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Slovenian
Prime Minister visits NATO HQ
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Slovenian Prime Minister Andrei Bajuk visits NATO.
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Council
briefed on the Balkans
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The Special Envoy of the UN Secretary General for the Balkans,
Carl Bildt, addressed the North Atlantic Council (NAC) on 13 September.
He gave an update on the situation in the Balkans on the eve of
a series of elections in the region. He then stressed the role played
by Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
(1) in the stability of the region.
This was the first of the NAC meetings since the summer break.
Mr Bildt is one of the first speakers to be invited to address the
Council. On 20 September, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR),
General Joseph Ralston, also attended the weekly Council meeting.
He briefed Ambassadors on the Balkans and, more specifically, on
the preparations that KFOR and SFOR have made to be able to provide
for security during elections in Kosovo and in Bosnia and Herzegovina
this autumn.
Additional information:
- High
resolution photos of the visit to NATO by Carl Bildt, UN Secretary
General's Special Envoy for the Balkans
1. Turkey recognises the Republic of Macedonia
with its constitutional name.
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Commander
of KFOR appointed
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The appointment of Lt. Gen. Thorsten Skiadr, Norwegian Army, as
commander of the NATO peace support mission in Kosovo, has been
approved by NATO's Military Committee. He will take up his functions
in Spring 2001 when Lt. Gen. Carlo Cabigiosu will have completed
his six month appointment in this rotational post.
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Upcoming
elections in Kosovo
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Municipal elections in Kosovo are scheduled for 28 October 2000.
They will provide the basis for the continued development of meaningful
local self government in Kosovo as foreseen in UN Security Council
Resolution 1244. The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in
Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo
(UNMIK) have been preparing for the elections for months, through
the registration of voters, inside and outside Kosovo.
Throughout the process, the NATO-led peace keeping force, KFOR,
has also been working closely with the OSCE and UNMIK, by maintaining
a secure environment. KFOR will continue with this important supporting
role and provide logistic assistance during the actual vote.
The October 28 elections in Kosovo will come on the heels of the
September 24 Presidential and Parliamentary elections in the FRY.
The conduct of these latter elections will not be directly supported
by the international community in Kosovo.
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Lord
Robertson in Garmisch and Rome
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Lord Robertson analysed NATO's new role in crisis management and
its impact on the Alliance's agenda at a seminar organised by the
George Marshall Center situated in the Bavarian town of Garmisch,
Germany, on 14 September. He stated that this new role had affected
many issues: "
from our relations with other institutions,
to relations with Partners, including Russia, to our own internal
adaptation, both politically and militarily."
Lord Robertson then travelled on to Italy where he gave the Eisenhower
Lecture, organised by the NATO Defense College in Rome, on "The
relevance of Atlanticism". General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the
first of the US generals to hold the position of SACEUR from 1951
to 1952, called for the setting up of a NATO College at the time.
A NATO Defense College was therefore opened in Paris in 1951 and
then moved to Rome in 1966.
Additional information:
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George Papandreou, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece,
becomes Président dHonneur of the North Atlantic Council succeeding
Joschka Fischer, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany. |
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First
NATO-EU meeting at Ambassadorial level
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The first ever meeting of NATO and the European Union at Ambassadorial
level took place at the EU on 19 September. This meeting opened
a new chapter in the cooperation between the two organisations that
share common strategic interests and play such a crucial role in
fostering security and stability in Europe.
The meeting was held in the Justus Lipsius building, where the
EU Council of Ministers has its seat in Brussels. It was the first
time that the implementation of the decisions on strengthening European
security and defence taken by NATO and the EU in Washington, Cologne
and Helsinki last year had been discussed jointly at the level of
the NAC - NATO's highest decision making body- and the IPSC - the
EU's Interim Political and Security Committee.
Ambassadors assessed the progress made by NATO and the EU in the
context of the expert contacts on the Headline Goal implementation
and the first meetings of the joint NATO-EU Ad Hoc Working Groups
in the areas of security issues, Capabilities Goals, EU access to
NATO assets and permanent consultation arrangements and held a fruitful
discussion on the way ahead in NATO-EU relations.
Additional information:
- High
resolution photos of the Joint Meeting of NAC/interim Political
and Security Committee at the Council of Ministers, European Union
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