Press Point

by the NATO Secretary General

JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER (Secretary General of NATO): Good afternoon, once again, ladies and gentlemen. We had, I think, a good meeting, and it was a first for him, of course, with the Russian Defence Minister  Anatoliy Serdyukov in the NATO-Russia Council.

The agenda, I think, has no surprises as such. Of course, the major issues on the Euro-Atlantic security agenda were discussed, CFE. You know, that as we speak the extraordinary conference in Vienna is going on. Missile defence was discussed. But also the many concrete cooperative projects we carry out together, Russia and NATO, and these are quite a few.

You would not have expected, from this meeting, that all outstanding differences of opinion have now been resolved. They have not. We didn't quite get there, to say it a bit more diplomatically, but again the NATO-Russia Council was used for what it is for, because I think at all levels, be it ambassadorial, be it political, as this afternoon, we should discuss perhaps more important than the others, the issues on which we do not agree. And we did it, this afternoon, I think in what I could quality without reservations, as a friendly atmosphere.

As I said, the CFE is the Vienna topic this week. But all Ministers agrees that also the NATO-Russia Council should play a useful role in discussing the prospect for achieving the objectives I think we all share, and that is to have a ratified, adapted, CFE regime in place.

And you know, where we do not agree and where we are discussing with our Russian friends in Vienna is on the fulfilment of the so-called Istanbul Commitments. But we very much agreed, and I had a brief bilateral meeting with Minister Serdyukov that we should continue this discussion.

On missile defence, despite the differences well-known to you, I think all 27 NRC members are keen to move forward with the theatre missile defence discussion in the framework of the NRC. We do agree with our Russian colleague that the experience gained so far, and you know that there have been some computer simulated exercises, so that we have the potential to create a real value-added cooperation.

On the practical side I think we're moving forward when it comes to helping Afghanistan together. We have made progress on a logistic support agreement. The joint training program for counter drugs officials in the region, Afghanistan and Central Asia, as you know, is proving its utility and we might be able to extend it into 2008.

Minister Serdyukov confirmed Russian interest in becoming more ambitious in our defence and military cooperation program and the allies want to be equally ambitious. And that is why we all had welcomed, and it was done again this afternoon, I did it, Ministers did it, the ratification of the SOFA agreement by Russia.
We are now looking ahead to a more active schedule of military exercises, including special forces, and further work on interoperability is also in the pipeline.

We are pleased with the Russian offer of further operational support. It will happen again to Operation Active Endeavour. In September a Russian warship will once again, as happened last year, join the NATO ships in the Mediterranean, in the framework of this Article 5 anti-terrorist operation Active Endeavour.

Of course, a few weeks before the anniversary, the double anniversary, ten years of the NATO-Russia Founding Act and five years NATO-Russia Council. I briefly discussed this with Minister Serdyukov and I'm quite satisfied with the atmosphere and the tone in today's meeting. We need professional dialogue, we need civilized debate and that is exactly what we had today.
Thank you so much.

Q: Secretary General, Paul Ames from the Associated Press. You've announced today a study on missile defence for next year. After your meeting today with the Russian Defence Minister are you any clearer as to how the radar base in Azerbaijan might fit into that scenario?

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: Not entirely. But I can tell you that I discussed it briefly with the Russian Defence Minister. He brought it up, in fact. In the meeting it was discussed, the Minister raised it, Secretary Gates repeated what he said before, that technical experts are going to talk, should talk about this Russian offer. Because there are many technical elements. I express again, I'm not a technician, I cannot judge.

It is clear that the fact that the offer came, I think, is a recognition of the fact that there is a threat, there is a missile threat, and missile defence might apparently be, given the offer of the Azeri radar might possibly be an answer. For the rest I have to leave this really to the American and Russian experts first, because this is not something for NATO to comment on.

What we do see, let me repeat what I said a few hours ago in this room, is that we'll now, of course, see two tracks. We see the track United States... Poland, United States, Czech Republic on the U.S. third site and the timelines we  discussed, and I gave you on the NATO side will run as much parallel so that we can finally, when it would be possible to have a bolt-on of the NATO system in through the U.S. system, we can reach the timelines February '08 in the Defence Ministers' meeting next year and the summit in Bucharest to take some form of decisions there. That is the situation. But it was, of course, discussed.

Q: Dmitry (inaudible), NTV Russia. Among Russian press we don't know the Defence Minister quite well. He's rather shy as far as media is concerned, so maybe you could help us and share your first personal impressions?

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: Well, I'll happily do that, although it was the first time that I met, and we met, Minister Serdyukov. But I say again, in the bilateral meeting I had with him and in the meeting we just finished in the framework of the NRC, the atmosphere was good. The Minister made an intervention, as Ministers usually do in meetings, but I have even less experience with Minister Serdyukov than the Russian press, so let me limit it to that we had a friendly bilateral meeting and the atmosphere in the meeting in the NRC was a good atmosphere. And that I closed the meeting by saying that we're looking forward to have more meetings with Minister Serdyukov.

I say again, this is a mature relationship. This is a relationship between adults. The NRC has passed the infancy stage, and that means, I say this again, that we also should tackle the hard nuts we have to crack and we have some hard nuts to crack.
But I think engagement between Russia and NATO, NATO and Russia is important here. What do we ever gain by disengagement? And we also do not gain by a tone of the debate which is too high. And the tone of the debate today was the tone I like.

MODERATOR:  We have time for two here and there.

Q: Augustin Palokaj from Koha Ditore. Did you discuss with Russian Minister Kosovo as well, and in what form will NATO be ready to stay in Kosovo if Kosovo declare independence without the Security Council resolution, which his likely to be the case?

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: You know that in a long career in domestic and foreign policy you will not expect from me that I am going to answer iffy questions. So the second part of your question... I don't say it's irrelevant, but I'm not going to answer it.

On the first part, no I did not discuss Kosovo with Minister Serdyukov. We'll discuss Serdyukov in the framework of the NATO operations and missions, certainly tonight at 26. But I do think that had it been the Russia Foreign Minister it might have been in the domain, but I did not... in the short bilateral, I must admit, that I had with Minister Serdyukov, Kosovo was not discussed.

MODERATOR: Last questions.

Q: Mr. Secretary General, did the proposal of Putin, he made in Heiligendamm...

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: Could you please identify yourself, please?

Q: Sure. (inaudible)... from German Television. Did the proposal Putin made in Heiligendamm, did change the atmosphere to a more constructive, or how would you judge it, his proposal with Azerbaijan. And you personally, as Secretary General, what do you think? Could Azerbaijan be complementary to the idea of the American plan in the Czech Republic. Could it replace, let's say the Czech Republic, for example?

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: Answering your first question. I do think, if I'm listening to Secretary Gates when he says that he hopes that they can now convene(?) to discuss that. It's important in that respect that the United States and Russia discuss the issue. I think that's a plus.

You know, that the United States has been, in my opinion, has been, and NATO as well, as transparent as possible on the issue of missile defence. So I do consider that a plus. I do not have the impression, and I don't think that the offer by President Putin in his proposal he made in Heiligendamm on the Azeri radar site is going to replace the alterative for the bilateral negotiation going on between the U.S. and Poland and the U.S. and the Czech Republic. But if you then would ask me, which you don't, what is the technical position of that radar in Azerbaijan, I think we should leave that to the experts.

But as I mentioned, in answered to Paul Ames's question a  moment ago, I do think that this radar, the Azeri radar, might be discussed, but it will not, it is my strong impression, stop or function as an alternative for the negotiations that are going on between the U.S. and Poland and the U.S. and the Czech ChrétienRepublic.

MODERATOR: I'm afraid to tell your time is up.

DE HOOP SCHEFFER: Thank you so much.