|
Server : Apache/2.4.62 System : FreeBSD fbsdweb2.web.rcn.net 14.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE releng/14.1-n267679-10e31f0946d8 GENERIC amd64 User : www ( 80) PHP Version : 8.3.8 Disable Function : NONE Directory : /domains/roger.dnai/97Book/ |
Upload File : |
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//SoftQuad//DTD HoTMetaL PRO 4.0::19971010::extensions to HTML 4.0//EN"
"hmpro4.dtd">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META NAME="GENERATOR"
CONTENT="Mozilla/4.03 (Macintosh; U; 68K) [Netscape]">
<TITLE>Robert E. Hunter</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" BGPROPERTIES="FIXED">
<P ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+3">European
Security: Problems, Risks, and Challenges</FONT></FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+2">United
States Ambassador to NACC Robert E. Hunter</FONT></FONT></FONT></CENTER>
<CENTER>
<H4><B><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><FONT SIZE="+0">OPENING
REMARKS</FONT></FONT></FONT></B></H4> </CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">I suspect that we are
wearing out the terms "history" and "historical." But
after our meeting in Prague Castle, which itself has seen so much history,
and thinking about the effort to build lasting security in Europe, I
believe that, with a bit of humility and a lot of inspiration, we are
finally--after some 379 years since the Thirty Years' War began a few
meters from Rudolph Hall where our Workshop sessions took place--looking
for a better way than the balance of power to build security. At NATO we
believe that we have found that better way, and with the help of every
single person in this room and every single country represented, we think
we have a chance to do it. Since May 27, 1997, we have begun to define
what we do--not in relationship to the past, undoing or overcoming the
legacy of not one but three wars on this continent in this century--but in
relationship to the future, a future that we share in common and that we
must work toward together to make effective.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">As we meet, NATO is going
through the most extraordinary period of change in its history, a 44-day
period that began on the 27th of May and that will end in Madrid on the
9th of July. During that period, we have been reviewing the extraordinary
success that the NATO-led IFOR and now SFOR troops have been having in
Bosnia--troops from 16 Allied, 14 Partner, and 4 other countries. We have
also been following an extraordinary agenda, composed of eight separate
but totally linked items attempting to build a coherent strategy for
security and that will culminate in the NATO Summit.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">We <I>will</I> invite
countries to join NATO. My country supports three in the initial round:
Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. However, for the United States,
the early admission of these three countries is intimately and inevitably
linked to keeping the door open to further NATO enlargement. There <I>will</I>
be more rounds of enlargement, defined by one simple proposition in the
U.S. view: the door to NATO enlargement stays open so long as there are
European countries ready and willing to shoulder the responsibilities of
NATO membership. So for us, three countries now, but other countries
later. At the Summit, we will make that open door very clear, very
realistic, very palpable.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER>
<H4><B><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">HISTORIC CHANGES</FONT></FONT></B></H4></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">To that end, we are moving
forward with our new Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, involving all
members of the Partnership for Peace. We are taking the Partnership for
Peace, the most successful, indeed the flagship venture, of NATO, and
making it even stronger, both as a vehicle for the preparation of
applicant countries and as a vehicle that will provide a deep, permanent,
close relationship between our NATO family and those countries that will
not join NATO now, or that perhaps never will seek NATO membership.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">We have also concluded,
and will make effective over time, the NATO-Russia Founding Act,
recognizing that Russia's security is as important as everything else that
we are doing, and underscoring the effort to draw Russia out of its
isolation to play a full and legitimate part in European security. The
NATO-Ukrainian Charter, now initialed, will also be signed at Madrid. And
the restructuring of the Alliance, following the long-term study, will
both prepare the Alliance to deal with the future and enable the Western
European Union to become effective for the first time.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Our eight-part agenda,
plus our efforts in Bosnia, constitute a single package with a single
theme: security for all, deeply engaged, with the U.S. remaining here as a
European power now and forever.</FONT></FONT> </P>
<CENTER>
<H4><B><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">PROBLEMS, RISKS, AND
CHALLENGES</FONT></FONT></B></H4></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">While we are moving
steadily forward, there are problems, risks, and challenges.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<UL>
<LI><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">First, we must ensure
that what the 16 Allies are trying to do is cemented in the political
structures and public opinion of our countries. NATO enlargement is not
about governments; it is about parliaments, it is about peoples. We need
a two-thirds vote in the United States Senate: we <I>will</I> succeed
in the United States. But it is important that we succeed in each and
every one of the Allied countries.</FONT></FONT></LI>
</UL>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">It is equally important
that there be strong public opinion, strong political support, in the
countries that are seeking to join NATO. This will ensure that these
countries join wholeheartedly and without reservation, and that their
commitment is sustainable politically beyond the drama of the moment.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<UL>
<LI><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Second, the Allied
countries must be willing to commit those resources necessary to make
enlargement effective. Not only must we be willing to meet those
requirements in each of our 16 countries, but each Ally, each one, must
fulfill the commitments we have already made to implement a policy of
reinforcement if that is required. Without resources, there can be no
serious enlargement.</FONT></FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Third, the new Allies
must be willing to show a tangible commitment to security and to playing
their full and equal roles as Allies. But we are not asking them to
prepare to fight or to engage in a new Cold War--this is precisely what
we are attempting to prevent by building security for all. However, all
of the new Allies and aspirants must show they are prepared to adopt
NATO's standards, become interoperable with us, provide for their own
security, and show that they are serious about this relationship. For
the U.S., they must be able to demonstrate to our Congress that they are
serious about joining the NATO Alliance.</FONT></FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Fourth, as we look to
the future, we must be certain that we do not see a hollowing out of
this great Alliance. We must meet our military commitments, and we must
continue to build and to sustain in the public as well as in the private
sector defense industries and defense engagements that will give us a
solid basis for the future. We can have no renationalization of defense,
but we can also have no hollowing out of the defense relationship. This
means we must build a transatlantic defense relationship in the private
sector to sustain what we do in the public sector. Indeed, I would argue
that the role of the private sector, in Central Europe and beyond, is
going to be equal to if not more consequential than what is done by the
public sector.</FONT></FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Fifth, we must put into
practice the work we have just begun. Most important in terms of
innovation at NATO will be the functioning of the Euro-Atlantic
Partnership Council, building a deep and solid Partnership for Peace,
ensuring that the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council <I>is</I> a
serious venture, and ensuring the primacy of the North Atlantic Council
for making decisions for the Alliance and putting them into effect.</FONT></FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Sixth, SFOR has a year
left in Bosnia to get it right--to continue the extraordinary success
that we have had for more than 550 days, but also to make sure that the
civilian side will support the military effort so that the peoples of
Bosnia will have a chance to look towards a positive future.</FONT></FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Seventh, we must look
to new challenges. We must face up to the rising risks of the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, of the challenges coming
from new directions. Yes, we must look towards the south and towards the
east in Europe and in the Mediterranean region as new challenges arise.</FONT></FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">Eighth, the European
Union must also fulfill its role, its destiny, in this part of the
world, or what we do at NATO will not succeed.</FONT></FONT></LI>
<LI><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">And finally, ninth, as
part of the very rich, very daunting, but very positive agenda, we must
work in the future as diligently as we are working today. Because this
agenda has a purpose--no less than building for the 21st century a
common security that can in some part redeem the tragedies of the 20th
century.</FONT></FONT></LI>
</UL>
<CENTER><B><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">CONCLUDING
REMARKS</FONT></FONT></B></CENTER>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000">I have no doubt that every
Workshop participant is part of that agenda. And I have no doubt that we
will meet history's test, so that in 50 years people will look back and
judge us as we judge those of 50 years past, and say that we recognized
our historic responsibility and that we were equal to it.</FONT></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><A HREF="HUNTER.HTM">Go
to top of Page</A></FONT></FONT> <BR><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><A HREF="workshop97.htm">Return
to Prague '97</A></FONT></FONT> <BR><FONT FACE="Palatino"><FONT COLOR="#000000"><A HREF="../index.html">Return
to Home Page</A></FONT></FONT> </P>
</BODY>
</HTML>