NATO Forum - Time to explore new approaches of security cooperation

The forum gathered delegations from 50 countries of the EAPC and NATO and other international organizations, and mass media, the most important delegate being NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Having arrived in Astana he met with President Nursultan Nazarbayev and a number of top officials of the countries.

Thursday, June 25 the Secretary General chaired the opening plenary session of the EAPC Security Forum and delivered a keynote speech. Among other keynote speakers were Kazakh Minister of Foreign Affairs Marat Tazhin , Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero - Deputy Secretary General of NATO Alexander Vershbow, Assistant Secretary of Defence for, InternationalSecurity Affairs, US, Dr. Davood Moradian, Senior Policy Advisor to the Afghan,  Foreign Minister and Director General,  MFA Centre for  Strategic Studies, Amb. Aapo Polho, Head of Finnish Mission to NATO, Nick Grono, Deputy President, International Crisis Group, Foreign Minister of Denmark, Mr. Per Stig Moller. 

In his keynote speech Secretary General called for elaboration of "new approaches" and "different working culture" than those used in the past. "We need to use the driving force of globalization to our own advantage. We need to tackle the darker side of globalization without compromising globalization's benefits. How? By thinking and organizing ourselves differently than we did in the past. By saying good bye to the outdated security paradigms of yesterday. And, above all, by exploring new approaches of security cooperation - reaching out beyond geographical, cultural and religious boundaries", NATO Secretary General said addressing the meeting. "... Partnership must develop a different working culture. Thus far, our working culture is characterized by a certain caution, even from time to time hesitation, to tackle difficult issues. Sometimes we shy away from having a meaningful, substantial debate, simply to avoid controversy. There were good reasons for doing so in the past, when the Partnership was still fragile. Today with the experience of one-and-a-half decades, we can afford to go further", he stated invoking to an effective dialogue.

One of the acute challenges that are facing the Alliance, according to the Secretary General, is Afghanistan. "To make a success of our engagement there, we need to better match our ambitions with the means that we are willing to deploy. We have had considerable success in training and equipping the Afghan National Army, and we must build on that progress. The ability of the Afghan police to play its role in providing security and stability is essential. There is a lot more that we - and international community as a whole - can do on the civilian side - in helping the Afghans to build functioning institutions, to fight crime and corruption, and get a better grip of the narcotics problem. [..] It is vital that we all keep our eyes on the overall picture, and continue our engagement in Afghanistan as a common, transatlantic endeavour", the June issue of the Exclusive magazine cites the NATO Secretary General.

In the discussion held June 11 at the meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) at the level of Defense Ministers, answering the question of a Radio Liberty Afghanistan reporter with regards to civilian casualties in Afghanistan, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said:   "Any single civilian casualty in Afghanistan is one too many. Any loss of innocent life is one too many. And I'll be the first one, if and when that happens, to apologize. I've done so, and I'll continue to do so, because I realize that zero civilian casualties - I speak about ISAF - I cannot speak for OEF. Zero civilian casualties unfortunately, would be answering you in a dishonest way. But we're doing everything we can, with new technical directives to prevent civilian casualties. We owe it to the Afghan people and the nation to do everything we can in that regard. By the way, as you know the other part of my answer is I have never met any individual NATO soldier who intentionally kills innocent civilians. Innocent civilians in Afghanistan are intentionally killed by the enemies of Afghanistan. Those are the people who burn schools. Those are the people who spray acid in girls' eyes because they go to school. Those are the people who have the improvised explosive devices. Those are the people with the suicide attacks that kill innocent Afghan life. So we are in a different, totally different moral category, but we also make civilian casualties. We have reduced... we have to reduce them. Numbers are down. Numbers are down substantially in comparison to last year. I'll apologize when it happens. We do everything we can, and if we should do more, we will have to do more."

Touching upon the Afghanistan problem, Kazakhstan Minister of Foreign Affairs Marat Tazhin noted it might become a potential area for joint efforts. "While intending to use in full transit opportunities of the region we must pay more attention to non-military aspects of security. Kazakhstan put forward an initiative to provide education and training for Afghans in areas of healthcare, education, agriculture, law enforcement and military disciplines. Multilateral and bilateral projects are underway to supply humanitarian aid", said the Minister.

He also said that Kazakhstan welcomes the decision of the NATO recent Summit to activate elaboration of the reconstruction programs in Afghanistan with particular emphasis on economic and humanitarian fields. Kazakhstan expects that its regional resources will be employed in this process.

Speaking about the drug trafficking problem, the Kazakhstani Minister said: "Certain degree of cooperation has been established under the UN and different multilateral programs. However it goes without saying that these efforts are not enough and there is an urgent need to do more. Creation of Central Asian Regional Information Center is one of these steps and we would welcome concrete measures of EAPC members to support this endeavor. No doubt, ISAF plays an important role in fighting terrorism and extremism. We support its mission and hope that increase in the number of troops deployed by the Alliance and the United States will contribute to the achievement of the main goal which is peace in Afghanistan."

At that, the NATO Secretary General highly estimated the contribution of Kazakhstan to the NATO-led operations in Afghanistan. "Kazakhstan's vital support for the NATO-led ISAF mission in Afghanistan is just one, major example of the enormous strategic value which our Partner can offer", he said at the NATO/EAPC forum meeting June 25. "President Nursultan Nazarbayev has always been ambitious about cooperation between Kazakhstan and NATO. So I can say we have a serious political dialogue, we have a practical cooperation and Kazakhstan is very helpful to NATO as far as the lines of communication within the operation in Afghanistan are concerned. We have an individual partnership Action plan as we call it which we are going to discuss. So I think as a whole I am very positive about this cooperation. The cooperation extends to many-many areas. And I think we should be more ambitious and we can always be more ambitious and Kazakhstan is the important player in the region and beyond. And I think it is an excellent interlocutor for NATO and I am sure that the Kazakh authority will also consider NATO as an interlocutor for Kazakhstan", Mr. Scheffer said.

 Commenting on Kazakhstan's upcoming OSCE chairmanship, he added: "I do think that Kazakhstan is in a good position to mediate and to tackle all these certain frozen conflicts. So I did notice that I wished Kazakhstan and the Kazakhstan leadership all very best. It is a difficult job and I am quite sure Kazakhstan is able to do it very well."

 "It is almost a platitude to state that the challenges of today are too great for any nation to cope with on its own; and that collective action is ultimately more effective than purely national approaches. But it is a truth nevertheless. That is why since the end of the Cold War many nations have made the strategic decision to cooperate with one another", - the NATO Secretary General said at the end of his report, thus reiterating the big importance of partnership of the nations in building security in the region of Central Asia and the entire world.