- I wish everybody a good morning and extend a warm
welcome to you all. I am pleased to see that there
are many familiar faces around the table. However, I
would like to welcome in particular those Ministers
and Representatives who are attending a meeting in
this house for the first time. I would also like to
make a special mention of the fact that the Czech
Republic and Slovakia are represented for the first
time in this forum of Defence Ministers.
- Almost a year ago to the day, Alliance Defence
Ministers met for the first time with their
counterparts from co-operation countries. Since then
the security environment in Europe has continued to
change rapidly, unfortunately not always in a positive
direction. This underlines the importance of the
Alliance's new role of projecting stability towards
Central and Eastern Europe. The process of co-
operation, of which today's meeting is an important
symbol, makes a key contribution towards this aim.
- At our last meeting we issued a statement in which
Defence Ministers undertook to play their full part in
the process of dialogue, partnership and co-operation.
In particular we agreed on a range of specific co-
operative activities in the defence area and we
identified possible topics for further co-operation.
- Since then, the number of co-operation activities have
multiplied to an impressive degree. The projects we
have undertaken now run into several hundreds. Today,
in taking stock of progress over the last year, we
will discuss how to build further on this successful
start and in particular how we can make even more
effective use of our collective resources.
- One area to which we will need to pay particular
attention is peacekeeping. Against the background of
the range of crises which have developed in and around
Europe it is clear that peacekeeping in the broad
sense has become an important instrument for conflict
prevention and crisis management. Within the
framework of the North Atlantic Co-operation Council
we have developed a number of practical proposals for
co-operation on a range of peacekeeping issues. An
important aspect of today's meeting will be a
discussion of the contribution Defence Ministers can
make to this process.
- As I indicated earlier, it has been a year since we
first met in this forum. I am therefore looking
forward in particular to hearing the views of our co-
operation partners both on these topics and on the
wider security issues with which we are confronted.
I am sure that today's meeting will underline the
important role of Defence Ministers in encouraging the
development of security and stability in Europe.
- May I now ask our friends from the Press and media to
leave us.
