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| Updated: 17-Feb-2006 | NATO Speeches |
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NATO HQ, 14 Feb. 2006 |
Background briefing by the NATO Spokesman
JAMES APPATHURAI (NATO Spokesman): Welcome. Again, as I say, I am demonstrating my great dedication to the Alliance by being here when an Olympic ice hockey match involving Canada is on, but I will do this with the usual dedication. Let me run through because we are small in numbers, just quickly, what I think the conclusions..., my own conclusions from Taormina are, and what I think the Ministers concluded as well in terms of how we go forward. And then run through quickly just two or three other issues. The evening discussion on operations, on the first evening, I think drew a few conclusions. On Afghanistan I would name three or four. One is, first, and the Secretary General mentioned this already, all Ministers congratulated, or certainly noted with congratulations, the enormous self-restraint of the Norwegian and Finnish forces that were in the PRT. This was a very difficult situation with 1200 people outside and 60 inside, and they demonstrated enormous professionalism. Second point, that this was a demonstration that some of the lessons of transformation are taking hold and delivery results. You remember...l, you all know how NATO forces were trained during the Cold War, certainly for high end operations. One of the lessons we saw almost two years ago in Kosovo was the importance of crowd and riot control and training and equipment. They demonstrated both of these things in that PRT. So that training and equipment is now delivering results, and I think that was very important. The second part, of course, is training by NATO of others, is becoming a more and more important NATO mission. And you know that at Taormina the idea of NATO offering training to others was mooted, you've heard ambassadors and others speak about it, for example, in the context of training in the Arab world or in Africa. The purpose of it is to help, obviously, these countries, these regions provide for their own security. What we saw in Afghanistan was a demonstration of how that can work. The idea is that the better they can do the less we have to do. Well, what happened in Meymaneh was the Afghan National Army and Afghan Police, which basically did not exist just a few years ago, deployed, deployed in significant numbers, and they were the ones that helped bring the situation fully under control. And for political reasons alone you can see the importance of having Afghans provide Afghan security. I might add, particularly in the context of these demonstrations. It was very important that Afghans took the lead in providing security. So the benefits of training by NATO of others, I think, were demonstrated very much and provide a positive context for the overall discussion of NATO taking on a greater training role. As we are doing in Iraq , but potentially in the Middle East , potentially in Africa , we will see how these discussions go. Final lesson: I don't know if lesson is the right word, but what was a clear message coming out of that meeting was a resolve, resolve to continue with the deployment. No one should misinterpret the normal democratic discussions in Parliaments before deployments, or indeed, the restraint of NATO forces in Meymaneh and elsewhere for a lack of resolve when it comes to deploying and carrying out the mission. As you know, U.K. forces and Canadian troops have already deployed to the south of Afghanistan , and that deployment will continue and they will carry out their mission to the letter. That was on Afghanistan . On Kosovo, the discussion on Kosovo preceded the election of the new president in Kosovo, but there the message was very simple, that NATO will, of course, maintain its presence, maintain its combat capability on the ground. The Secretary General released a statement, of course, on behalf of NATO welcoming the nomination of the new president. The next stage, the next important stage in the discussions, the status talks, will take place in five days in Vienna . The new president brings with him a reputation for compromise, for flexibility, willingness to work for compromise. That will obviously be very important and NATO will be watching, of course, these discussions with great care, even as KFOR backstops the political process with its presence on the ground in Kosovo. Finally, on Darfur , there have been a number of media reports on this issue on a variety of fronts. I can tell you the Ministers did discuss it, but they discussed it in the context of what NATO is doing. And just to clarify it, until the end of March NATO will continue providing capacity building; in other words, training for the African Union, and until the end of May NATO will continue to rotate troops in and out of Darfur for the African Union. And the Alliance has just begun the second rotation of African battalions, so begun the second rotation of the second rotation of African battalions for the African Union, if that's clear. The political discussions that are being led by Kofi Annan and by the African Union on what might follow, or pick up from the African Union, will continue. I can tell you no formal request has come to NATO for support. It might well in future. Until it does NATO will focus on what it is doing and what it has agreed to do upon request by the African Union now. Let me turn to the morning discussion quickly, and in particular on the NRF. Ministers went in looking at three challenges on the NRF. One was meeting the immediate requirements for full operational capability for November. The second was looking at the long-term force generation challenges. And the third was funding. My impression, I think the Secretary General's impression as well, was that substantial progress was made on the first two fronts. Ministers made a clear commitment to ensure that NATO has what it needs in terms of capability, for full operational capability by the Summit in Riga in November. A major milestone on that road will, of course, be the exercise in Cape Verde in June. In terms of long-term force generation Ministers agreed that NATO should start taking a long-term planning view for rotations of the NRF. In other words, not looking one to two years ahead, but looking four, five, six years ahead. And that way of course, allies can plan more effectively, and NATO can plan more effectively as well. The corollary to that, of course, is on funding. And you all know one of the challenges has been to extend, one of the discussions has been to extend elements of NRF deployment to be covered by common funding. And in particular the initial deployment, air transport of the NRF. Here the discussion, I believe, concluded in the following way, to leave the door open to an examination of this issue. That's as far as it got. But indeed that is progress. That the door was not closed on it, so now there will be a look at how to... or whether to, let me reverse that, whether to, and if so, how to extend common funding to include potentially that element of NRF deployment. So that's as far as the yardstick's moved on that front. But it was a movement. Finally, let me turn to very quickly the NATO-Russia Council. This was an interesting discussion in that it began with a look at operations and missions, very practical things, such as the cooperation between NATO and... Russia and NATO nations, for example, on preventing narcotics from leaving Afghanistan. But it also concluded with a discussion of energy security. And the importance of preserving energy security in what is obviously an environment of energy. It's becoming more and more a strategic issue. This is not the sort of issue that is normally addressed in NATO or NRC Defence Ministers' meetings, and I think it reflects the heightened importance of energy as a strategic asset. So, the conclusion of the day was that the Secretary General visited the flagship of the Russian Black Sea fleet, which of course as you know, Russia will be supporting Operation Active Endeavour and many of the sailors there will be participating in that. It was very interesting, and I think historic, in that it's the first time a NATO Secretary General has set foot, as far as we can tell, on a Russian cruiser. General Jones told me as we were walking up the gangplank, he's quite sure it's the first time a marine general has never been on a Russian military vessel. So it was very interesting to see, and it concluded with a really quite wonderful musical presentation by the Russian sailors, who sing extremely well, aside from their many other talents, I'm sure. So that was the day, and I think that, to my mind, was the conclusions of that meeting. Let me turn quickly to the Secretary General's agenda and then one other element, and then I'm happy to take your questions. One is that tomorrow he will be leaving for Poland where he will visit with the Prime Minister, whose name I really will butcher if I try to pronounce it. Marcinkiewicz. Sorry to any Poles here. He'll meet with President Kaczynski, he'll meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Meller, and the Minister of Defence, Mr. Sikorski, who of course he saw as well in Taormina. And he will meet with the speaker of the Parliament as well. And I think the agenda is quite obvious and it will focus, A, on transformation, B, in other words looking towards Riga and all the elements that we are trying to address as we move towards Riga. Second, NATO's operations and missions. Poland made a significant contribution, for example, to the operation in Pakistan, and I'm sure the Secretary General will want to thank Poland for that as well. But they are contributing across the range of NATO's operations and missions. The day after that the Secretary General will go to Germany, visit Berlin. In particular for a meeting with two individuals, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Steinmeier, and there will be a point de presse at 11:45 on that front. I'm sorry, by the way, for Poland there will be a point de presse at 11:00—that's tomorrow—after the meeting with the Prime Minister. There will be a point de presse after meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs as well. He will also be giving a speech at 4:15 at the National School of Public Administration. And on Friday there will be a point de presse, as I mentioned, after he meets with Minister Steinmeier, he will then meet with the Minister of Interior, Mr. Schäuble. I do not see a press conference scheduled there. Finally, let me mention one last thing and then I'm happy to take questions. Starting day after tomorrow NATO forces will gather in the Mediterranean for the world's largest anti-submarine warfare exercise. Ten NATO nations will provide, it's called, Noble Manta '06. It's called Noble Manta every year, but Noble Manta '06. Ten NATO nations will provide eight submarines, 15 maritime patrol aircraft, or land-based anti-submarine helicopters, and eight surface ships. And this exercise will take place between the 17th of February and the 1st of March. It will take place in the Ionian Sea to the southeast of Sicily. I can read you the list quickly of the countries providing forces. If you want me to go over it again, I will. Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, the U.K. and the U.S. Each submarine of the eight will have the opportunity to be the hunter, as well as the prey. And surface ships from NATO's standing naval forces will take part, as well as a French frigate and an Italian patrol boat. The aim is to maintain NATO's proficiency in coordinated anti-submarine, anti-surface and coastal surveillance operations using a multinational force of ships, submarines and aircraft. In addition, they'll have added to their roles and missions that are usually exercised, roles and missions in support of the defence against terrorism. If you have any questions on this the Public Information Office of our Allied Maritime Component Command Naples, I can give you the phone number if anyone's interested, to get in touch with them, but basically the Naples PIO will provide more details on this. That is all I have. I am happy to take your questions. If you have any. Q: First concerning Afghanistan. Is crowd control a requirement for the troops being sent there, as in Kosovo or... at a lesser level? APPATHURAI: Yeah. Did you have a second question as well? Q: No. APPATHURAI: No, okay. The short form is, requirement, no. Strongly encouraged, yes. Each nation decides in the end what they will send, and for some nations I know, for example, using military forces for crowd and riot control is something that is very difficult. In some cases constitutionally impossible. So it is impossible for NATO to impose a regulation like this. That being said, everybody sees the lessons, everybody sees the importance. In Afghanistan, as clearly as anywhere else, Kosovo too, military forces have to be able to do the full spectrum. So there is enormous pressure, I think, pressure that each nation feels for objective reasons to make sure their troops have what is necessary, and that means they are all looking into, and to the extent possible, implementing crowd and riot control training for their forces. Q: James, Afghanistan as well, I'm just wondering, has your mission in Afghanistan been affected by any way after the caricature and Denmark, especially that we saw the anger of the Afghan people against whatever coming from the West, even your troop in Afghanistan? Thank you. APPATHURAI: It's a good question, and of course we'll have to draw long-term lessons from this and we'll see how we go. But I would say a few things: First, the reputation and the good relations that ISAF forces have built up over the years with the Afghan people, I think, and our assessment has remained very strong. They have built a good relationship, they have won hearts and minds. I don't think that's going to go away in a day. Secondly, no one is calling into question, I might make it clear, the Danish deployment. I know that's the subtext. The Danes are planning to deploy, they have committed to deploy and that will go forward. But, of course, everyone has to look at the lessons of this, and as always in a rapidly-changing security environment, NATO keeps a constant eye and NATO nations keep a constant eye on the security environment, the training that their forces have, but also the appropriate level of force protection. So it goes without saying that as a result of these events NATO nations are looking carefully at their force protection and force equipment and posture to ensure that they have what they need. Let me mention one thing that I forgot to mention, and it's very important, so I apologize for that, from Taormina, and that was the lunch that took place with Ministers from the Mediterranean Dialogue countries. This was a first where NATO Defence Ministers met with their counterparts from these countries. I think it is worth mentioning there was a good and very open discussion of a variety of issues. Some Ministers brought up... regional security issues, which you will not find surprising, but I think the most important thing was that the trust between our countries has built up to the point that practical cooperation between Defence Ministers could be discussed. I might add that three countries made clear their willingness to contribute to Operation Active Endeavour and that was a positive step forward, as we saw the Russians are contributing as well. So excuse me for not mentioning that before. Israel, Algeria and Jordan. It might be Israel, Algeria and Morocco. Israel and Algeria and Morocco. Thank you. Before the SMS comes from Carmen to correct me. UNIDENTIFIED: She can hear you? APPATHURAI: Yeah, they're watching this on all the TV stations back in Brussels... back in Headquarters. Q: James, after contact group made clear that in what direction the negotiations are going to go, even they didn't write it in the statement so clearly, it's clear now that there is a kind of consensus that conditional independence is one of the most realistic outcomes. After that, there was a statement of leader of radical party in Serbia, after the meeting with the prime ministers, that in that case they will declare Kosovo as an occupied territory. So since NATO is the only army in Kosovo now to defence Kosovo, what would... how do you comment this statement? Do you take it seriously, are you preparing anything regarding this statement? APPATHURAI: Many people are making many statements now. I think what we need to do is avoid inflammatory and premature statements on all sides. KFOR will do what KFOR is mandated to do by the United Nations, and that is to carry out its mission to maintain peace and security. In Kosovo this whole operation is governed by UN Security Council mandate. So this is an issue that goes far beyond, of course, KFOR. So let me not contribute or engage in any kind of exchange with...(BREAK IN TRANSMISSION)...party. There's a political process going on. It will be determined by the UN in the final analysis and NATO will play its part. And as I say, all parties should avoid early and unnecessary inflammatory statements. Q: James, on the NRF, there's apparently this... it's billed as major exercise in (inaudible), I think it is, of the Eurocorps and the NRF, and I don't understand exactly where NATO's role was in this. It was the Eurocorps, which was... and principally the Franco, you know, German Brigade that was involved in this exercise to test the NRF, and it was a fairly major one, with 3000 troops and stuff like that. How does that fit into the exercise program for the NRF? APPATHURAI: Good question. I could speculate, but I would be guessing, so I will have to check for you. I've read about it as well, this morning, but frankly, I don't know exactly how it fits in. Q: So you have somebody testing the NATO Response Force and you don't know about it? APPATHURAI: Well... there are different elements contributing to the NRF at various times. And also not only for the initial capability, but for future contributions, and to be honest, no, I don't have... I don't follow this. If there was someone in uniform sitting here he would, I'm quite sure, be well aware. But I'll look into it when I get back and I'll give you a call. Q: I think that the Eurocorps is going to lead Land Component of the NRF... (SPEAKERS OVERLAP) APPATHURAI: Yes, indeed, but I just want to make sure (inaudible)... Q: ...during the second half of this year. APPATHURAI: Indeed, but I want to make sure how this fits in to the overall Cape Verde etc. So let me look into it carefully before giving you an inappropriate, incorrect answer, because I would never want to do that. Q: For planning purposes, has there been a decision yet on the eventual EAPC meeting in May somewhere? APPATHURAI: At ministerial level? Q: Yes. APPATHURAI: No. No decision. Q: But it is still on the works or... APPATHURAI: I would frankly consider it unlikely. Certainly for me. Frankly, for planning purposes... 
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