Robertson: Europe's Security and Defense Identity Should Include All EU Members
AMSTERDAM --- The Secretary General of NATO today told the NATO Parliamentary Assembly that efforts to develop an independent European Security and Defense Identity should include all members of the Alliance, including those outside of the European Union.
"For my part, I will ensure that ESDI is based on three key principles, the three I's: improvement in European defense capabilities; inclusiveness and transparency for all Allies, and the indivisibility of transatlantic security, based on our shared values," Lord Robertson said in his remarks to the 45th Annual Session of the Assembly.
The effort to build up an ESDI has gained momentum in recent months, but actions by the European Union to develop a Common Foreign and Security Policy has left some NATO members worried that they will be left out of the process. Lord Robertson's remarks to approximately 300 legislators, from all 19 NATO nations and 15 of the partner countries, served to address those fears as he made clear that Europe must increase its defense capabilities.
"Collectively, the European members of NATO spend almost two-thirds of the United States' defense budget but Kosovo made it clear that they have nothing like two-thirds of the real capability of the U.S.," Lord Robertson said. "The European Allies must look critically at the balance of their armed forces and look at how they can operate together more effectively."
ESDI was also the topic of two other presentations to the Assembly, which later adopted a resolution endorsing improvements in European defense capabilities and ensuring that the non-EU members of NATO remain fully involved in European security issues. Javier Ruperez, the President of the Assembly, called for European countries to increase their defense budgets and develop mobile forces needed to carry out the new roles and missions called for in NATO's new strategic concept. Wim Kok, prime minister of the Netherlands, told the Assembly that ESDI should be seen as a way of building up European capabilities, rather than diminishing the transatlantic link.
Mr. Ruperez, a member of the Spanish parliament, also called for the Western European Union (WEU) to be merged into the EU, which he said should establish day-to-day working relations with NATO, based on the mechanisms already in place between NATO and the WEU. But he reiterated the point that the European NATO members that are not EU members must be included somehow.
"We must be sure not to exclude from the implementation of European security policy those NATO countries that do not or not yet belong to the Union and I am thinking here of Turkey, Norway, Iceland and the three new members of the Alliance, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary," Mr. Ruperez told the Assembly.
Mr. Ruperez also told members that the Assembly should focus on helping to stabilize Kosovo, to invigorate the Stability Pact for Southeasterrn Europe, and to help Serbia become a democracy. He said that the Assembly would continue to pay close attention to the region through visits, parliamentary staff training, and the Assembly's established Rose-Roth Seminar program in Central and Eastern Europe.
The President said that relations with Russia would also remain a priority for the Assembly, which was the first NATO-related institution to reach out to Central and Eastern Europe a full year before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
"Whilst it must therefore be made quite clear to the Russians that the means of intervention in Chechnya are unacceptable, we must at the same time reiterate that we are ready to resume the debate with them, with no preconditions, on all subjects related to security in Europe," Mr. Ruperez said. "I should like to repeat here to our partners in the Duma and the Council of the Federation that we are ready to take up again and intensify the dialogue with them as soon as they like."
The Assembly passed a resolution calling for increased NATO-Russian cooperation, including a resumption of the Permanent Joint Council, though members also endorsed a resolution urging Russia to declare a cease-fire and begin peace talks in the breakaway region of Chechnya.
In other work, the Assembly considered a plenary resolution on NATO and humanitarian intervention, offered by Hans Engell, a member of the Danish parliament. Mr. Engell's resolution set out a framework on which to build NATO's humanitarian role and relations with the UN.
Other resolutions adopted today included a condemnation of the repressive government in Belarus, which expresses the Assembly's concern for disappeared political opponents of that country's dictator, Aleksander Lukashenka, and an endorsement of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty that urges the United States Senate to reconsider its position on American ratification of the landmark nuclear arms control agreement.
In other business, the Assembly adopted resolutions supporting economic reconstruction of Kosovo and Southeastern Europe, on strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention through a verification regime, and on ensuring respect for international humanitarian law during conflicts
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Robertson: Europe's Security and Defense Identity Should Include All EU Members
