NATO HQ, Brussels 16 June 2005

Video interview with General Ray Henault, the new Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Q: Well now you're only one day into the job as Chairman, NATO's top military officer, so is it too early for you to have developed a sense of your priorities? RAY HENAULT (Chairman of the Military Committee): Well no it isn't. I'm very focused on what I have to do and very proud as a Canadian and for Canada that I've been elected to this position. I'm looking very much forward to the opportunity to provide the best possible military advice, consensus-based advice, to the North Atlantic Council and the Secretary General of course. And as I do that I'm going to be focused on four very significant issues and that is enhancing the conduct of operations wherever they may be; ensuring that I continue to promote and help with the transformation of the Alliance both in member nations and also in the Headquarters themselves of course; strengthen the transatlantic link and everything that that represents and also reinforce the relationship between NATO and the European Union. So I've already got that much on my plate, I'm looking forward to helping all the member nations and NATO, of course, to go forward with those agenda items. Q: Okay. Well now, how difficult is it going to be to achieve consensus on issues of concern with 26 nations? HENAULT: Well of course achieving consensus even in a small family can be difficult so I'm assuming that there are going to be and sometimes will be some difficulties in that respect but I think that's something that we all deal with in this community and I look very much forward to doing that. There are a number of things that we already have on our plate in terms of NATO and when it comes to achieving consensus I think we've already seen that we can do that and we do it very well as a member nation or nation- a community of nations. We've managed to undertake operations well outside the NATO area; we've managed to be very successful at doing so. We'll continue to reinforce the relationships between ourselves and the European Union and all of those things on a consensus basis I'm sure we'll be successful in the longer term. Q: General, thank you very much indeed for taking time out of your first day with us. HENAULT: It's a great pleasure to be here and I look forward to serving the Alliance in this capacity for the years to come. Thank you. Q: Thank you very much.