada has recently expanded; offered to upgrade the support that it is providing to the African Union quite substantially, including in the number of helicopters, including simply in terms of money, but also in terms of other logistical support, and has indicated that when NATO takes on a role in supporting the African Union, Canada would be willing to put some or all of its support under a NATO umbrella to ensure the best possible coordination, both amongst allies, but also with the other participating organizations. So as I say, the Secretary General will be in Darfur, will have discussions with all of the relevant parties, and very soon the NATO military authorities will be in a position to bring to the NATO table options on which the allies can agree, can decide, on whether and how to support the Africa union in response to their own request. Let me turn finally to what will take place on the 8th and 9th of June, and that is a Defence Ministers Meeting that will take place here in Brussels at NATO Headquarters. This is one of the regular scheduled meetings of Defence Ministers. It will be a formal meeting, which means there will be a communiqué, there will be decisions taken. Of course, the ministers will discuss two key areas. One is NATO's operations. As you know KFOR will be discussed. While the principal of maintaining NATO's combat capability in Kosovo is not in question, ministers will certainly discuss how best to do that, how to reduce, if necessary, and if possible, the tail and keep the tooth strong. They will discuss, of course, expansion of NATO's mission in Afghanistan. That expansion is underway already to the west, and they will look... ministers will look to the south as well, and how NATO can take over operations in the south of Afghanistan. As well, there are quite a number of informal offers to take up roles there, and ministers will discuss that. They will also discuss Operation Active Endeavour. The North Atlantic Council will have visited Operation Active Endeavour in Crete, witnessed what those ships are doing in terms of patrolling the Mediterranean, deterring terrorism, boarding suspicious ships, shops that they suspect to be involved in terrorist activities. That, too, will be discussed in... at the Defence Ministers Meeting in Brussels. Of course, they will also discuss NATO's missions, and in particular Iraq, where the training mission is proceeding, but work is also underway to create the Training, Equipment and Doctrine Centre, the TEDC, at Al Rustimaya, a facility just on the outskirts of Baghdad. This is slated to take place in September, where the Alliance will move much of its activities there and be able to do more training for more Iraqis to help them, of course, stand on their own feet, provide for their own security. I am quite sure Ministers will also discuss, of course, Darfur, and what the Alliance can provide in terms of support at that point. We will have a much clearer idea, A) of the requirements of the African Union, B) what other organizations are doing, and C) what kind of added value NATO can offer and where we can certainly de-conflict and prevent duplication with what other international organizations will be doing. The importance of engaging quickly in Darfur was made very clear by President Konaré. This is an ongoing humanitarian emergency, and with the rainy season coming very quickly, it is important for all international organizations to pull together in support of the African Union to help them make a difference—as they already are—but with their enhanced mission in the coming months. That's it for this month. Thank you for clicking on the link and I will brief you soon on next months events. |
|||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||
