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Dear Secretary General, esteemed colleagues, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for inviting me to share with you the Bulgarian perspective on a very important for the development of the Alliance issue, namely the transformation of the North Atlantic Alliance. Discussing the political and military challenges the Alliance faces, our attention today, and I believe in the future as well, will focus on the Alliance as a whole on the one hand, and the defence policy of each individual member country on the other.
The transformation is a highly dynamic and complicated process. Bearing in mind our goal, with the realization of that process it is critically important to be always very well aware that in fact the streamlining and unity of our individual perceptions and assessments as far as the security environment is concerned are the key to an efficient and effective counteration(?) to the risks and the threats we are facing.
Because of the comprehensive character of the problem, I am going to dwell upon the challenges accompanying the process of transformation as seen by Bulgaria. Today I will concentrate on those which, according to me, are of key importance for further carrying out the transformation successfully.
The big challenge, that is a driver at the same time, is to keep the Alliance viable and operational in terms of our doctrines, assets and capabilities. For the Alliance, this transformation is indeed substantial in terms of scale, and is taking place in a relatively short, from a historical point of view, time frame.
I am confident we all are very well aware of the price of the transformation implementation. For Bulgaria this process is twice as much serious and important. On the one hand, Bulgaria is carrying out transformation throughout the whole spectrum of its public and social life: politics, economy, and most importantly, defence and security. Moreover, I'd say that the transition that was done within a couple of years that resulted in the membership in the Alliance led to quality changes in the political culture as far as the defence and security realm are concerned, as well as the practical aspects of the strategic and doctrines of the armed forces and the operational capabilities.
On the other hand, Bulgaria joined the Alliance at a time where the organisation itself was transforming. In spite of the enhanced duodynamics of the process, the Bulgarian far more, for the integration to the Alliance is the successful transformation. The transformation itself is not done for the sake of transformation; it is our (inaudible) to our response, to what is happening around us. So far, as the transformation is a philosophy and a process. It is a process requesting mainly a change of the mind itself, a new way of creating the security in the world around us.
At the same time, we should not indulge in theoretical debates on what is transformation since real life makes us focus our efforts of implementing the transformation. The terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Istanbul, Madrid and Berlin, keep reminding us that we would never have time for mere theorizing. At the same time, the process of transformation requires detailed planning and reasonable management, which, according to me to a great extent, would be the basis for its success, respectively the success of the Alliance which costs are our costs.
The transformation has clearly defined political and military aspects. They are the two sides of one and the same coin, interrelated and interdependent.
The political aspects of the transformation are related to our new political doctrine, to the manner in which we think about security and we perceive NATO itself. Before our military colleagues, the major challenge is the usability of forces. We, the politicians, can definitely say that the big challenge for us is the usability of the current(?) political will, which practically is the main criteria in the transformation process.
I am confident the real test for the success of our policy is the compatibility of the decoration(?) and their practical realization, the synergy of words and actions, which practically means our capacity and skill to successfully translate the political declarations and the intentions into a clear, practical language, followed by concrete and adequate actions.
No doubt, clearly NATO today is a much different organisation, not simply because now there are more members from the Euro-Atlantic zone, but because the organisation itself is evolving.
This evolution requires all of us in our capacity as member countries to build up a new strategic culture in the defence and security realm, and to formulate a new organisation culture as far as the Alliance is concerned. Hardly anyone doubts is the critical importance of how much usable, flexible interoperable our forces are that assess do we have... for a quick and effective development, survivability and comprehensive logistic support.
The usability of forces is the subject of a long and detailed analysis within the Alliance, but this is the right time to underline that achieving the optimum parameters of this usability calls for a responsible, careful and balanced approach by each member of NATO. The real test for the process of transformation is the success of the Alliance operations and missions.
The operations of the Allied Forces actually formulate the real criteria for transformation of the capabilities, and at the same time is the best catalyst in the process of transformation. We are very well aware that without usability of the political will, the concepts, the prints(?), and high-tech operational capabilities are facing the risks… the risk of being only paper tigers.
The Bulgarian (inaudible) of transformation is not much different from that of our Allies who are going through the same process. Our priority is achieving a parallel of usability, effectiveness, jointness and interoperability of our forces. Our national understanding is that the successful transformation is based on the three main skewers(?): usability in terms of will, structures, and resources; a (inaudible) coherence, measurable in the form of adequately selected criteria for success.
No matter that we are considering the problem is general for the transformation in the defence and security realm comprises of two interrelated aspects. The external characteristics of this transformation is related to our understanding that, in our capacity of a NATO member country, we have to generate security. The external characteristics too could not be realized without achieving a certain prior level of transformation inside that covers the conceptual basis and the structural parameters of (inaudible) and forces.
These are the building elements on which the Bulgarian approach to transformation is based. For Bulgaria the process of transformation is accompanied by maintaining the balance between the collective and personal engagements, the responsibilities of defence as stipulated by the Constitution of the country, and achieving a maximum effect with minimum expenditure at the same time.
In conclusion, I would like to reiterate that I am confident NATO today is much stronger than it was at the end of the 20th century. To a great extent, it results from the successful consolidation of the political will and operational capabilities and resources of each and every member country, so that the Alliance is a chief actor of the international scene. Today we do need political will and capacities to implement an active and straightforward transformation to which NATO would be relevant, viable and operational because we all need it.
Thank you.