The PfP Planning Symposium

Video interview with Martin Erdmann,
Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy

Q: On the eve of the PFP planning symposium we are speaking today to the Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy, Ambassador Martin Erdmann. Welcome Ambassador. Thank you for taking time to speak to us today.

Erdmann: With great pleasure.

Q: I have just three questions for you. The first one is: what makes the 2007 PFP planning symposium a flagship event?

Erdmann: Well let me start off by talking about the substance. We are only some five weeks away from the Riga Summit and at the Riga Summit the Partnership framework, the Partnership issue, was one of the two key issues. The other issue was the defence transformation of NATO. So only some five weeks after the Riga Summit, we have the opportunity to talk to our partners about what the Riga Summit at 26 decided. So in fact this is a singular opportunity to look with fresh minds at the decisions taken at Riga.

And let me mention a second point which probably is even the more important one. Imagine that more than 50 nations, one fourth of the UN family, will be represented there. It will be the 26 NATO Allies, 23 Partnership for Peace countries, countries from the Mediterranean Dialogue, from the Istanbul Co-operation Initiative, which means countries of the Gulf area who want to do business with NATO, who want to co-operate with NATO and some Contact countries. These are countries mainly in the Pacific region.

So in other words we have a huge gathering of all the Partnership pillars that NATO has developed over the past years and we will have the opportunity in a very open spirit, in a non-formal setting, to discuss all the Partnership questions that are on their minds and that are on our minds.

Q: My second question was what are the expected substance of discussions? Give me a little bit more. Do you want to elaborate anymore on that?

Erdmann: Yes, because we have two days of meetings. We have the first day where the Partnership issue will be debated. At Riga Heads of State and Government of the Alliance have decided to further elaborate our Partnership tools to extend the mechanisms that we have of the PFP framework to other countries, to other Partnership framework like the Mediterranean Dialogue and to even the Contact countries. So the Partnership issue will be the core of the first day of discussion.

And the second day another item that is very dear to our hearts will be discussed and that is Afghanistan. We will be able to welcome the Afghan Defence Minister; we will have the Foreign Minister of Croatia, a country that is doing operative business with us in Afghanistan; and we will discuss the Afghan-NATO co-operative framework through which NATO hopes to be able to help Afghanistan to develop institutions, especially in the defence and security related sectors.

So in other words we have two pillars on substance. One is the Partnership framework as a whole and on the second day we will discuss Afghanistan related questions.

Q: What are your expectations for the outcome of the 2007 PFP planning symposium?

Erdmann: The title of this two-day meeting will be "Partnerships that Deliver". Now the question is what does it mean? What does deliver mean? When you look at editorials you sometimes get the feeling that NATO has established its partnership relations in order to profit unilaterally from these partnerships, namely for operations. I think that is a false perception.

The reality is that partnerships are a two-way street. Of course, NATO draws profit from the partnerships. For example, in the operations domain. But also partners draw profit from it because NATO helps in the areas of interoperability, in the area of defence reform and most importantly I believe in the area of political consultations. So it's a two-way street.

I believe that NATO's partnerships are a win-win tool for both sides and not just a unilateral win situation. And therefore I hope that we will all go home from Oberammergau with a feeling that partnerships are of use; that it is good to invest into partnerships and that they are profitable for both sides, partners and NATO nations alike.

Q: Ambassador Erdmann thank you very much and good luck for your trip to Oberammergau.

Erdmann: Thank you very much.