31 May 2006

NATO parliamentarians get preview of Riga Summit Opinion 30/05/06 - NATO Speech by NATO Secretary General at the Parliamentary Assembly Spring Session Background NATO in Afghanistan Key links NATO Parliamentary Assembly Multimedia High Resolution Images NATO’s Riga Summit will set new guidelines for NATO’s operations, relations with partner countries, and take stock of the transformation of Alliance forces, Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in a speech in Paris. The NATO Secretary General said he hopes to announce at Riga that the expansion of the Alliance ’s security presence in Afghanistan – to cover all of the country - has been completed. “ Afghanistan remains our number one priority, and it is absolutely vital, both for the people of Afghanistan , and for NATO, that we are successful, ” Mr. De Hoop Scheffer told a gathering of some 340 parliamentarians from Europe and North America Six months to Riga The Secretary General was speaking at a joint session of the North Atlantic Council – the Alliance’s principal decision-making body – and the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, held on the occasion of the Assembly’s Spring Session in Paris. He outlined the agenda of the upcoming Summit meeting of NATO Heads of State and Government, to be held in the Latvian capital Riga on 28 and 29 November. While saying that six months was a long time in politics, Mr. De Hoop Scheffer said that he expected the Summit to focus on three themes: political questions, military capabilities and the Alliance’s operations. He also called on parliamentarians to help to explain to the public the importance of missions in faraway places, such as Afghanistan, and their relevance to security in Europe and North America. “C’est à vous qu’il appartient non seulement de prendre les décisions essentielles qui concernent l’OTAN, mais aussi d’expliquer ces décisions a vos électeurs,” he said addressing the gathering in French.