For immediate release                                                                                                        31 May 2007

"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 AssemblyÂ’s “New Parliamentarians Programme” and it accepted an invitation to hold a roundtable in Pakistan in 2008.  “The AssemblyÂ’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 nationsÂ’ 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.  “NATOÂ’s current Strategic Concept moved NATO out of the Cold War and into the late 20^th century. Whether or not NATO decides to prepare a new Strategic Concept for its 60^th anniversary summit in 2009, we feel that the Assembly should consider what a Strategic Concept for the 21^st 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 Assembly’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.