Ladies and Gentlemen, Secretary General of NATO Lord Robertson will be happy to answer your questions.  Could I simply ask you to identify yourselves when posing a question, please.

 

Q: Latvian TV News: my question is about the American statement two days ago in Latvia that this is a historical responsibility and maybe the best possibility to enlarge in the Baltics in 2002, because otherwise in the years after 2002 it will be much more difficult, than in the next year.  Would you agree?

 

A: I can’t agree with sentiments that talk about individual countries, because I am the Secretary General of the Alliance.  It is a big responsibility for the heads of state and government next year, a historical responsibility and I believe they are taking that very seriously. That’s why the Membership Action Plan was established in order to give them the information not just about defence reform which is absolutely critical and pivotal, but also on the other range of standards that would be expected of a NATO country.  So, that plan is moving ahead, it’s got a third cycle to go and I’m not making any predictions about which countries of the nine will get invitations to NATO, or indeed, if any of the nine will get invitations, because that is the matter for the heads of state and government themselves to make. 

 

Q: The Baltic Times: Mr. Secretary General, some people in Russia would say that, of course, the concerns of Russia are not being addressed as far as enlargement goes, as far the Missile Defence System goes. One person I talked to last week said  that the President Putin’s propositions to you, which were presented to you upon your last visit to Moscow, were not being addressed.  Are they being addressed and how are they being addressed?

 

A.: Well, we have a partnership with Russia, we have a Permanent Joint Council  which meets every month at ambassadorial level and meets four times a year at ministerial level. So, we have an ongoing dialogue with Russia on a whole series of issues, including Missile Defence, the Americans’ ideas about Missile Defence and the Russian proposal on Missile Defence, so we are engaged in that and we are addressing  the issues that are put forward there. Of course, on enlargement  we want to talk to the Russians and assure the Russians that this is not a threat to their national security or to their national interests because it’s not, that it can actually add to the stability and  security in Central Europe  if it was to happen as indeed it has happened in the past. So, we are open to discussions with Russians. I had personal one-to-one discussions with President Putin, with Foreign Minister  Ivanov.  Next week in Brussels, Mr. Sergey Ivanov, the new Defence Minister of Russia will be in Brussels for the Defence Ministers’ Permanent Joint Council.  So, these issues are certainly going to be addressed, but nobody can have a veto over what decisions are taken by NATO as an organisation.  Nor do I think that Russia wants to have a veto over these decisions.

 

Q.  Baltic News Service (BNS).  I would repeat the question which you have got from the Norwegian delegation.  Do you personally expect Mr. Bush to come to Warsaw and to say what the US Administration’s positions are on NATO enlargement?  Do you expect him to say and to speak on that subject and what do you expect him to say?

 

A.: Well, NATO is made up of nineteen governments, and nineteen heads of government, I don’t make policy for them, they are all sovereign and independent nation states and they’ve got the right to say and do what they want. Do I expect that he will talk about NATO enlargement? He may well do. He is visiting Warsaw, which is one of the latest countries to join NATO, and he is visiting Slovenia immediately afterwards, which is an applicant member.  Do I think President Bush is going to say what are the United States’ preferences  from the nine candidate countries?  No, I do not.  I do not believe that he will go down that road, because neither the American Administration nor the other eighteen governments have yet got round to thinking about the invitation list.  And they won’t until they’ve seen the end of the Membership Action Plan cycle and they’ve considered it and consulted with it with the allies. 

 

Q.: Reuters News Service: Lord Robertson, you did not mention your stance on Missile Defence in your speech. I’d like to know what it is.  The National Missile Defence or Missile Defence, whatever parlance we are now calling it at the moment.

 

A.   I made it clear in my questions and answers that NATO ministers this week endorsed the consultations and discussions that are taking place in NATO on American thinking on Missile Defence and, indeed, on the balance that has to be established between offensive and defensive systems and that is an important discussion going on.  President Bush gave me an assurance in April when I visited him in the White House that he would consult with the NATO allies not just on the Americans’ plans and proposals, but on American thinking on the issue before any decision was actually taken. That is what he is doing at the moment. So, the idea that has been put around that Secretary Powell came to NATO Foreign Ministers to seek support for a specific plan and was rebuffed, is totally and completely fiction.  There is no proposal , there is no plan, so, there could be no rebuff.  And all of the allies welcome the fact that the Americans are sharing the thinking about this very important issue even before they come to an eventual decision. And what NATO is also doing on Missile Defence is talking with Russians about their very specific proposals about the nature of ‘rogue’ states, the dangers from the proliferation of ballistic missiles, and their own very specific Missile Shield that they would like the Europeans and the Russians to adopt together.  So, we are consulting on both of these issues and it is surprising and welcoming that there is significant common ground between the American position on this issue and the Russian position as well.

 

Q.   LNK TV News Service, Lithuania.  Mr. Robertson, do you see any alternative for Lithuania and other Baltic States to guarantee its security without joining NATO?

 

A.: That’s a leading question which I’m not going to answer. There is a process we are undertaking at the present moment which will come to fruition in Prague next year. What NATO is asking countries to do who are applying for NATO membership is to make changes in their defence structures that they need to make anyway for their own defence. So it is not either you take our advice to become a NATO member and leave yourself defenceless.  It is a question about making sure that the countries do what they need to do to defend themselves, but, in addition, what they might have to do if they were to become members of an alliance that clearly is based on shared defence. So, it’s effectively the same thing they are being asked to do, and encouraged and helped in the process.  Thank you very much.  Now, have we got somebody here? Can I explain to the press who this young lady is? She is Inga Bubnelyte, who is sixteen years old, who comes from a small town in the north of Lithuania, and who wrote me a letter, the Secretary General of NATO.   On behalf of all of the young people….