Press briefing

by NATO Spokesman James Appathurai

JAMES APPATHURAI (NATO Spokesman): Hello. Hi folks, thanks for staying. We'll make it quick because it's a beautiful day and I've just been given negative news about my hockey playoffs so I'm not in a chatty mood.

Four issues, all very quick. First, the visit of the Croatian Prime Minister Sanader, today who met with the Secretary General and also with the entire Council.

To summarize the discussion, there was a clear sense, from everyone around the table, that Croatia has made great progress over the past months and years in working towards meeting NATO standards. The ambassadors and the Secretary General particularly welcomed recent polls that have been taken in Croatia which show public support for NATO membership rising above 50 percent. That is a significant rise.

One of the issues that had been of concern to NATO members was public support for membership in NATO. The Croatian government has invested heavily in explaining NATO and clearly that is having an effect.

So all in all, good mood music around the table, with an eye to the upcoming summit next April in Bucharest.

You know this as well as I do, the Polish president has just also met at length with the Secretary General. His first visit here. There were, in essence, I would say, three main issues of discussion. One was energy security,. the second missile defence, and the third, in a broader sense, relations between... sorry, four issues. Relations between Russia and the West, and fourth, Afghanistan.

And beginning with Afghanistan, the President stressed Poland's strong continuing support for this mission. Poland is making quite a significant contribution—you all know this—with a battalion based primarily in the east, but available throughout the country. This was a contribution that was made at an important time for NATO when we were looking for forces to expand the ISAF mission and Poland came in with this offer to bring these forces in.

So certainly that was welcomed by the Secretary General. In essence, strong support from Poland to continue its contribution within this operation.

On missile defence, on energy security, you know the Polish positions. You have heard them in the press conference. The Polish president brought Secretary General up to date on the state of discussions between Poland and the United States. I obviously will not give any more detail on that, and they discussed, as I said, relations with Russia. This is a subject that concerns, of course, not only Poland and the Secretary General, but all of the allies and all of the countries of the West. It is no surprise that it has come up here.

I think that the spirit of the room reflects the spirit in NATO, and that is a desire to see relations improve, a willingness to engage in discussion and cooperation wherever possible, and of course, we will have an opportunity to discuss that next week with the new Defence Minister of Russia, and I'll come to that next.

But two there visits to mention. The president of the International Committee for the Red Cross, and I suppose the Red Crescent, Dr. Kellenberger is here now  and meeting with the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council.

And finally, unless plans change, Secretary Brown of the United Kingdom will visit the Secretary General on Friday for a bilateral meeting, meeting with the Council. I imagine Afghanistan will be one of the primary issues of discussion.

Final point, next week, to give you a little snapshot of the Defence Ministers' Meeting, we will have the Assistant Secretary General John Colston at two o'clock on Monday who will brief you more extensively on the detail, but let me give you a little snapshot. We will have, on Thursday, starting at ten o'clock a meeting with the NATO Defence Ministers. The two main subjects, what we call transformation, that's the modernization of NATO's military capability will have to include, for example, a discussion of the NATO Response Force, but also missile defence. And that, I'm sure, will be a very interesting discussion.

Next, over lunch, a working lunch of the NATO-Ukraine Commission with the Ukrainian Minister of Defence, and there will be a point de presse, according to the current schedule, at 14:35 with the Secretary General and the Ukrainian Minister of Defence together.

There will then be, at 3:15 the NATO-Russia Council, as I mentioned with the new Defence Minister of the Russian Federation. I'm sure you can guess the subjects on the agenda. both NATO-Russia cooperation and we have quite a lot of it. I mention, for example, cooperation that is stepping up in countering the flow of narcotics out of Afghanistan, which affects both Russia and the West, as well as all the neighbouring countries. It's one area where we have had good cooperation. There are others.

Missile defence is one area where we have cooperated, where we continue to cooperate when it comes to theatre missile defence, NATO nations and Russia will potentially explore opportunities for further cooperation. I base this on Minister Lavrov's comments over the last couple of days that this is an area where the Russian Federation would like to see more cooperation. But there are obviously a host of other issues that need to be discussed from CFE to missile defence, strategic missile defence. So these will be raised as well.

Sixteen-fifty-five to 18:25 Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council.

UNIDENTIFIED: Sorry, a press conference.

APPATHURAI: Oh sorry, press conference, indeed, at 16:35. Excuse me. Secretary General's press conference at 16:35.

APPATHURAI:. So we can confirm the Secretary General and we'll keep you posted on the Russian.

UNIDENTIFIED: (inaudible)...

APPATHURAI: Yeah, I can understand your raising the question. We'll do  our best.

Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council 16:55. What will be interesting will be that for the first time the three new members of the Partnership for Peace will be represented at the Defence Ministers' level, and that will be nice for us and I hope nice for them.

Finally, at 19:30 there will be a working dinner of the...

APPATHURAI: Did I forget the press conference? Yes, there'll be a point de press. Thank you. At 18:30. She memorizes these things. It's very impressive.

Nineteen-thirty, a working dinner of NATO Ministers of Defence with the EU High Representative, as well as our strategic commanders. Operations will be the subject and of course, Afghanistan and Kosovo will be the two priorities.

The next morning we will have a Nuclear Planning Group and Defence Planning Committee meeting. Those are regular features of our meetings and then a North Atlantic Council at 11 o'clock with non-NATO ISAF contributors to the 37 countries representative of ISAF with Afghan Defence Minister Wardak and there will be a press conference with the two, the Secretary General and the Afghan Minister of Defence at 13:05. Thirteen-oh-five I say it will be.

And that's all I've got to tell you. Please, if you have any questions, on any subject.

Q: (inaudible)... about agenda for NATO-Ukraine Commission?

APPATHURAI: I imagine there will be quite a few. A political, two categories political and one political and one practical. Robert, feel free to jump in if I forget something.  Or if you feel like saying it.

ROBERT PSZCZEL: I mean, there's quite a lot of elements concerning defence cooperation in Action Plan, which is being discussed as you know, in Kiev and we hope to have this implemented. There are the operational aspects...

APPATHURAI: Exactly, including the fact that a Ukrainian ship is once again now, as far as I understand as part of Operation Active Endeavour. A new one.

PSZCZEL: And there is practical projects. There are trust funds. There is things which definitely relate to defence, but of course, it'd be a good opportunity to listen to Minster's evaluation of the government's priorities.

APPATHURAI: Exactly. The second aspect will be, I'm sure, the Ministers will be interested to hear his evaluation of what is going on in Ukraine, what the political process is, where he thinks it will go. And what NATO can do without in any way interfering with the political process inside the country, to continue to support the reform process.

So that, I think, will be exactly the main elements.

Q: James, in the discussion with the Polish President was there any talk of any additional protections, support, guarantees that NATO can give to the Poles if the missile units are installed indeed in Poland?

APPATHURAI: As far as I'm aware, no. No. As far as I am aware, no.

Q: Okay.

Q: Still with the Polish president. You said that energy security was discussed. Was there any specific actions or plans raised in those discussions?

APPATHURAI: Well, NATO has a tasking, you heard the Secretary General obviously, NATO has a tasking from Heads of State and Government in Riga to take forward discussion on energy security to see where NATO can add value and then what NATO should do to implement that.

The ambassadors are still in discussion as to how to frame that tasking, how to take that political direction and translate it into concrete work. And they are at the point, I have to say, of refining last details on this, but that's where we are. But there is an intent from NATO Heads of State and Government that NATO should do, as I said, assess its possible added value and what role it might take. In that context, of course, the Polish president raised the larger issues relating to energy security, but the NATO track is quite clear.

Q: To be clear, was he talking about energy security in the sense of securitizing infrastructure, or why the sense... you know, security of supply?

APPATHURAI: If I understand correctly, it was a general discussion of energy security. What the issues are, related to Europe and its supplies. The elements related to potential NATO role in protecting critical infrastructure or other roles have to be worked out here in NATO and that is exactly what's being done now.

Q: (inaudible)...the question's asked. Regarding the discussion with the Polish president, during the press conference he said that, sorry... he said that the... Poland would give an answer to the U.S. pretty soon, but it's a bilateral matter. Do you see eye to eye on that, or would you like to see more cooperation, more sharing of information between NATO and Poland on the issue?

APPATHURAI: NATO certainly shares the same view. This is a bilateral issue. We have full transparency between NATO and the countries that are engaged in these discussions. There are no secrets. The Secretary General is fully aware of the state of discussions and that was part of the discussion here today. And of course, we have regular contact with the ambassadors.

So there are no, as I say, there are no veils in this process. But, it is for information only. NATO does not wish to engage into those bilateral discussions.

Q: Will a AGS system be on the agenda?

APPATHURAI: Next week, yes?

UNIDENTIFIED:  Yes.

APPATHURAI: Yes! Indeed, it will. This is short and sweet.

Q: Yes, you mentioned somewhere that they should be this week an informal NAC PSC meeting.  Is that correct ?

APPATHURAI: I have no information that an informal NAC PSC meeting will take place or is scheduled.

Q: Could you just give me a rundown of where we're at with in-theatre missile defence system?

APPATHURAI: Yes, and I'm sure, Robert, once again, why don't you just sit here. A decision has been taken to, of course, have the system, so that political decision has been agreed. They have also agreed to move forward on establishing what they call a test bed. In other words, a test bed, that's what it is, to test the technologies. This is for the NATO system.

My understanding is that the delivery date for a NATO system is 2012, is that right?

UNIDENTIFIED: (inaudible)...

PSZCZEL: Two stages, there's the initial operation capability, 2010/'11 and then the full one 2015/'16. The difference is in the first case we're talking about the range of about over 1,000 kilometres, and in the second case this goes up to 3,000.

APPATHURAI: Just give him my job. So that's where we are. There is also cooperation with the Russian Federation on a separate tack on theatre missile defence, and that has gotten to the stage of a tabletop exercise, that kind of thing, but nothing more.

Q: Is NATO going to be represented at the meeting in Vienna next week on the CFE treaty and what are the Alliance's expectations of that meeting?

APPATHURAI: Well, NATO will be represented the way NATO is always represented. NATO is not a signatory to the treaty, but the NATO countries in Vienna coordinate their position and that's always been the case when it came to CFE issues.

The view of NATO countries on this issue is simple. They believe that the CFE is an important treaty, they wish to see it ratified, the adapted treaty ratified as soon as possible, as soon as the conditions are in place for it to be ratified. If the Russian Federation or any other signatory wishes to have... call such a meeting and have a discussion of the issues they are very happy to have that discussion.

But certainly the NATO country's view, and by extension the NATO view on this is very clear. This is an important treaty. We want to see it, or the adapted version of it as soon as possible.

Thanks, guys, short and sweet.