To the Executive Club Belgium 11 Jan. 1999

"NATO's Agenda towards the Washington Summit" Speech by Dr. Javier Solana, NATO Secretary General Chairman Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak to you today. The Executive Club of Belgium is known for its keen interest in European and world affairs, as befits a Club located in the capital of Europe and home to NATO. This is indeed an exciting period for Europe and for the transatlantic relationship. Barely two weeks ago, European Monetary Union was launched, raising European integration to an entirely new level. Barely four months from now, NATO will celebrate its 50th anniversary at our Washington Summit, thus marking a new stage in the transatlantic relationship as well. With those two major events introducing the last year of this century, the Executive Club is indeed a very appropriate venue to speak about NATO. For these two defining events remind us of how interconnected security and economics have become. Today, NATO and the EU stand as the world's foremost models of multinational, democratic cooperation. They exert a tremendous attractiveness to the many nations who aspire to join or cooperate with them. Both organisations have inspired the larger European project of integration, of cooperation and reconciliation which is healing the unnatural divide of the past between East and West. They are thus both leaders of the drawing together of Europe, its rejuvenation and reconstruction. We must keep firmly in our sights this higher political project that both organisations, in their own respective ways, embody. Just as the European Union is more than a common market, but the embodiment of a political ideal, so too NATO is more than a military alliance for the collective defence of its members. It is a symbol of how countries can strive together for peace, security and stability across a whole continent. Neither NATO nor the European Union exist, therefore, for their own sake. They are instruments that help us solve concrete problems; they are dynamic, not static. Indeed, it is precisely their potential for evolution that determines their value. NATO, for sure, has been anything but standing still. Let me take you briefly through some of the main features of our political agenda, starting with NATO enlargement, our Partnership with other European countries, especially Russia, our new missions of crisis management and peace support, and the effort underway to develop a European defence identity in NATO. Throughout this decade, we have adapted our policies and structures in response to a new, post-Cold War international security environment. All these changes will be reflected in our new Strategic Concept, which will be unveiled at the forthcoming Washington Summit in April. What is this Strategic Concept? In reflecting both the significant political, military and security changes that have taken place in Europe over the past decade, and NATO's response to them in the form of outreach, cooperation and partnership, the Strategic Concept will provide a chart to guide us through the waters ahead. It will forecast the evolution of the Alliance into the next millenium. At Washington, Allied leaders will welcome into the Alliance as full members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Sixty million people will, through NATO enlargement, be reunited with the European mainstream from which they have been separated for so long. This act of integration is a concrete way of enlarging the area of Europe in which armed conflict and wars simply do not occur. Moreover, it has prompted timely political and economic reforms in countries aspiring to join NATO. In complementing Alliance enlargement, the separate enlargement of the EU will also help to create the basis for both economic progress and political stability. Both enlargements, therefore, are two sides of the same coin. Our policy is that we expect to invite additional new members to join NATO in future. For this to be done, we must ensure that the Alliance is ready to take in new members; that the aspiring countries are themselves ready and able to join; and that their accession to NATO will contribute to wider European stability and security, taking into account political and security developments across the whole of Europe. To help aspiring countries prepare themselves better for possible NATO membership, we have enhanced many aspects of our cooperation programmes. The Summit will be the occasion on which this package of measures will be unveiled. At Washington, we will also strengthen our Partnerships. The Partnership for Peace Programme was established in 1994 as a programme for developing greater practical cooperation in the military and defence-related fields among Allies and countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Today, 27 countries have taken up the offer by the Allies in developing a greater ability to work closely together in peacekeeping, humanitarian, and search and rescue operations. Moreover, this initiative provides the opportunity for Partners to model their own defence planning, budgeting and procurement structures after those of the Allies. In the months to come, we will make further improvements in both the political and the practical evolution of our partnership endeavours. One Partner, in particular, is of key importance to Euro-Atlantic security: Russia. The importance of Russia to European security is as obvious to business people as security specialists. Political and economic turmoil in Russia can have a wider effect. Indeed, in the Russian Government's latest national security assessment, they identified economic difficulties as their number one security challenge. We all wish to see this large and important country emerge from its current difficulties. Indeed, if we want to help bringing this country into the European mainstream, there is only one chance: that North America and Europe do this together. The EU and the US account for roughly 60% of the world economy. The close coordination of these two solid economic centres is essential if Russia - and others - is to be helped in a meaningful way. NATO has long believed in the strategic wisdom of a cooperative relationship with Russia. We believed that such a relationship would in fact go a long way to integrating Russia politically and militarily into our multinational efforts in peacekeeping, crisis management, and emergency disaster relief. It would also give us an opportunity to consult and cooperate with Russia on issues which may pose the greater security challenges of the future - proliferation, environmental damage, nuclear safety, terrorism and so forth. This recognition led NATO and Russia to set up a Permanent Joint Council. Together we have used this Council to consult and cooperate regularly on a wide range of cooperative activities. The range of this cooperation extends even to economic fields, where we are helping with the retraining retired military personnel. In the Permanent joint Council, concerns and even disagreements can be aired and addressed. The political impulse behind our spirit of partnership has brough NATO and Ukraine together under a chart of cooperation that establishing what we call a distinctive relationship. And we have set up a Dialogue with six Mediterranean countries, to help build better mutual understanding in a region that is clearly of security interest to the Alliance. Mesdames et Messieurs, L'OTAN a galement su s'adapter aux nouveaux dfis qui se posaient elle en acceptant de nouvelles missions. La guerre en Bosnie en est un tmoignage vident. La situation y est aujourd'hui totalement diffrente d'il y a quelques annes, o le conflit menaait de s'tendre l'ensemble des Balkans. La paix est revenue en Bosnie depuis le dploiement, en 1994, de la mission dirige par l'OTAN. Il y a de nouveau un gouvernement qui fonctionne, l'conomie se redresse, les rfugis regagnent leurs foyers, et les personnes accuses de crimes de guerre se retrouvent leur juste place, c'est--dire devant les juges du Tribunal international de La Haye. S'il reste encore beaucoup faire, nous avons dj parcouru une bonne partie du chemin. Et la contribution de l'OTAN a t significative. Vous savez que l'OTAN a pris, l'automne dernier, une srie de mesures afin de contribuer juguler la crise au Kosovo. Devant la gravit des problmes que nous affrontons prsent dans cette rgion, nous ne pouvions pas nous rsoudre assister la "chronique d'une guerre annonce". C'est pourquoi l'OTAN a approuv une srie d'options militaires visant contraindre le gouvernement yougoslave respecter les exigences nonces dans les rsolutions du Conseil de scurit des Nations Unies. L'Alliance a galement apport aux pays voisins du Kosovo, l'Albanie et l'ex-Rpublique Yougoslave de Macdoine (1) - membres du programme de Partenariat pour la paix - des conseils et une aide portant sur les moyens de contrler leurs frontires et de faire face l'afflux de rfugis. Mais le problme du Kosovo est avant tout un problme politique et la solution doit tre politique. Pour cela, les diffrentes parties doivent accepter de s'asseoir ensemble pour ngocier un rglement pacifique la crise. Le fait que l'Alliance soit prte une intervention militaire dcisive a constitu un soutien essentiel aux efforts diplomatiques qui ont permis de mettre un terme aux aspects immdiats de la crise, en octobre dernier. Les avions de l'OTAN survolent aujourd'hui le Kosovo et contribuent vrifier le respect de l'accord. Des vrificateurs de l'Organisation pour la scurit et la coopration en Europe sont actuellement sur le terrain au Kosovo. L'OTAN a mis en place, sur le territoire de l'ex-Rpublique Yougoslave de Macdoine (1), une force militaire charge d'extraire ces vrificateurs en cas d'urgence. La situation au Kosovo est certes encore tendue, et tant les autorits de Belgrade que les lments arms kosovars ne respectent pas le cessez-le-feu, comme avec les prises d'otages de ces derniers jours, mais je peux vous assurer que l'Alliance demeure toujours entirement prte agir si ncessaire. En Bosnie, comme au Kosovo, l'OTAN n'a pas russi seule. C'est la coopration entre les diffrentes organisations impliques qui a t la cl du succs. En effet, aucune organisation ne peut elle seule faire face aux impratifs de la gestion des crises, du soutien de la paix et de la reconstruction de socits dchires par un conflit. C'est pourquoi, en Bosnie comme au Kosovo, l'OTAN a travaill en collaboration trs troite avec les autres organisations et agences impliques comme, par exemple, l'Union Europenne, l'OSCE, le Haut commissaire des Nations Unies pour les Rfugis, la Banque Mondiale et ainsi de suite. Outre les conflits rgionaux, d'autres risques ont une incidence sur la scurit rgionale et constituent de nouveaux dfis. On peut citer, par exemple, la prolifration des armes de destruction massive et de leurs moyens de dispersion. L'Alliance valuera l'ampleur de ces nouveaux dfis, et recensera les mesures prendre pour les relever de faon plus efficace. Enfin, l'OTAN s'est engage dans un processus d'adaptation interne sans prcdent pour rpondre ces nouveaux dfis. Elle a modifi ses structures pour les rendre plus souples et plus adaptables au nouvel environnement de scurit. Tout comme l'OTAN, l'Union europenne s'adapte pour faire face de nouveaux dfis. Aujourd'hui, nous voyons une Union europenne avec une monnaie commune, une politique trangre et de scurit commune et un engagement d'accueillir de nouveaux membres en plus des quinze Etats membres actuels. Je crois qu'il est tout fait naturel que l'OTAN reflte aussi cette volution. C'est pourquoi j'envisage une Alliance avec une personnalit europenne plus forte o les Allis nord-amricains et europens auront la possibilit de choisir la meilleure faon d'agir, en fonction des dfis auxquels ils sont confronts. Grce au dveloppement d'une identit europenne de scurit et de dfense au sein de l'Alliance, l'OTAN pourra apporter son soutien des oprations diriges par les europens. Cela permettra d'viter les doubles emplois, et contribuera une plus grande maturit de la relation transatlantique, avec un partage plus quitable des rles et des responsabilits. Ainsi, les dfis politiques et militaires de la coopration des industries de dfense pourraient tre abords dans le cadre d'un dialogue transatlantique. Les lments cl de cette volution devraient tre en place pour le Sommet de Washington. Et cela, Mesdames et Messieurs, me ramne la relation entre la scurit et l'conomie. Quelle que soit notre perspective, largissement de l'OTAN et de l'Union europenne, participation constructive de la Russie, ou reconstruction de la Bosnie, scurit et conomie constituent les deux faces d'une mme mdaille. Nous devons toujours garder cet lment l'esprit. Notre scurit, l'heure de la mondialisation, rsultera directement de notre capacit fusionner en une stratgie cohrente les instruments politiques, conomiques et militaires. Cette stratgie est encore en cours d'laboration. Mais je suis intimement convaincu qu'avec, entre autres, l'Union montaire europenne qui prend forme ou la nouvelle OTAN que je viens de vous dcrire, le dcor est plant pour une re nouvelle de paix et de stabilit dans la zone euro-atlantique. Notes La Turquie reconnat la Rpublique de Macdoine sous son nom constitutionnel.