Sevilla, Spain

8 Feb. 2007

Opening statement

by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at the
Informal meeting of NATO Defence Ministers

Ministers, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon and a heartfelt welcome to this informal meeting of NATO Defence Ministers.

Let me first of all thank Minister Alonso for hosting this meeting here in the wonderful city of Sevilla, and for the warm Spanish hospitality we are all enjoying.

As we meet today, this Alliance – and our men and women in uniform -- are keeping the peace, and defending our values, in operations from the Balkans to South Asia. At our meetings here today and tomorrow, we will discuss how to reinforce the success of our missions – now, and in the future.

We will focus first on our two most important operations: Afghanistan and Kosovo.

Afghanistan’s development, since 2001, is something of which the entire international community can be proud – first of all the Afghans themselves. Democracy, reconstruction, development, human rights, security – in all these areas, there has been steady progress.

Of course, there are challenges. There are those who want to use violence to rob the Afghan people of their future, and return the country to the Middle Ages. But we – the Afghan people, and the international community – we will simply not allow that to happen.

2007 will see the entire international community step up our support for the Afghan people. More money will be pledged and spent on reconstruction and development. More personnel and money will be put into training. More equipment will be donated to the Afghan National Army and Police.

There will be more forces in NATO-ISAF, to better create the conditions for reconstruction and development to take place.

Crucially, we will do a better job, as an international community, at working together to meet out shared goals. And we will ensure, in our discussions with Minister Wardak later today, that our efforts remain fully consistent with Afghanistan’s needs.

Passons, maintenant au Kosovo, l'Envoyé spécial des Nations Unies, M. Ahtisaari, a accompli un travail remarquable avec sa proposition globale de règlement pour le statut du Kosovo. Au nom des Alliés, je le félicite et je lui réitère notre ferme soutien.

Nous nous réjouissons d’entendre son compte rendu à l’occasion de sa venue la semaine prochaine pour une réunion du Conseil de l’Atlantique Nord.

Nous entrons maintenant dans une phase délicate au Kosovo, et l'OTAN est résolue à poursuivre sa tâche essentielle, qui est d’aider à instaurer un environnement sûr et sécurisé. Une fois qu’un accord définitif sera intervenu sur la question du statut, nous reverrons et nous ajusterons comme il convient le rôle de la KFOR afin d’appuyer la mise en oeuvre de cet accord.

Mais notre rôle est indissociable de celui des autres acteurs.

Il nous faudra agir en parfaite coopération, à la fois aux niveaux politique et technique, avec nos homologues, en particulier avec l’Union européenne, qui assumera un rôle majeur dans le Kosovo de l’après-statut.

Current operations demand our full commitment – military and political – and require full co-operation with our international partners.

Preparing for future operations requires us to consider the transformation of our capabilities. At our working session tomorrow, we will take up the ongoing improvement of defence capabilities of the Alliance, in particular the NATO Response Force. At the Riga Summit we declared the Force fully operational. We now need to ensure we can sustain this capability so as to be ready to employ it whenever necessary.

Tomorrow we will also meet with the Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov, and separately also with our colleagues from the seven Mediterranean Dialogue countries.

We attach great importance to such consultations with our partners, with whom we face many common challenges such as terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and failed states.

I would now like to invite Minister Alonso to make his welcoming remarks.