ALBANIAN PARLIAMENT SPEECH BY SECRETARY GENERAL It is an honour for me to be in Tirana today and to address the Albanian Parliament. This is the first time that a Secretary General of the Atlantic Alliance has visited Albania. Just a few years ago, such a visit would have been unthinkable, not only because your country was then governed by a totally different political and value system from that prevailing in our Alliance countries; also because Albania had largely turned its back on the outside world. Today a new Albania is emerging from those long years of self-imposed isolation. It is seeking cooperation with our Alliance and integration into the new Europe. So the once impossible is today wholly natural. Why have I come to Tirana? What message do I bring? First I want to tell you why our Alliance values cooperation with Albania, and talk about why your country is important to the security and stability of the Balkan region and Europe as a whole. Second I want to tell you something about the new Atlantic Alliance, about its new roles and missions in projecting security and stability throughout Europe. Third, and finally, I have come to extend the hand of cooperation to Albania, and thus to build further on the warm relations that we have established since President Berisha addressed the North Atlantic Council last December. I want, in particular to discuss with you what we can do together to deepen our cooperation and make it as relevant as possible to your concerns. Let me address my first point. Albania may well be a small country but it has an important role to play. It is at the heart of Europe's most turbulent region, so the success of Albania's internal reform programme and the policy it pursues vis-a-vis its neighbours has a significance extending far beyond your borders. The active participation of Albania in the search for security and stability in the Balkans and in South Eastern Europe is essential, and something which our Alliance very much wishes to encourage. Of course, your country is in a very difficult and delicate situation. In view of the conflict which is raging just over your borders, and your understandable concern at the fate of ethnic Albanians outside your country, I imagine that is not always easy to exercise restraint. But the fact that you have exercised restraint has been a vital factor in preventing the Yugoslav conflict becoming even more dangerous. I thus very much hope that you will continue this policy of restraint, despite the considerable pressures on Albania. We know only too well in this respect how the Yugoslav conflict is hampering your efforts in internal reform. NATO Foreign Ministers have called for serious negotiations on the restoration of autonomy to Kosovo and the guarantee of full human rights, and have supported the idea of a UN preventive presence in Kosovo. The Alliance, together with the international community, has made clear its deep concern about the possible spillover of the conflict and about the situation in Kosovo. NATO Foreign Ministers have stated that an explosion of violence in Kosovo could, by spreading the conflict, constitute a serious threat to international peace and security and would require an appropriate response by the international community. A spillover of the conflict to Kosovo and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia would have terrible consequences. Our Alliance, for its part, will support the international efforts to prevent this from happening. And all of us in the Alliance are very much relying on Albania to continue its constructive and reassuring diplomacy. The Alliance is already helping to implement the decisions of the UN in the former Yugoslavia. NATO and WEU ships are enforcing sanctions in the Adriatic. We are especially pleased that Albania has agreed to cooperate fully with NATO in enforcing those sanctions. Your help has been invaluable in making this enforcement programme effective. It is a notable example of how the Alliance can work with a cooperation partner, such as Albania, in carrying out its new mission of supporting UN peacekeeping. NATO aircraft are monitoring the no-fly-zone over Bosnia. NATO command elements are helping the UN Protection Force. We made a further step last December when we offered the UN our help in implementing the no-fly-zone and in monitoring heavy weapons. Currently the UN is endeavouring to obtain agreement on a peace plan for the former Yugoslavia. If and when a peace plan is agreed, the UN may look to NATO to play a major role in implementing that plan. I believe that the Alliance will respond positively. After its long years of isolation, Albania is moving rapidly to be an active member of the international community. You have joined the CSCE process and also our Alliance's North Atlantic Cooperation Council. You have signed a trade and cooperation agreement with the EC. In doing so, you have shown your attachment to our common democratic values and that you look towards the modern world after so many years of seclusion. Our Alliance, and the other Western institutions, will give Albania material as well as political support to proceed along this path. It will not be easy for Communism has left behind it a spiritual as well as political and economic vacuum that cannot be filled overnight. All of us in the Alliance admire the courage and determination which Albania has shown to overcome its problems. Given the chaos surrounding the collapse of Communism, the devastated economy and paralysed institutions, the progress in restoring public order, reducing inflation, privatizing the economy and restarting industrial production is truly impressive. Albanians are famous for their determination and resilience. These qualities preserved your country's independence during the years of confrontation in Europe. Now I believe that they can be applied with equal success to the task of modernising your country and integrating it into the Western community. So, despite the hardship, I urge you to persevere along the bold and resolute course you have charted. The action of the Atlantic Alliance today is based on the premise that security is indivisible. Our Alliance's security concept does not stop at our borders but embraces all of Europe. Instability in one area will only encourage instability elsewhere. We therefore recognize our responsibility to help you to consolidate your newly-won freedoms and to complete your transition smoothly. Only in an environment of cooperation and peace can your determination to become a modern, democratic society be truly successful. Let me address the new role of the Atlantic Alliance in projecting security and stability throughout Europe. The Alliance is one of the foundation stones of the democratic community of free nations. For NATO binds the worlds' two largest zones of democracy, free enterprise and global outreach together. We extend our cooperation to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. For without the active partnership of the industrial democracies in the CSCE region, we cannot address the challenges of the present and future: ethnic conflicts, arms proliferation, disputes over resources, environmental problems, drugs and migration. The radically changed circumstances in Europe now allow the Alliance to play a more important and outward-looking political role. The Alliance has nothing to gain from confrontation, nor is its future cohesion dependent on new threats, as some have claimed. Our strength lies in cooperation, not confrontation. Our aim is to locate a safer, more durable European security order which supports political reform and the peaceful settlement of disputes. In order to build such a new security system, we have had to transform the Alliance, and gear it to the new tasks in the post Cold War world. To this end: - we have adjusted to the new environment by scaling back our forces; - we have developed a new strategic concept directed against no specific enemy and with an emphasis on crisis management; - we have concluded the CFE Treaty and the related treaty on military manpower levels. We have been instrumental within the CSCE in negotiating a whole series of military confidence building measures. Our aim is to curb the offensive power of all armed forces in Europe and build trust and transparency among them; - we have moved to reinforce the European pillar of NATO so as to create a genuinely twin pillar Alliance in which North Americans and Europeans share responsibilities and leadership; - above all, we have created a whole new dimension to our Alliance in the form of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council. This enables the Alliance to project security and stability into Central and Eastern Europe. In the four decades of its existence, the Alliance has become a model of the successful management of security through collective solidarity and the sharing of burdens. This has brought its 16 members a degree of security, stability and prosperity that most of them have never known before. Even in changed circumstances, NATO remains indispensable: - it brings together Europe and North America, the principal actors in any credible effort to uphold international peace and security; - it insures the member countries against remaining military risks; - it possesses unique military capabilities and the ability to project them collectively through its integrated military structure; - it is an important forum to pull the international community together, building consensus and stimulating collective action. With the end of the Cold War, NATO has acquired two important new roles. The first is to build a security community encompassing both East and West. Our task today is not only to preserve the security of our members, but to help others to be more secure. This is the best possible protection of the peace we have achieved. What I wish to stress here today is that it is not necessary to be a member of the Alliance to benefit from the security and stability that it provides. To this end, we have set up the North Atlantic Cooperation Council as a concrete structure to deal with security issues in Europe. As the ties between the Alliance and our 22 cooperation partners grows, their military structures, foreign policies and strategic concepts will all be rooted in a common democratic culture and the practice of truly cooperative security; as they have been among Allies for the past four decades. The approach of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council is to give all its members a flexible and adaptable platform for addressing their security concerns frankly and openly. In addition to its consultations within the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, the Alliance has established with its cooperation partners a new Work Plan. This sets out a large number of areas where we can help those partners with our experience and expertise. The major areas are the structures of defence-oriented armies, ensuring the civilian control of armed forces, conceptual approaches to arms control, military doctrines and defence conversion. We also have major programmes underway in science and the environment, civil emergency planning and the control of airspace. Our objective is to make this cooperation more practical and operational, and more focussed on the individual situations and needs of our cooperation partners. That is why it is essential that Albania participate to the full. The second new role of the Alliance is to support peacekeeping operations. Last June in Oslo we offered to place our assets at the disposal of the CSCE for such operations. Last December we made a parallel offer to the UN. The Alliance is ready to respond positively to initiatives that the UN Secretary General may take to seek NATO's assistance in the implementation of Security Council Resolutions. We can support the UN by helping to build consensus and undertaking contingency planning to guide its work. I have mentioned already the Alliance's actions in support of the UN in the former Yugoslavia. Most importantly, the Alliance's new role in peacekeeping does not exclude participation by other CSCE states. Indeed, a major focus of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council, is peacekeeping. We are currently involved in intensive discussions which will lead in due course not only to the sharing of experiences but also to practical cooperation in training, exercises and planning. I now come to my last point: how can NATO and Albania work together. We appreciate your desire to receive specific support from NATO. Already in recent weeks a number of Alliance delegations have visited your country, culminating in my own visit to Tirana today. These NATO teams have held extensive discussions with your government and we have together identified many appropriate areas for cooperation. My NATO colleagues have also remarked on how well they are working with their Albanian counterparts and on the friendly way in which they have been received. One is the reorganization of the Ministry of Defence and the General Staff. We can also provide timely advice and assistance on the development of your defence policy and military doctrine. These documents have a special role to play in confirming Albania's peaceful intentions and desire to contribute constructively to regional and European security. Over the past few years, both the Alliance and individual Allies have been revising their own policies and doctrines, as well as restructuring their armed forces to adapt them to the new environment. So we have acquired a good deal of practical experience in this area which we wish to share with Albania. Already Albanian officers are participating in courses at NATO's military academies. Among the ideas that we are also currently considering is sending expert civilian/military teams in the near future. Naturally, the restructuring of Albania's armed forces cannot be achieved overnight. But we are determined to help you to build modern armed forces that can not only preserve your independence but also be our partners in upholding cooperative security in Europe. Our cooperation is a dynamic process. We sometimes forget that the NACC is little more than a year old. Moreover, senior Albanian officials have the added opportunity to interact with the Alliance by participating in the meetings of NATO Defence Ministers with cooperation partners on 29 March and Chiefs of Staff with cooperation partners on 28 April. We have come a long way very quickly. Our frank and open exchanges of views on security issues will become increasingly beneficial to both sides. All of you assembled here today have a unique opportunity which previous generations of Albanians have not enjoyed. It is to build a new, democratic, free and prosperous Albania, fully part of a Europe that shares the same values. You and we cannot afford to miss this opportunity. The Atlantic Alliance will support you. It is a partner for Albania and the other nations of Central and Eastern Europe as they leave the tragic legacy of the past behind them and build with us the new and better Europe of tomorrow.