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I would like to express my appreciation to the CSCE Chairman in office for organizing this meeting, which contributes a useful follow-up to the 1st August meeting in New York, organized by Dr. Boutros-Ghali.
Events of the last few years have shown that increased cooperation between international organizations has become a must if we want to achieve effective conflict prevention and successful crisis management, including peacekeeping and peace enforcement.
The United Nations, through its Security Council, must retain the primary responsibility for international peace and security and must be the source of relevant mandates.
The increased cooperation between international organizations should be based on complementarity of effort; in other words, a rational allocation of tasks and missions, more than just a straight division of labour.
In addressing conflicts and crises, each situation needs to be addressed on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the capabilities and comparative advantages of the various organizations. Let me stress that a cooperative approach towards maintaining international security and stability is needed now more than ever. We cannot miss the historic opportunity to further cooperation among us all. We have to react to these fast changing times and seize the opportunities that they bring.
All international organizations have to adapt to this new form of cooperation and have to establish contacts, based on transparency and mutual understanding. A special effort of generosity and flexibility will be demanded from us. We are ready to do it.
NATO has established close cooperation and coordination with the United Nations, at all possible levels (political and military contacts between NATO Headquarters and UN Headquarters, operational coordination AFSOUTH-UNPROFOR).
The Alliance is ready to strengthen its relationships with the other International Organizations dealing with security issues and particularly with the CSCE and the WEU. In that sense, we are looking forward to the results of this Summit which hopefully, will reinforce CSCE capabilities on these areas.
Alliance's role in conflict prevention
The Alliance is making an important contribution to conflict prevention through its efforts to enhance stability and security in the wider Euro-Atlantic area. In fact, projecting stability to the new democracies on Central and Eastern Europe has become one of the major goals of the Alliance.
Since 1990, NATO has reached out to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, created the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (1991) and launched the Partnership for Peace (1994). These are major initiatives that we are swiftly implementing.
The process has contributed to building trust and cooperation. We, in the Alliance, attach a lot of importance to these initiatives and we are fully committed to make them a success.
The Alliance's role in crisis management and peacekeeping
While retaining its function of providing collective defence to its Member States, the Alliance has taken up new missions based on Ministerial and Summit decisions since 1992 to support peacekeeping operations and other operations under the responsibility of the CSCE or under the authority of the UNSC, on a case-by-case basis and in accordance with Alliance procedures.
The Alliance is making a major contribution to the UN and Contact Group efforts to end the fighting and settle the conflict in former Yugoslavia, and we are ready to continue to do so.
Let me make clear once more. NATO is acting on the basis of a UN mandate. NATO has performed the tasks that the UNSC has requested her to do. We have a supporting role for the UN, in the crisis in the former Yugoslavia.
I draw a clear lesson of our common experience in former Yugoslavia and that is that, it is necessary to reach common understanding on definitions, principles and concepts of peacekeeping and peace enforcement. The NACC/PfP Ad Hoc Group on Cooperation in Peacekeeping, with CSCE representation and a standing invitation to the UN to attend, continues to address these issues, which constitute essential questions that we have got to answer if we want to tackle, in an efficient way, the new challenges we are now facing.
Conclusion
The Alliance continues to enhance its role in conflict prevention through the NACC/PfP process and its new decisions on future enlargement.
The Alliance remains ready to support peacekeeping and other operations, based on a UN or CSCE mandate, but effectiveness requires efficient interaction and coordination both at the political, strategic level, and at the tactical level. We need to continue to study all these aspects, as a matter of urgency, in order to get the best results from our Organizations' capabilities.
Thank you.