KEYNOTE SPEECH
BY NATO SECRETARY GENERAL
JAAP DE HOOP SCHEFFER
AT THE CONFERENCE ON
“NATO’S BUCHAREST
SUMMIT – TRANSFORMATION OF THE
ALLIANCE AND POLISH AND REGIONAL
PERSPECTIVES”
WARSAW,
POLAND -- 13 MARCH
2008
Minister
Klich,
Excellencies,
Ladies and
Gentlemen,
Let me start by thanking you, Minister Klich, and the Polish Ministry of
National Defence, as well as the Center for International Relations, for the
opportunity to speak at this important conference in such an impressive setting.
The Royal
Castle is
truly grand, but it also symbolic – reflecting the long history of a country
that has always prided itself on its freedom, independence and cultural
identity.
Not only the venue, but also the timing and the theme of this conference,
are very well chosen. NATO’s Bucharest Summit is less than a month away now. The
Summit
agenda is taking shape. It is becoming clear that our next
Summit will
be a milestone in NATO’s evolution in a number of respects. And I am very
pleased to discuss our Summit agenda with such a distinguished audience –
including several familiar faces, such as my good friend Ambassador Nowak, the
former Dean of the North Atlantic Council.
NATO’s Bucharest Summit will be a big event -- first of all quite
literally. We expect some sixty Heads of State and Government, as well as senior
representatives from several other leading international institutions, to join
us in Romania for
our discussions on ISAF. That will make Bucharest a
very visible demonstration of NATO’s continuing transformation – our adaptation
to the complex, global security challenges of the 21st century – and
our determination to tackle those challenges together with the rest of the
international community.
Afghanistan is of
course, central among these new challenges -- and hence central to our
discussions in Bucharest. The
NATO-led mission in that country is the most demanding mission that NATO has
ever undertaken. I was there with my colleagues on the North Atlantic Council
just a few weeks ago, and there is no doubt that, for a country that has just
emerged from 30 years of war and conflict,
Afghanistan has
made remarkable progress. Refugees have come back in their millions. Children
are back at school. People have greater access to health care. You see more and
more banks and cell phones. And the legitimate Afghan economy is flourishing.
Still, it is also clear that there remains a lot to do, including for
NATO.
At the Summit, we
will produce an honest appraisal of where we stand with our
Afghanistan
mission. We will take a hard look at how we can do better in helping the Afghans
to run their own country. We will make public a forward-looking vision statement
concerning our own engagement and that of the rest of the international
community. And we will reaffirm our strong commitment to the emergence of a
stable and secure Afghanistan, at
peace with itself and its neighbours.
Afghanistan will
remain NATO’s Number One operational priority for some time to come. It will
require a sustained effort, strong resolve and continued solidarity on the part
of all the NATO Allies. As we all know, the words
“Poland” and
“solidarity” go together very well. And indeed, over the past few years, this
country has made a major contribution in
Afghanistan.
Poland
continues to show that commitment today, with more than a thousand brave men and
women on the ground, vital assets such as helicopters, and its involvement in
areas such as reconstruction and training. I will meet with Polish soldiers who
have served in Afghanistan in
the Polish
Military
Museum later
today, but I do also want to use this opportunity to commend and thank
Poland for
its strong engagement in Afghanistan.
While Afghanistan will
keep NATO busy for the foreseeable future, the Alliance
cannot lose sight of its European vocation -- and it won’t. Almost twenty years
after the end of the Cold War, Europe is
still unfinished business. NATO’s mission is to help complete it – to continue
to play its part in the further unification of this continent. And I believe the
Bucharest Summit will be important in reaffirming that very fundamental,
long-standing Alliance
objective as well.
Helping
to unify Europe
requires, first of all, that NATO stays engaged in the Balkans. We have arrived
at a decisive juncture in Kosovo. NATO is called upon to ensure that Kosovo
remains stable and secure -- a place where Kosovar Albanians and Serbs can live
together in peace. We have said repeatedly that we will meet that
responsibility. The NATO-led Kosovo Force -- including more than 300 Polish
soldiers -- plays a vital stabilising role all over Kosovo. And when they meet
in Bucharest, our
Heads of State and Government will no doubt reaffirm NATO’s commitment to see
through our mission in Kosovo.
It is important, at the same time, for NATO to continue to help the
entire Balkans region to take its rightful place in the Euro-Atlantic community
of nations. We must avoid a division into “winners” and “losers” – between
Balkan countries with more security, and others with less. And that is why I
hope – and indeed expect -- that the Bucharest Summit will open NATO’s door to
new members from this region, and reach out as well to new
Alliance
partner countries such as Montenegro and
Bosnia-Herzegovina, who have made it clear that they do not want to be left
behind.
There is no doubt in my mind that
Serbia’s
long-term future, too, lies in Euro-Atlantic integration. And so we must make
clear to Belgrade and
the people of Serbia that
there is no viable future in a retreat into angry nationalism. Our Bucharest
Summit will be an excellent opportunity to send precisely that message – and to
show that NATO is keen to engage with
Serbia as
well as with its many other partner countries.
NATO’s
policy of partnership and cooperation with countries all across this continent
has been a huge success. Over the past fifteen years, the
Alliance has
helped many of its partners to meet difficult reform challenges. We have also
helped to forge a pan-European security culture that has never before existed on
this continent – a strong disposition to work together in tackling common
security challenges. And we see this reflected in the valuable contributions
which many of our partners are making to NATO’s operations
today.
NATO’s
Euro-Atlantic partners have been invited to take part in our Bucharest Summit.
We want to make clear to them our interest in developing our partnerships. We
want to tailor our cooperation even better to their needs and requirements. We
want to further engage our partners in meeting today’s security challenges
together with us. But we also want to think creatively about extending NATO’s
network of partnership relations to include nations outside the Euro-Atlantic
area.
Here, as
well, there is a key role for Poland.
Throughout the 1990s, Poland was
one of NATO’s most active partners – and it used its partnership relations to
great effect to move closer to the Alliance. More
recently, as a NATO Ally, Poland has
been a major champion of our partnership policy in general, and a driving force
behind the formulation of the Alliance’s
course of action especially towards Ukraine and
Belarus.
I am
confident that we can continue to count on that solid experience and
constructive engagement by Poland, as
we look to further develop closer cooperation with all our partners in the
months and years to come.
I have
mentioned NATO’s open door in connection with the Balkans, but I want to
emphasise it again. Because there are other countries, too, that wish to join
NATO – like Ukraine and
Georgia. As
long as there is a gap between where countries are and where they want to be,
the unification of Europe will
not be complete.
And as
long as some countries feel that they are not entirely masters of their own
future, not least because others try to deny them their free choice,
Europe is
not the common space that we want it to be. And so I believe our Bucharest
Summit should also send a clear signal to
Ukraine and
Georgia that
NATO’s door remains open.
Against
this background, I am hopeful that we will also be able to move the NATO-Russia
relationship forward at our Bucharest Summit.
Prior
to the inauguration of Dmitriy Medvedev -- whom I congratulated upon his
election last week -- President Putin has said that he will attend the
Summit. No
one expects that he will stay silent on issues such as Kosovo, the CFE Treaty or
NATO enlargement.
But we
must not let our differences on those and other issues disguise the very real
progress that NATO and Russia have made in a number of other areas – such as in
the fight against terrorism, the training of Afghan and Central Asian
counter-narcotics officers, or our Cooperative Airspace Initiative, which will
have its NATO-hub located here in Warsaw.
A solid,
trustful NATO-Russia relationship is vital to the security of our continent, and
indeed the stability of the world around us. That is why we want to deepen our
cooperation and to continue our dialogue, including on issues on which we may
disagree. As far as NATO is concerned, there really are no “red lines”, and no
limits on how far our relationship with
Russia can
go. I hope that President Putin will come to Bucharest with
a similarly open mind as well. And that he will be prepared, together with his
NATO colleagues, to give our cooperation a political push again, and a
much-needed strategic quality.
Equally
vital to the security of our continent is a solid partnership between NATO and
the European Union. There is no question that both the
Alliance and
the EU have been instrumental to the post-Cold War reconstruction of
Europe. They
share fundamental, strategic interests in today’s volatile security environment.
21 countries belong to both NATO and the European Union. And, taken together,
all that makes it difficult to understand -- and to accept -- that we have still
not managed to develop a true strategic partnership between us.
Removing
the lingering nervousness in our relationship, and forging such a genuine
NATO-EU partnership, will require strong political commitment at the highest
level in a number of capitals. President Sarkozy has said that it makes no sense
to pit the EU and NATO against each other, and I fully endorse that view. I
believe that the new Polish Government, as well, can be instrumental in bringing
NATO and the EU closer together. And I hope that our Bucharest Summit, where the
European Union will also be represented, will show that we are moving in the
right direction.
Bucharest must
also give a further push to the adaptation of NATO’s structures and capabilities
to the new security environment. Of course, not all security challenges require
military solutions -- but military competence remains crucial for dealing with
many of them. And so it is essential that the Alliance
maintains it military edge, and that our member nations continue to make the
necessary investments – to make their forces more flexible and useable, and give
them the right equipment to do their job. I am glad to say in the presence of
Minister Klich here today that Poland is
well aware of the urgency of this matter.
While we
reinforce our ability to meet near-term operational requirements, we cannot
ignore the emergence of several new risks and threats. One of these is the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. In light of this threat, we are
taking a fresh look at missile defence, and whether the system which the
United
States has
been discussing with Poland and
the Czech
Republic can
be complementary to ongoing programmes at NATO.
At
Bucharest our
Heads of State and Government will take stock of that work and give further
direction.
Poland has
been instrumental in putting another emerging challenge on NATO’s agenda, which
is energy security. We have been looking at ways to better protect the security
of our critical energy infrastructures -- and how NATO can complement existing
national and international efforts to maintain the flow of vital resources.
Again, I expect our Heads of State and Government to give further impetus to
that work when they meet in Bucharest.
As we come to grips with these emerging challenges there are two key
notions that must underpin all our efforts, and which I know are very important
for Poland. One is the indivisibility of security. We cannot, and will
not, allow some parts of NATO’s territory or populations to be less well
protected than others. The second notion is one that I already mentioned, and
that is solidarity.
Just
as Allies are expected to assist other Allies in dangerous, demanding missions
such as Afghanistan,
those same Allies may expect an equal level of solidarity in facing security
problems nearer to home, such as proliferation threats or energy cut-offs. The
formula of the Three Musketeers – “one for all and all for one” – must remain
our strategic compass as it has always been.
This all points to one final challenge that I would like to briefly touch
upon, and that relates to public diplomacy. The
Alliance today
is very different from the Cold War NATO. Indeed, it is very different today
from the NATO which Poland
joined almost exactly 9 years ago. The international security environment has
seen tremendous changes over the past two decades. NATO has transformed to
respond to those changes. And of course it continues to evolve.
To my mind,
getting and keeping our publics on board – explaining to them why the new,
transforming NATO is unique, and vital to their security, while never forgetting
the core function of NATO, article 5, solidarity, collective defence -- will be
a key public diplomacy challenge in the coming years. It will be particularly
important to manage the public’s expectations about our operations – to explain
the dangers involved, and the long-term character of many of our engagements. We
have to underline NATO’s enduring commitment to finishing
Europe’s
unfinished business -- but also its relevance to emerging challenges, such as
proliferation threats and vulnerabilities in our energy supply.
Our
Bucharest Summit next month will be a valuable opportunity to showcase the
transforming, 21st century Alliance. But
it will require a sustained effort to really make the new NATO understood, and
appreciated. Here in Poland, you
– Ladies and Gentlemen -- play an important role in that effort, and I encourage
you to play that role to the full. Because in this age of uncertainty, there is
every reason for the people of Poland to
continue to see NATO as “the Alliance of
their dreams”.
I thank you for your attention, and would be happy to take a few
questions.