For
immediate release
31
May 2007
PRESS
COMMUNIQUE - COMMUNIQUE PRESSE
"MILESTONE" SPRING SESSION
IN MADEIRA SAYS
JOSE LELLO, PRESIDENT OF THE
NATO PARLIAMENTARY
ASSEMBLY
NATO PA President, José
Lello (Portugal) said in
Lisbon today that the
spring session which concluded in Madeira on Monday was a
“milestone in the Assembly’s history”.
An important
“first” for the Assembly was the participation of parliamentary delegations from
Afghanistan and
Pakistan. During the session, the AssemblyÂ’s
Standing Committee – its elected officials and the leaders of each member
delegation – also agreed to involve parliamentarians from
Afghanistan and
Pakistan in the
Assembly’s “New Parliamentarians Programme” and it accepted an invitation to
hold a roundtable in Pakistan in 2008. “The Assembly’s deliberations were
greatly enhanced by participants from
Afghanistan and
Pakistan, and I look
forward to their involvement during our annual session in October”, said Mr
Lello. “The Assembly can and should
play a key role in building bridges between NATO and the Moslem
world.”
The
Madeira session also saw
Bosnia and
Herzegovina,
Montenegro and
Serbia making the
transition from parliamentary observer delegations to associate members. “This is a recognition of these nations’
progress towards Euro-Atlantic integration and this new status will enable them
to join in a wider range of Assembly activities”, commented Mr
Lello.
In another
important development, the Standing Committee agreed to Mr LelloÂ’s proposal that
the Assembly should decide what features it would like to see in a new NATO
Strategic Concept. “NATO’s current
Strategic Concept moved NATO out of the Cold War and into the late
20th century. Whether or not NATO decides to prepare a new Strategic
Concept for its 60th anniversary summit in 2009, we feel that the
Assembly should consider what a Strategic Concept for the 21st
century should look like.”
During its
Madeira meeting, the Assembly was addressed by leading figures including Portuguese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Luis AMADO, NATO
Secretary General Jaap DE HOOP SCHEFFER, Prime Minister of the Former Yugoslav
Republic of Macedonia*, Nikola GRUEVSKI and, Ms. Nino BURJANADZE, the Speaker of
the Parliament of Georgia. The
AssemblyÂ’s five Committees also provided forums for discussion of a wide range
of reports and presentations from expert speakers.
“The Assembly moved forward
with debates in several critical areas”, said Mr Lello.
“Afghanistan clearly was a central
theme, but considerable attention was devoted to other subjects such as missile
defence, the future status of Kosovo, potential NATO enlargement, and relations
with Russia. On
Afghanistan, our members are committed
to the success of NATOÂ’s operation but they remain deeply concerned about the
flourishing narcotics trade and the need for further development assistance to
lay the foundations for long-term stability. Our members would also like to see more
progress with force commitments, national caveats and more equitable ways of
sharing operational costs.”
The session also included a
highly informative special joint meeting on missile defence for the Science and
Technology Committee and the Defence and Security Committee. Dan FATA, United States
Deputy Assistant Secretary
of Defense for European and NATO Policy, and Dennis MAYS, the Missile Defense
AgencyÂ’s chief engineer briefed members on the
technical and political aspects of United States plans to deploy missile
defences in the Czech Republic and Poland.
Regarding
Russia, Mr Lello announced that
following a very productive meeting with the heads of the Russian Delegation to
the Assembly – Mrs Lubov Sliska and Mr Victor Ozerov – he was looking forward to
more intensive dialogue within the NATO-Russia Parliamentary Committee (the
AssemblyÂ’s counterpart to the NATO-Russia Council).
“NATO and
Russia need each
other”, said Mr Lello, “but the relationship is fraught with misunderstandings
and misperceptions. The Assembly
provides an irreplaceable forum for us to discuss all those areas where we agree
and where we disagree.”
For
further information, please contact
e-mail:
Press@nato-pa.int
NATO
Parliamentary Assembly
Place
du Petit Sablon 3, 1000 Brussels,
Belgium
Tél:
(32) 2 513 28 65 | Fax: (32) 2 514 18 47 |
website:
http:// www.nato-pa.int
|
Background
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly, founded
in 1955 with a Brussels-based secretariat,
brings
together 248 national parliamentarians from the 26 NATO countries.
In
addition, 16 associate delegations from Central and
Eastern
Europe,
Ukraine
and Russia;
5 Mediterranean
Associate delegations: Morocco,
Algeria,
Jordan,
Mauritania
andIsrael
and
6 Parliamentary Observer delegations participate in Assembly activities and
meetings.