Remarks
by Toomas
Hendrik Ilves,
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia
At the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council
Mr. Chairman,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Since the last ministerial meeting we have had to face significant changes
in our security environment. Previous threats and challenges have not
disappeared, but new ones have arisen, which have not been addressed by
us in the past with adequate concern.
We see a paradigm shift: security risks previously considered "soft
security" issues, like organised crime, money laundering, drugs,
corruption, illegal immigration etc have acquired the meaning of "hard
security issues".
The fight against terrorism is only partly a military challenge, it also
includes co-operation in the judicial sphere and close collaboration among
police, border-guard and other law-enforcement establishments. In order
to facilitate the functioning of one of the crucial components of this
fight, we need to reconsider another paradigm: information exchange. The
horizontal flow of information - contacts between similar departments
in different countries are established and are functioning rather well,
but we do sometimes lack the vertical vector. It makes sense to collect
the available information inside the country, to analyse it and then pass
it to members of coalition, assuring this way that the set of information
is comprehensive.
There are several initiatives to fight terrorism: in the framework of
EAPC we have an EAPC action plan on enhancing co-operation in the fight
against terrorism. We also have aligned ourselves with the EU Plan Of
Action to combat terrorism. The OSCE also has a plan, in Warsaw the CEE
and SEE countries also adopted a relevant Action Plan. We have worked
out Joint measures among the Baltic countries. This demonstrates the willingness
and certainty of partners to participate in the process each according
to their capabilities and possibilities. The main challenge is how to
implement all these plans and measures in an effective manner. In other
words, the operative word in all these action plans and plans of action
should be action.
Estonia, together with other partners, has associated itself with NATO's
invocation of art. 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty and supports the US
in protecting itself and its allies. We must all ensure that the operations
conducted by the anti-terrorist coalition will cut off the very basis
of terrorism.
We applaud and encourage the further engagement of Russia in the Euro-Atlantic
partnership and enhancement of co-operation between NATO and Russia. The
horrifying events of this autumn have enabled us to make a clear distinction
between the real and artificial problems in the Euro-Atlantic area. It
is clear that NATO's enlargement process is a non-confrontational issue
with a clear win-win element for every EAPC member.
NATO and partner countries involvement and co-operation with other international
organisations in the Balkans has been a crucial element in achieving success
of the latest elections in Kosovo and supporting the democratisation process
there as well as settling the dispute in Macedonia.
To conclude, I would like to re-iterate the importance of the impact
of processes in the South Caucasus region on overall Euro-Atlantic security
situation. We should consider the possible spill-over of these conflicts.
We do note the recent agreement between the presidents of Russia and Georgia
in CIS summit on concluding the treaty on principles of bilateral relations
next Spring. Estonia is ready to continue its participation in the border-monitoring
mission of OSCE in Georgia. EAPC also should continue to focus on regional
matters in the Central Asia region.
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