Assisting Ukraine's defence
and security sector reform

Video interview with John Colston,
Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning

INTERVIEWER: I'd like to introduce Mr. John Colston, Assistant Secretary General of Defence Policy and Planning and the Co-Chairman of the NATO-Ukraine Joint Working Group on Defence Reform. Thank you very much for speaking with us.
Now in this broadcast I would like to focus on one of the key components of the NATO-Ukraine partnership - defence and security sector reform. Could you begin by telling us why is this important?

JOHN COLSTON (Assistant Secretary General, Defence Policy and Planning, NATO): Well I think there are perhaps three reasons why defence and security reform is particularly important for Ukraine and a particularly important area for co-operation between Ukraine and NATO and the NATO allies.

The first reason is that modern and capable, effective armed forces and a modern security sector is important for Ukraine so that Ukraine can protect its own interests, contribute to regional stability and take its proper part in the international community. The second reason I would suggest is that for Ukraine, co-operation on defence and security sector reform is a critical element of meeting its aspirations of working ever more closely with NATO, ever more closely with the Euro-Atlantic institutions. And the last reason, the last but not the least reason, is that I think the democratic reform of the defence and security sectors is an absolutely essential element of Ukraine's progress towards greater democracy, great openness, greater accountability, in its government and in its society.

So for all three reasons, this is an absolutely critical element of our work together.

INTERVIEWER: And how is NATO assisting Ukraine with defence and security reforms?

COLSTON: Well in a whole range of ways and NATO allies are helping Ukraine bilaterally, and NATO allies are seeking to support Ukraine multilaterally through the NATO-Ukraine Commission. I'd like to say a word in particular about the work of the Joint Working Group on Defence Reform, which I have the privilege of co-chairing with Professor Sergiy Pyrozhkov, the Deputy Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council. And the Joint Working Group on Defence Reform contains representatives of Ukraine and all 26 NATO allies and it is the primary forum for all 27 nations to work together to identify those areas where co-operation in defence and security sector reform can be taken forward most usefully. It is a forum for channelling the efforts of allies towards the support of Ukraine.

The kinds of things that we've been doing in recent years include developing the capacity of Ukrainian institutions to manage their human resources, to manage their people, policy planning, civil and democratic control of the security sector and implementing defence reforms and managing the consequences of defence reforms. So there is a wide range of work which is going forward under the Joint Working Group and it is a great privilege to be able to be part of that.

INTERVIEWER: Well NATO certainly seems very engaged in partnership with Ukraine, but what are some of the key achievements of this co-operation?

COLSTON: Okay, well I think the key to success has been both the genuine Ukrainian interest and commitment to the process of reform and the willingness of allies to support that process. Today we are engaged in a range of activities under the auspices of the Joint Working Group and this includes work such as supporting Ukraine in conducting its comprehensive national security sector review, in strengthening civil control over security and defence structures, in facilitating the establishment of strategic partnerships between Ukraine's security institutions and civil society, in reforming Ukraine's intelligence sector according to Euro-Atlantic standards and in managing the consequences of defence and security sector reform.

We've launched a number of programs to support the implementation of these policies. Just to mention a few: the Program for the Professional Development of Civilian Personnel employed in Ukrainian security institutions; the Working Group on the Civil and Democratic Control of the Intelligence Sector; the NATO-Ukraine Partnership Network for Civil Society Expertise Development; a number of Partnership for Peace trust funds which are helping Ukraine in managing the consequences, the human consequences, the social consequences, of defence and security sector reforms.

And we've also been helping individually and collectively Ukraine in developing its new and modern national security strategy, which I understand has now been endorsed by the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine. And these are all ways in which we're helping in a very practical manner.

Let me just mention one other thing. This very weighty document which I have in front of me at the moment is the product of collaborative work between NATO and the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament) and the National Security and Defence Council, as well as the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of the Armed Forces. And this book contains all the key documents relating to the legal basis and the policy background of the security and defence sector in Ukraine and we have come together jointly to translate all these documents into English, which we hope will provide a firmer basis for allies to be able to assist Ukraine in implementing what it is seeking to achieve.

INTERVIEWER: And in October you attended the high level NATO-Ukraine meeting in Portugal where several new initiatives were launched. Could you tell us about these new initiatives?

COLSTON:Indeed. We met in Portugal in Sintra a few months ago at the kind invitation of the Portuguese Minister of Defence and held some important discussions chaired by the NATO Secretary General. And those discussions in Sintra were the occasion for launching two important new initiatives: the NATO-Ukraine Working Group on Civil and Democratic Control of the Intelligence Sector and the NATO-Ukraine Partnership Network for Civil Society Expertise Development. And led me just say a word or two if I may about both of those initiatives.

The working group on the intelligence sector is directly supported by 19 nations and what we're trying to do is to provide expert advice from NATO allies on implementing democratic reforms and the transformation of the intelligence community in Ukraine so that Ukraine can meet its aspirations to transform its intelligence sector to meet Euro-Atlantic and European standards. The group is co-chaired by NATO and Ukrainian officials and is made up of intelligence experts from Ukraine and NATO allies.

The Partnership Network for Civil Society Expertise Development, which was the other new initiative which was launched in Sintra, receives on a voluntary basis the support of 14 nations. And the main of this network is to increase interaction between civil society groups, non-governmental organizations and security practitioners in both NATO countries and Ukraine by providing a framework for exchanges on the roles of civil society in formulating and implementing national security and defence policies and discussing ways in which the civil society can be more involved, more closely involved, in supporting defence and security sector reform.

And the network will be composed of non-governmental organizations from Ukraine and from allied nations and it is going to be officially inaugurated at the 4th Annual Assembly of the NATO-Ukraine Civic League, which is going to take place in Kiev in February. Of course it is going to be absolutely critical that ownership of this initiative remains with the non-governmental organizations themselves. All we're doing in the Joint Working Group is providing the framework within which they can operate.

I'd like to mention if I may just one last initiative in this context which is the Program for the Professional Development of Civilian Personnel. The aim of this program is to develop civilians who can work effectively within the security institutions of Ukraine strengthening the capacity for civilian oversight and democratic control. And this program is supported 17 nations and the total value of the program over the last two or three years is some two million Euros and this has enabled some 200 Ukrainian officials to take part in a very wide range of activities adding up to some 2,500 course days of work in support of their training.

So we think we have a whole range of very practical ways in which we're implementing co-operation between NATO and Ukraine.

INTERVIEWER: To wrap things up, 2007 will mark the ten year anniversary of the NATO-Ukraine Charter. What challenges still remain for the NATO-Ukraine partnership and where should Ukraine's priorities lie?

COLSTON: Thank you. Well let me say first of all that defence and security sector reform is not something which just happens once which is completed and then you can forget about it. It's a continuous process and it's a process in which all of the NATO allies are in engaged in their own ways, as well as Ukraine. So this is a shared process between all 27 nations of the NATO-Ukraine Commission.

But in terms of the priorities for Ukraine, I think that what Ukraine needs to do is to ensure that it has a comprehensive national security sector reform policy in place; and secondly, that's it is absolutely committed from the political leadership throughout the government, throughout the civil service, throughout the uniformed forces, to the implementation of that policy and that is exactly what Ukraine is trying to do.

So what the challenge we face in the years ahead is making a reality of those things which we know today that we need to be able to do and I have great confidence that the Ukrainian officials with whom I've had the pleasure of working very closely in recent years and who are perhaps Ukraine's greatest asset in terms of understanding and delivering change, are really going to see this worked through so that Ukraine has  a defence and security sector which matches its aspirations and which matches its future as a European democracy committed to the common values which the Euro-Atlantic institutions hold in common.