Close
Back
Download NATO’s broadcast-quality video content free of charge
Log in
No account?
Forgot your password?
NATO MULTIMEDIA ACCOUNT
Access NATO’s broadcast-quality video content free of charge
Create an account
Check your inbox and enter verification code
We have sent a verification code to your email address.
.
Enter the code to verify your account. This code will expire in 30 minutes.
You have successfully created your account
From now on you can download videos from our website
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would also like to subscribe to the newsletter and receive our latest updates, click on the button below.
Reset password
Enter the email address you registered with and we will send you a code to reset your password.
Reset password
We have sent a verification code to your email address.
Enter the code to verify your account. This code will expire in 30 minutes.
Create a new password
The password must be at least 12 characters long, no spaces, include upper/lowercase letters, numbers and symbols.
Your password has been updated
Click the button to return to the page you were on and log in with your new password.
Thank you, and welcome to Brussels.
We have just concluded our meeting of NATO's Presidents and Prime Ministers - the first meeting at this level since NATO's 50th Anniversary Summit in Washington in 1999.
For fifty-two years, NATO has kept the peace in Europe, and ensured the safety of its people. It has been a bastion of freedom, an inspiration to millions who had been denied their basic rights, and a promise to future generations.
It was NATO which protected our people in the Cold War. NATO which laid the foundation stones where democracy and prosperity could be built. NATO which stopped the blood-letting in the Balkans. And NATO which has taken the lead in overcoming the divide between the Eastern and Western halves of this continent.
Our vision is that all people in the Euro-Atlantic area will enjoy the same safety and liberty that we have secured for ourselves - and that this will be achieved through cooperation, not conflict. In the history of peace and conflict, no organisation has done so much, for so many, so peacefully, as this Alliance of great democracies.
Today, NATO's leaders renewed their commitment to the continuing purpose of this Alliance, to the trans-Atlantic cooperation which is at its heart, and to the vision of a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace. We reviewed the major issues on NATO's agenda, and helped chart the course toward our next Summit meeting in Prague in November 2002.
While we discussed NATO's full agenda leading to the Prague Summit, let me point to four areas in particular.
Firstly, today was an important opportunity to engage directly with President Bush about U.S. thinking on new concepts of deterrence, the strategic environment, and the means of dealing with the challenges facing the NATO of today, and the NATO of tomorrow. This included U.S. thinking about non-conventional and asymmetric threats, missile defence, nuclear force reductions, building the right mix of offensive and defensive forces, countering the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and continuing our transformation of NATO's armed forces.
NATO has embarked on a major thinking process about the challenges we face and the best means of addressing them. These consultations will continue and deepen. We did not seek to take any decisions today. We committed ourselves to a continuing process of consultations, before decisions are made, in order to ensure that the interests of all Allies are fully considered and taken into account in forging a common NATO approach.
As Secretary General, I gave a personal and urgent message that NATO's credibility is its capability. If we want NATO to be as successful in the future as it has been in the past, we must all invest wisely and enough, to ensure that we have the military capabilities for any crisis of the future.
Second, we reaffirmed our commitment to the successful strengthening of Europe's defence role. NATO's success in the future depends in part on the equitable sharing of roles, responsibilities, and burdens, among all its members.
Heads of State and Government welcomed the EU's progress in defining its role in future crisis management activities, and establishing the Headline Goal, which reinforces NATO's call for nations to strengthen their overall defence capabilities. The development of the European Security and Defence Identity is of great importance for NATO. Its development must naturally be consistent with NATO's existing defence planning arrangements, and it must take account of the security interests of all Allies, including those that are not members of the European Union.
Third, NATO will continue to carry out its role in managing existing security challenges facing the Euro-Atlantic area today. Foremost, this concerns NATO's involvement in the Balkans, where we have stopped two wars, assisted the return of nearly two-million refugees, and laid a foundation for democratic reform, from Zagreb to Belgrade, and Brcko to Pristina.
We are proud of the accomplishments of our 50,000 troops in the Balkans, and the thousands of others who preceded them. And NATO's troops are, of course, joined by a further 10,000 troops from partner nations. We are grateful to all of these soldiers and to their families. Their sacrifices are understood, deeply appreciated, and extraordinarily important. They meant and still mean the difference between life and death, between suffering and hope, for millions of people.
Our goal is to see the democratic structures in the region become strong enough to be self-sustaining. That job is not yet done. We will therefore maintain our presence, and our commitment to the tasks ahead.
One immediate task ahead is to assist the government in Skopje in dealing with the ethnic Albanian insurgency. Heads of State and Government reaffirmed their full support for the government in Skopje and their complete and total rejection of the attacks on this democratic government. The only way to address the legitimate concerns of the local ethnic Albanian population is through a normal political process. The armed extremists must lay down their arms. There is no other way.
Finally, we reaffirmed our commitment to the enlargement of the Alliance, in accordance with Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty, and we discussed the preparations for our review of the process of NATO enlargement, which will take place at our Summit meeting in Prague. No decisions were taken, and we did not discuss any question of "who" might be invited to join NATO in the future.
But there was general agreement today on the following points:
- Heads of State and Government welcomed the success of the Membership Action Plan in assisting aspiring members with their own preparation for membership.
- NATO hopes and expects, based on current and anticipated progress by aspiring members, to launch the next round of enlargement at the Prague Summit in 2002.
I will stop here, and I have time for only a few questions. The text of my remarks will be available immediately at the end of this press conference.
Questions and Answers
Question - Pavel Bouda - Czech TV - Could you tell us how far was the US President today successful in persuading the other Allies to support or even to join the US Missile Defence Programme?
Answer - Secretary General - The President is not here to ask for support for any specific plan or proposal because the United States does not have a specific plan or proposal. What the President asked for and what the President got was an open mind by the other Allied countries to look at the risks and emerging threats that exist against NATO countries today, to deep and continued consultations about American thinking on the matter and to listen carefully to the thoughts that are expressed by the other Allies in the Alliance. The openness of today's discussion I think shows that people recognize that this is a serious issue which must be addressed, must be addressed together, and the openness of the American approach has been commended and welcomed.
Q Slovak Radio - Secretary General, I would like to ask whether am I correct in understanding that you will launch the discussion, already the second round of enlargement, I mean that you will already invite some new members at the Prague Summit?
A Secretary General - Well, if you're asking me "is the zero option off the table" then I can say to you yes it has. There will be an enlargement at the Prague Summit next year but of course enlargement takes place in a larger context and I would remind people of some of the key points of NATO's longstanding policy on enlargement. NATO enlargement we believe will contribute to the security and stability of the Euro-Atlantic area as a whole. Those nations which join NATO must be contributors as well as consumers of security. Therefore continued defence reforms, democratic politics and marked economies as well as good relations with neighbours and interoperability with NATO are all important. No nation that is not a member of NATO has a veto or droit de regard over this process and no European nation will be excluded from NATO due to its geography. But, yes, the Heads of State and Government decided today that the zero option is off the table.
Q Jérome Bernard - Agence France Presse - Will you meet today, this afternoon, with Mr. Solana and Mr. Powell to discuss about Macedonia and what NATO can do about the situation there?
A Secretary General - Yes. It's always very strange you know when the Press always complain politicians never answer a straight question with a straight answer and when you give a straight answer, they don't seem satisfied. Yes, we will be having a meeting this afternoon to discuss this but I also think it's also going to be discussed now informally among the Heads of State and Government. We are deeply concerned about the situation where a democratic government in south eastern Europe is under attack by an insurgent force. We welcome the proposals that have been put forward by President Trajkowsky that have been endorsed by the National Unity Government and I will be going myself tomorrow with the message that I get from today's Summit meeting and also with my own views to help that process along. The key thing now is to get the plan from being a plan on paper to being a plan and the process in reality and therein lies the key to solving the problem in that country.
Q Klaus Prömpers - ZDF - Secretary General, did you get sufficient answers from the Heads of State and Government concerning the DCI proposals you made in the shortfalls you told them about?
A Secretary General - I reminded the Heads of State and Government what the nations had agreed two years ago at the Summit meeting. They took on board the point that I took in the blunt, undiplomatic way that I as a Scotsman can often put it and I'm expecting them to reflect on it because it's an important message, if NATO does not have capabilities then it does not have credibility. All of them paid testament to the credibility of the Alliance and its continuing importance so I hope the message sank in.
Q Laurent Zacchini - Le Monde - Lord Robertson, I'm sure you will remember what Mr. Rumsfeld said last week in this room. In fact, he said that NATO should keep its right of first refusal, which is a little bit different from the official European and NATO point of view. So my question is, how do you read the official American position on this topic?
A Secretary General - Well, the Washington Summit made it clear that Europe would act where the Alliance as a whole was not engaged. And that seems to me to be a perfectly reasonable formulation and I think you were at the conference in Germany when the French Minister of Defence answered that question in saying that that made it absolutely clear where we all stood on this matter. NATO remains the cornerstone of European security. That is a fact. It remains at the core of all of the Alliance countries' point of view, so I don't think that there is any dispute about it.
Q Douglas Hamilton - Reuters - Secretary General, President Jacques Chirac of France has told the meeting that NATO must rule nothing out in its determination to avoid a civil war in Macedonia, that's widely been taken as a suggestion that the Alliance should prepare for a military intervention, a peacekeeping mission, does that reflect the opinions around the table from the Allies? Does NATO have the capability, would the United States join such a mission?
A Secretary General - You do not expect me to talk about operational matters here. The key thing is that there is now a programme forward in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and it has been endorsed by all the parties in the National Unity Government, Slavs and Albanians as well. The way forward is a cease-fire by the rebels, a withdrawal from the rebels, disarmament and de-commissioning and then a political process that addresses the grievances of the minority population in that country. That way and that way alone spells decent stability for that country and for the wider region.
Q Svetlana Milevska - Macedonian daily - Mr. Secretary General, you said that you were going to Macedonia tomorrow for further consultations with the government. Could you be more precise about the kind of consultation and what if the strategy, the plan of the President Trajkowski fails?
A Secretary General - I don't contemplate failure and nobody in these Headquarters ever does. What I am going to do is to give encouragement to the political process that has produced this action programme, encourage all of the parties to stick with it, try to encourage those people who have taken up guns to lay them down. If they have an interest in the reform process and the addresses of the grievances of the Albanian population, then they can best be addressed through the democratic political process which has now been promised, and which I believe is going to deliver positive actions. So I am there to help and encourage and I know that Dr. Javier Solana, once the meetings of the European Council are over this weekend, will be going to Skopje with exactly the same message; the country needs our help, we are willing to give our help and our encouragement at this deeply concerning time. Thank you very much.