|
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/98Book/ |
Upload File : |
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//SoftQuad//DTD HoTMetaL PRO 4.0::19971010::extensions to HTML 4.0//EN"
"hmpro4.dtd">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Romanian Defense Minister Victor Babiuc's Address to 1998 NATO Workshop</TITLE>
<META NAME="keywords"
CONTENT="NATO, XVth NATO Workshop, NATO Workshop on Political-Military Decision Making, NATO Expansion,
NATO Enlargement, SACEUR, Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Wesley Clark, Dr. Roger Weissinger-Baylon, Atlantic Alliance, North Atlantic Alliance, New NATO, Integration with NATO, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Milosevic, Bosnia, Kosovo,
NATO membership, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, European Union, EU, Western European Union, WEU, Partnership for Peace, PfP, PFP,
Security, European Security, OSCE, SFOR,Black Sea Cooperation Council, Indian Nuclear Testing, Pakistani Nuclear Testing">
</HEAD>
<BODY LINK="0000ff" BGPROPERTIES="FIXED" BGCOLOR="ffffff"><BASEFONT SIZE="3">
<P ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="6" FACE="Palatino">A Romanian
View on Security in Central and Southeastern Europe </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="4" FACE="Palatino">Defense
Minister of Romania Victor Babiuc</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="3" FACE="Palatino"><B>GLOBAL
SECURITY AND THE RELEVANCE OF REGIONAL INITIATIVES</B> </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="3" FACE="Palatino">Few today
doubt the current trend to globalization. Few also doubt that the
means to deal with global problems are in the hands of just a few. International
security is no exception. We are all affected, one way or another,
by events taking place thousands and thousands of miles away. The
Gulf War proved this, as have all the other major recent crises including
those in the Former Yugoslavia, Africa, and Haiti. But because the
majority of states do not have the means to deal with such global
problems, many are trying to contribute to international security by
developing regional initiatives. Europe is home to several good
examples of this trend. Here, while NATO, WEU, and OSCE deal with
European security on a large scale, regional structures such as the
Central European Initiative, the Black Sea Cooperation Council,
Cooperation in the Baltic and North Seas, the Southeast Cooperation
Initiatives, and many others are working as well. Some countries
including Romania have also developed close trilateral forms of
cooperation with many of their direct neighbors or countries in close
proximity. </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="3" FACE="Palatino">The problem
with this pattern, however, is that we can’t really test the
resistance of such structures to disruptive security risks. We do
have concerns about them, though, because of the lessons of history—including
the League of Nations—and because of more recent precedents, when
such structures proved incapable of preventing or rapidly ending
devastating conflicts such as the one in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Put
bluntly, the question is: Do all regional initiatives actually
enhance our security, or do they delude us regarding the real sum of our
security? I side with those more inclined to believe that a)
priority should be given to certain means of ensuring security on the
continent, and b) more strict specialization between institutions should
rapidly evolve. </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="3" FACE="Palatino">As far as
Romania is concerned, we have given undisputed priority to integration
with NATO and regard other means of ensuring our security as secondary to
this. This is not to say that Romania is left in a security vacuum
as long as it is not a NATO member-state. We are relying on both our
national means as well as on deepened and active cooperation with NATO
members and Partner countries for our security. However, all
solutions short of NATO membership will be transitory and not fully
satisfactory for Romania. Unfortunately, transitory solutions are
costly and have a bad habit of becoming permanent! </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="3" FACE="Palatino"><B>THREATS
TO SECURITY</B> </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="3" FACE="Palatino">Common
wisdom has it today that many of the major threats to our security are not
traditional ones. This may be so, but the more traditional threats
are still at large, as we have seen with India’s and Pakistan’s
testing of nuclear bombs. We still need to pay attention to the huge
arsenals of conventional weapons. As CFE negotiations have shown,
downsizing them is difficult. We also need to pay more attention to
the huge uncontrolled flow of conventional and unconventional armaments
that can easily upset local balances of power. And we need to look
more carefully at the unfortunate tendency of many emerging local and
regional powers to assert their new role by enlarging and modernizing
their arsenals, with, if possible, nuclear weapons. </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="3" FACE="Palatino">In any list
of potentially deadly events that may occur in the 21st century, none of
these dangers should be overlooked. My question to you is: As
we plan for the future, should we have to choose between preparing for the
most probable dangers or the most deadly? My answer is no. Speaking
for my government, I can tell you that our security strategy includes
consideration of both the new, unconventional threats as well as the more
classic concerns. And here again, to strike the right balance,
Romanian membership in NATO is a must. To reach this goal we are
putting greater emphasis on modernizing our armed forces and on reaching a
working level of interoperability. NATO membership will enable us to
make a notable contribution to common defense while developing an
important peacekeeping and peace-support capability. </FONT> </P>
<P ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="3" FACE="Palatino"><B>MILITARY
REFORM</B> </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="3" FACE="Palatino">These days,
restructuring of the military has become a common exercise in almost all
countries, although the form it takes is far from identical. However,
downsizing personnel, reducing obsolete hardware, modernizing command
structures, placing more emphasis on C41, and finding new ways to better
integrate operations and electronic warfare are common denominators.
Such modernizing, no matter the starting point or the scope, is
costly. And no matter how low we try to keep these costs, to many of
our fellow citizens they look rather high. Additionally, with the
fierce competition for resources by the “internal political market,”
resources for military items are limited. My question to you
concerning military reform is: Is each of us going to insist on finding a
local answer to the global problem of modernizing the armed forces? I
vote with those ready to say nay! The process of restructuring
individual armed forces in Europe and in the Euro-Atlantic area is not
promising. We need to take advantage of institutions such as NATO,
WEU, and OSCE to deal with this problem. As a strong NATO candidate,
Romania looks forward, with more than hope, to a more comprehensive
approach to and more integrated support for modernizing its armed forces.
</FONT> </P>
<P ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="3" FACE="Palatino"><B>CONCLUDING
REMARKS</B> </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="3" FACE="Palatino">As we work
to resolve the many issues facing us, let me assure you that Romania is
taking the right steps and is looking confidently toward the development
of a new security structure in the Euro-Atlantic area. We know we
can make a valuable contribution to this goal, particularly as a member of
a renewed North Atlantic Alliance.</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="LEFT"><A HREF="babiuc98.htm">Go to Top of Page</A></P>
<P ALIGN="LEFT"><A HREF="workshop98.htm">Return to Vienna '98</A></P>
<P ALIGN="LEFT"><A HREF="../index.html">Return to Home Page</A>
<FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="3" FACE="Palatino"></FONT></P>
<P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT COLOR="000000" SIZE="3" FACE="Palatino">Copyright ©
1998 Center for Strategic Decision Research</FONT></P>
</BODY>
</HTML>