NATO HQ , Brussels 24 Apr. 2006

Monthly Briefing by NATO Secretary General   JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER (NATO Secretary General): Hello, this is my first monthly update on the NATO website about what NATO is doing and why we are doing certain things. I'll do it, I hope, on a monthly basis from now on. So let's look at the month of May now and look... let's look at the ways ahead. The first thing I should mention is that later this week in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, NATO foreign ministers will meet to discuss a number of important things. First of all, they'll discuss NATO's partnerships. NATO has a lot of partner nations, and they play a very important role because they participate with their soldiers in NATO's operations and NATO's missions. And I think the moment has come to discuss the state of play of NATO's partnerships and to ask ourselves the question: "If you look at the world, if you look around, are there other important nations, important partners for NATO with which we should perhaps have a somewhat strengthened political dialogue, because they participate in NATO's operations, because they are in regions which are important for NATO?" Let me give you an example: Australia , a very important nation, far away geographically, participating soon in NATO's most important operation in Afghanistan, I could mention New Zealand, I could mention an important country like Japan, I could mention South Korea. So the future of these partnerships, not doing away, of course, with the importance of our present partnerships, is one of the items which will certainly be discussed in Sofia. Sofia, by the way, being a sort of a preparatory meeting for the summit meeting NATO Heads of State and Government will have at the end of November this year in beautiful Riga, the capital of Latvia. So partnerships is certainly one of the issues which will be discussed there. The second important topic ministers will discuss is NATO's Open Door policy, in other words, NATO's enlargement. You will know that there are nations aspiring to become a NATO member, knocking on NATO's door in other words. Now, I do not expect the Riga summit I mentioned in November making decisions on enlargement of NATO. But it is very important that the foreign ministers, this week, in Sofia and the Heads of State, later this year, in Riga, will discuss what kind of signal they want to give to those nations who are aspiring to become a member of NATO. And then, of course, you know, we'll discuss nations in the Balkans, nations like Ukraine and Georgia and in the Balkans other nations who are aspiring to become NATO members. So that's the second important agenda item for the foreign ministers meeting in Sofia , later this week. Then, the foreign ministers will discuss what I call operational issues in normal and diplomatic speak what is NATO doing and where. And then I have to start with Afghanistan where many men and women being part of ISAF, the NATO stabilization force, have been sent by NATO into harm's way by defending the values at the Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan, NATO has always defended. And I say we send them into harm's way because this is a complicated mission, it is a difficult mission, it is a mission with fatalities. We have already, unfortunately, seen NATO soldiers die in the framework of that mission. And I want to say that my feelings, of course, are with the families and the loved ones of those soldiers having died in Afghanistan. On the other hand, you'll agree with me that this is a very important mission. This is defending values, this is assisting the Afghan government and, even more important, the Afghan people to see that they can take the reins of their own country into their own hands. We've seen elections in Afghanistan . There is a president, democratically elected. There is a government now in the making, there is a Parliament democratically elected. We see girls and women go to school, which was absolutely impossible before the horrible Taliban regime was removed in Afghanistan. So we are there. At the moment, coming summer, with fifteen-sixteen thousand soldiers, men and women, I say again, having been sent into harms' way, we have to show solidarity with the Afghan people. I realize how difficult this mission is. But many allies and partner nations are participating. But we have to realize it's a complicated mission. It is dangerous, but we have to help the Afghan people in building their nation. That is what foreign ministers will discuss. Ministers will also discuss the other operations and missions of NATO. Let me mention Darfur in Sudan, in Africa, where the situation is dire, where many, many people are dying every day and every week. You might know what NATO is doing there : we are assisting the African Union on their request to fly in, to ferry in by aircraft their forces in and out of Darfur. We are training the military leadership of the African Union. And we have, I think, established a good relationship with the African Union in this respect. Last week, the NATO Council took the decision that when the African Union would wish and ask us to do so, we could extend the period of transporting their forces and training their military leadership to later this year if it would come in Darfur to a transition from the African Union Force which is there at present to a force led by the United Nations. I'm quite sure and that's what we have always discussed... also have discussed in Brussels is that the North Atlantic Council of NATO would be willing to do more. But only, I stress again, if of course the African Union and later the United Nations would agree that this is necessary. I think, by the way, it is necessary. And I think that NATO could play an important role there. And that's what we are discussing at this very moment. Let me also, coming back to the month of May again, another event on the NATO calendar for the month of May, which is a visit by the ambassadors on the North Atlantic Council to Kosovo where NATO has KFOR, a NATO force: 17,000 men and women strong. And that trip to Kosovo will have two main aims. First of all to give a signal that KFOR is there to stay, that in the very important period Kosovo is going through, the NATO force will give and will create an environment of security and stability in which these very important talks on the future status of Kosovo can take place. We support those status talks under the leadership of former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari as a special envoy of the United Nations. We support them. We're going to show that we continue that support. And we also going to give a political signal of course to the parties involved being the Albanian majority or the Serb minority that they have to be very active in those status talks and that they are the ones to make them into a success. So we're also going to deliver a clear message to Kosovo leadership as these status talks further develop. Let me finally mention another important event which is going to take place in the framework of the all-important NATO-Russia relationship. In May, we'll have what we call a NATO-Russia rally in Russia from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad so from the East to the West of the Russian Federation where you will see NATO officials and Russian officials being very active, stressing the importance of the Russia-NATO relationship and underlining how important it is that this relationship will also be explained to the Russian people, showing that we have many forms of cooperation in the practical sense that we have an important political dialogue going on. That is what these people are going to do, I say again, from Vladivostok to Kaliningrad. That, dear Internet surfers, I should say Internet watchers... NATO website watchers and followers, and I hope they'll be many, that brings my monthly update, this first one to an end. I thank you very much for tuning in and hope to see you next month on the NATO website. Thank you so much.