Briefing

by NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer

Welcome to the August version of my web briefing. For many in Europe, August is a holiday month, but there are no summer breaks for international security issues. Let me mention a few on NATO's agenda. I normally start as you might know with Afghanistan, but let me this time begin with Kosovo.

As you may have seen, the political roads to determine Kosovo's future status continues to wind and it is taking a bit longer than many had foreseen and many had hoped I should add. NATO on Kosovo is not in the political driving seat, but we are responsible for 16,000 troops in Kosovo and they are responsible for maintaining peace and security and my first message is to the people of Kosovo, majority and minority alike. You should not be in doubt that KFOR will stay to protect you. The political process may be changing constantly. KFOR's commitment to each and every one of you is solid and so is our commitment to respond firmly to any form of violence.

My second message is to the international community, including Belgrade and Moscow. The status quo in Kosovo cannot hold indefinitely. Europe, in particular the Balkans, needs some resolution to this issue. We cannot afford to have a political limbo in the middle of this continent. We have seen elsewhere what that can bring. So the unfinished business of Kosovo must be settled sooner rather than later.

Let me now turn to Afghanistan. In general, I'm confident about the way in which the military operations are going forward. Taliban are unable to mass or to hold territory. Suicide bombs, roadside bombs, kidnappings, are the tactics of the weak. Where we need more progress is in reconstruction, development and governance. Greater international co-ordination is still a must. So is more effort by the Afghan government and the Afghan people to demonstrate improved governance. I will continue to press for these elements. And apart from that, we also need engagement with Pakistan. It's clear that extremism presents a threat, not only to Afghanistan, but to the whole region.

Let me address my final subject for this month which is Russia, and more particularly the NATO-Russia relationship. Anyone who reads the press knows that there are a number of issues these days where Russia and the west and NATO do not see eye to eye. I mention Kosovo, I mention the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty adapted to CFE Treaty, I could mention missile defence, and too often the media dredges up the catchy new cold war analogy.

Now I can tell you that despite the current difficulties, this is simply not the reality. We have a strong partnership NATO and Russia. We're working close together in counter-narcotics for Afghanistan, in Operation Active Endeavour, the maritime operation in the Mediterranean. We work together on theatre missile defence. We have a permanent forum - the NATO-Russia Council - for consultations in which we all trust; the Russians do, we do, and we do discuss missile defence and we do discuss conventional forces in Europe in the NATO-Russia Council and we should.

What is not useful in our relationship I think is excessive rhetoric about targeting NATO territory by missiles. I've learned in a long diplomatic career that megaphone diplomacy gets us nowhere and is unhelpful.

That's it for this month. I wish those of you on holiday a relaxing vacation. And to our soldiers in the field, many, many thanks for your service. You are doing a very important job for NATO. You have and you are entitled to our full support.

I'll speak to you again in the autumn when we will be having important ministerial meetings and when we will start our preparations for the summit, the NATO summit in Bucharest in Romania next April. So happy holidays if you are on holidays and see you in September.