Opening statements

by NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Shaukat Aziz, Prime Minister of Pakistan during the meeting of the North Atlantic Council

De Hoop Scheffer:   A very good morning to all of you.  Prime Minister, let me extend a very warm welcome to you at this special meeting of the North Atlantic Council, the first ever with a Pakistani prime minister.  Your presence here is a demonstration of the constructive political dialogue NATO and Pakistan have developed over the last few years.  Our evolving relationship, I think, is a sign of the new security context that we find ourselves in. 

Our mutual interest and commitment to fighting terrorism figures highly in this regard.  Our relationship however has also gained momentum in light of your government's request for assistance following the tragic earthquake of 2005 and NATO's swift response.  And we have, of course, intensified our cooperation and contacts in light of NATO's role in Afghanistan. 

Prime Minister, at the NATO summit in Riga, NATO's heads of State and government called on all of Afghanistan's neighbours to act resolutely in support of the Afghan government’s efforts to build a stable and democratic country within secure borders. 

As you'll appreciate, the role of Pakistan remains critical for the NATO-ISAF mission in Afghanistan and the stability of the region as a whole.  We had already the opportunity to discuss this. 

It is in this spirit that NATO and Pakistan have set up a number of mutually beneficial military- to-military contacts.  Looking ahead, we are looking forward - and let your presence in this council be an important milestone in this regard. Prime Minister, we're looking forward to cooperating even more closely with you from an operational perspective.  But also in expanding what is I think a mutually beneficial political dialogue.  Prime Minister, you're warmly welcomed.  Please take the floor.

Aziz:  Thank you, Mister Secretary General, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.  I'm really privileged to be in your midst today.  And I think NATO and Pakistan have shared objectives to influence the destiny of our people.  We both share a desire for peace, progress and prosperity. 

This opportunity today for me to interact with all of you is unique because NATO is engaged in a region or the area which borders Pakistan.  As such, we need to share our ideas and have shared objectives, so that we can succeed in ensuring peace in the region.  I refer to your involvement in Afghanistan.

Pakistan is committed to a strong, stable Afghanistan.  We believe that the one country which will benefit the most after Afghanistan itself, if peace is ensured, will be Pakistan.  And the one country which will pay and has paid in the past the highest price for a destabilized Afghanistan will also be Pakistan.  That is why we have shared objectives.  And shared objectives can help us lead towards peace and progress.

We also want to take this opportunity, Ladies and Gentlemen, to thank NATO for responding to our request to assist us after the earthquake which took place on the 8th of October about a year and a half ago.  This was a major catastrophe.  We lost lot of lives.  And what was built in decades and centuries, was destroyed in seconds.

However, today, Ladies and Gentlemen, you will be pleased to know that as a result of the efforts of the global community and our own efforts reconstruction and restoration of normalcy is proceeding.

We are also pleased to share with you that as a result of the earthquake, after the earthquake occurred, not one person lost their lives due to hunger; not one person lost their lives because of lack of shelter; and not one person lost their lives because of any epidemic which occured after the earthquake.

These I mention, because they were all concerns at the time.  And we feel very privileged that a collective global effort for the cause of the earthquake evictees was successful. 

Today, our objective is to build better.  And the silver lining in all of this, is that the housing, the hospitals, the clinics, the schools, the roads, the bridges.  And I could go on and on whatever is being rebuilt is better than what the people had before the earthquake.  We cannot bring back the lives of the people who have died.  We cannot come back to where we have...  whatever people suffered to bring all those things back. 

But what we can do is give them a better future and that's what we are trying to do.  So I appreciate NATO's efforts in this direction.  NATO has played a major role toward peace in Afghanistan.  We intend to discuss it in the next several minutes.  Let me once again thank you for inviting me.  I'm delighted to be here.  And we see this as a part of our continuous engagement with NATO for the cause of peace in the world. 

Pakistan is a country which is committed to peace.  And it is through peace that the world will come closer together.  And let us all work together to achieve this objective, thank you very much Ladies and Gentlemen. 

De Hoop Scheffer:  Prime Minister, thank you very much indeed for coming for this introductory statement.  Could I now ask the members of the press to leave the room, then we can continue this meeting.