PRESS COMMUNIQUE
NATO PAÂ’S OUTGOING PRESIDENT EXPRESSES
CONCERNS FOR NATOÂ’S FUTURE
Outgoing President of the NATO PA, Pierre Lellouche, in an address to the
Assembly members spoke of his concern for the future of the NATO
alliance.
Mr Lellouche told fellow parliamentarians attending the NATO PAÂ’s annual
session in Quebec City that both the United States and European Union
states needed to make a greater commitment to ensure the survival of the
political and military alliance which won the Cold war.
“I must admit that I am concerned about the fate of the Atlantic
AllianceÂ… I have my concerns, first of all because our American friends
and allies do not give me the impression of having truly chosen a
direction for the future of the Alliance,” he told a reception hosted by
the Canadian parliament.
Mr Lellouche said that after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade
Centre the US had by-passed the alliance during the “first phase of the
war in Afghanistan and then Iraq”.
He said he was also concerned by the “unilateral budgetary disarmament”
of many European countries and appealed for increased efforts to cement
the transatlantic alliance.
“But I am also concerned about the non-existence of the famous European
pillar of the Alliance. Although Europe is delighted with its famous
ESDP, the European Security and Defence Policy, in actuality, with the
exception of Great Britain and France, Europe is in a process of
unilateral budgetary disarmament,” he said
Mr Lellouche noted that the European Union, with a population one and a
half times larger than the United States and a higher GDP, spends only
40% of what the United States devotes to military expenditure and can put
only 10% of its combat forces into external theatres of operation.
“Unilateralism on one side, verbal incantation on the other, the outcome
could be tragic, as we are now seeing in Afghanistan where, if we are not
careful, NATO which is now covering all of the Afghan
territory risks being placed in a difficult situation militarily by
the Taliban due to a lack of sufficient resources in the field. An
Alliance retreat, in the form of a somewhat organised withdrawal, would
be a terrible blow to its credibility,” he noted.
The NATO PAÂ’s annual five-day session has been dominated by Afghanistan
where many parliamentarians fear the alliance is in danger of failing to
achieve its stated aims of bringing peace and stability to a country
devastated by more than 20 years of conflict.
“Solidarity between free, democratic nations is an imperative … but the
principles upheld by the Alliance can only have real meaning if it is
efficient in the field. In this regard Afghanistan is the most important
mission being led today by NATO,” he said.
The NATO PA, the parliamentary arm of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organisation (NATO), consists of some 248delegates from 26 member states.
Delegates from 13 associate countries and four Mediterranean countries
also attend the session.
For further information, please
contact
Jonathan Clayton: tel. 418 561 1281
e-mail:
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NATO Parliamentary Assembly
International Secretariat
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