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ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN (Secretary General of NATO): Good morning. I will meet with EU Defence Ministers in a moment. We will speak about NATO-EU cooperation in general, but in particular I want to address the situation in Libya.
What is happening in Libya is of great concern to all of us. It is a crisis in our immediate neighbourhood. It affects Libyan civilians and lives and safety of thousands of citizens of NATO allies. Many countries are now evacuating their citizens from Libya and clearly this is a massive challenge.
I can tell you that I have convened an emergency meeting in the NATO Council this afternoon to consult on this fast-moving situation. I will now discuss with EU Defence Ministers how we can help people in need and limit the consequences of these events in a pragmatic way.
I think the situation in North Africa and the Middle East is a concrete example of the need for close cooperation and coordination between NATO and the European Union.
Q: Do you think that there will be a need for military actions in Libya?
ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN: I don't want to go into specifics at this time. I think clear priority must be given to evacuation of people in need, and maybe also humanitarian assistance.
Q: What are your expectations for the meeting this afternoon? Is this going to be the thing... the subject matter as here?
ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN: It will be a consultation on a very fast-moving situation, exchange of information, discussion on possible options, but at this stage I will not go into specifics.
Q: How can NATO and the EU cooperate on this issue?
ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN: We are all in this together. We know that many EU countries have started to evacuate their citizens. EU countries may also be affected by a possible massive flow of refugees. And actually 21 countries are members of both organizations. It's well-known that NATO has at its disposal certain assets that could also be useful in such coordination efforts. And this is exactly what I'm going to discuss with EU Defence Ministers.
Q: It is...
Q: (Inaudible...) prospect of a no-fly zone being imposed, either by the European Union or by NATO?
ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN: I will not comment on that at this stage. I think it's too early to go into specifics. I would like to add to this that such a far-reaching approach would definitely require international legitimacy. In particular, I think it would require a clear mandate from the United Nations.
By the way, the United Nations Security Council will have an emergency meeting later today. Now I will discuss with EU Defence Ministers. Then we have the NATO Council meeting this afternoon and later there will be a Security Council meeting.
Q: Lack of health care is the main problem in Libya. How can the NATO help on that?
ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN: Sorry?
Q: Lack of health care is the main problem in Libya?
ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN: Yes, as I said before, I will not go into specifics at this time, but I think priority must be given to evacuation of people in need and humanitarian assistance. We will then look closer into which options do we have.
Thank you.
Q: Thank you very much.