NATO AND FOSTERING ABILITY TO ACT WITH PARTNERS

Photo:  NATO Ministers Meeting.  Credit:  Wikimedia.
FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
NATO to Strengthen Ability to Act with Global Partners
By Cheryl Pellerin
WASHINGTON, July 5, 2012 - NATO seeks to assume a more global perspective, play its part globally and strengthen its ability to act with partners around the globe, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in London yesterday.

In a speech at Chatham House, Rasmussen said forging closer links with partners in Asia, Africa and elsewhere is crucial to guaranteeing future security in the Euro-Atlantic area.
"Today we hold regular consultations with all our partners on security issues of common interest," he said. "I would like to see those consultations become much more frequent, focused and substance driven."

Rasmussen described the development of clusters of willing and able allies and partners ready to cooperate in specific areas. "I see these clusters being flexible enough to accommodate different groups of partners, yet focused enough to deliver concrete results," he said, in areas such as training and education, emerging security challenges and "smart defense," which is a NATO initiative based on allies and partners pooling and sharing capabilities, setting priorities and coordinating efforts.

Many partner countries participate in NATO's military education, training and exercises on an ad-hoc basis, and Rasmussen called for a more structured approach and for the broadest possible range of national participation in such activities.

"From Afghanistan to the Balkans and last year over Libya, our partners have played a vital role in the operational outcome and the political legitimacy of our missions," Rasmussen said.

"They have made NATO stronger and kept the world safer," he added, "so it is as important for NATO to invest in strong partnerships as it is to invest in modern military hardware and in flexible forces."

An example of such flexibility, the secretary general said, includes cooperation among special operations forces, the use of drones, and collaboration on cyber security issues.
Cooperation among special operations forces, Rasmussen said, offers considerable potential to learn more and do more, both for NATO and for its partners. "We must build on the lessons we learned together in action in Afghanistan so we can boost our ability to act together in the future," he said.

Rasmussen said allies' use of unmanned aircraft does not constitute a problem for NATO. "We actually try to promote the use of drones to improve gathering of information and intelligence, surveillance [and] reconnaissance." In fact, he said, drones helped NATO to conduct what he called a "precision campaign in Libya" while minimizing civilian casualties and collateral damage.

Partners also could do more together to deal with emerging security challenges such as those in the cyber domain, the secretary general said.
"We are very focused on cybersecurity," Rasmussen said, adding that NATO gives strength in cybersecurity its highest priority and has taken steps to strengthen its own systems.

"The latest statistics indicate that we are attacked 100 times a day, so you can imagine that there is a strong interest out there in what NATO is doing," he noted. "We have to protect our systems more effectively, and we have taken a number of steps in that direction."
NATO ally Estonia suffered weeks of cyber attacks in 2007, he noted.

"It's not just theory -- it's a reality," Rasmussen said of the existence of cyber threats and of the necessity to develop methods to confront them. Toward that purpose, he said, NATO has established a center of excellence in Estonia's capital of Tallinn that provides information and facilitates the sharing of experience and best practices.

"We have established a unit that can help allies that are cyber attacked if they don't have the capacity themselves to counter such attacks," he said. Confronting such threats successfully, Rasmussen added, demands a high degree of consultation, coordination and cooperation.

Along with expanding the range of issues in which NATO and its partners cooperate, Rasmussen said, the alliance also must expand the range of nations it engages, including China and India.

China, for example, is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and is playing an increasingly important global role, he said.

"As an organization that is driven by the U.N. Charter of Principles, NATO needs to better understand China and define areas where we can work together to guarantee peace and stability," Rasmussen added. "There are other important countries too, such as India, with whom we should increase our dialogue and seek opportunities for cooperation."

But one partnership stands out above all the others, the secretary general said.
"The transatlantic bond lies at the very heart of NATO, [representing] our common belief in freedom, democracy and the rule of law. And it provides shared leadership between North America and Europe," he said.

Rasmussen said some see the U.S. pivot to focus on the Asia-Pacific region as the end of this unique partnership. But they are wrong, he said.

"The security of America and Europe is indivisible," Rasmussen said. "We are stronger and safer when we work together, and that is why NATO remains the indispensable alliance."

Around this essential transatlantic bond, the secretary general said, NATO must strengthen its partnerships in Europe, with Russia and around the globe, "because in the 21st century, we are all connected whether we want it or not."
A positive connection and continued engagement with partners, Rasmussen said, "is a cure for pessimism, a cause for optimism, and key for the security we all seek."

NATO SECRETARY GENERAL ADDRESSES NATO ROLE IN SYRIA AND AFGHANISTAN

Photo:  Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.  Credit:  U.S. DOD.
FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE
NATO Chief Discusses Alliance Role in Syria, Afghanistan
By Cheryl Pellerin
WASHINGTON, July 3, 2012 - NATO's core business is security, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters in Brussels yesterday as he outlined the role of the alliance and the international community in Syria and Afghanistan.

"NATO is where North America and Europe come together every day to discuss the security issues which concern us," Rasmussen said, "and NATO is where Europe and North America work together every day to find solutions.
"
In NATO, any ally can bring any issue to the table at any time, he added, referring to the meeting of NATO allies called by Turkey after a June 22 shootdown by Syrian forces of a Turkish F-4 fighter and its two-member crew.

"We condemn Syria's shooting down of the Turkish aircraft in the strongest possible terms, and we condemn the escalating spiral of killing, destruction and human rights abuses in Syria," Rasmussen said.

"The right response to this crisis remains a political response," he added, "and a concerted response by the international community against a regime that has lost all humanity and all legitimacy."

Last week Kofi Annan, the Joint Special Envoy for Syria, announced a June 30 meeting of the Action Group for Syria in Geneva. There, according to the United Nations, the international group forged an agreement outlining steps for a peaceful transition in Syria while strongly condemning the continued and escalating violence that has taken place there over the past 16 months.

The group also called for all parties to immediately recommit to a sustained halt of armed violence, to fully cooperate with observers serving with the U.N. supervision mission in Syria, and to implement a six-point peace plan that Annan put forward earlier this year.
The U.N. estimates that more than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria and tens of thousands displaced since the uprising began.
Rasmussen said he welcomed the action group meeting.

"The international community has come together [and] ... clearly endorsed a plan for a democratic transition to end the violence and answer the legitimate aspirations of the people of Syria," the secretary general added.

To enforce the political plan, he said, every member of the international community should use its influence to bring an end to the bloodshed and move Syria forward.

"This conflict has already gone on for too long," Rasmussen noted. "It has cost too many lives and put the stability of the whole region at risk. The international community has a duty to put an end to it -- and to do it now."

NATO is at work on another sort of transition in Afghanistan, he said: to put the security of Afghanistan in the hands of the Afghans.

"As we speak," the secretary general added, "half the Afghan population lives in areas where their own forces are in the lead for providing security. And over the coming weeks and months, that protection will extend to three quarters of the population."

But security is just one challenge in Afghanistan, and NATO is just one part of the solution, he said. In the bigger picture of Afghanistan's security future, Rasmussen added, development and good governance must come together, and the international community and the Afghan people are putting the pieces in place.
"Over the last few months, we have built a strong framework of partnership and mutual responsibility on which Afghanistan can rely as it stands on its own two feet," he said.
In Chicago in May, decisions at the NATO summit sent a clear message that after 2014, NATO's mission will be to train, advise and assist the Afghan security forces, Rasmussen added.

At a conference in the Afghan capital of Kabul in June, the message was one of regional responsibility for the countries of Central Asia and their neighbors to support Afghanistan well into the next decade, he said.

Next week, the international community will gather in Tokyo to show its commitment to Afghanistan's long-term economic development, he said, calling it a key opportunity to make sure Afghanistan continues to develop and remain secure after 2014.
"Even when Afghanistan is fully in charge of its own security, it will still be one of the poorest countries in the world," Rasmussen said. "And the best way to maintain its security will be to help it face this challenge."

At the same time, the international community needs to know that the Afghan authorities will live up to their commitments, the secretary general said.

Rasmussen said Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pledged to improve governance, fight corruption and ensure the protection of human rights, including the rights of women.
Delivering on those pledges is vital, Rasmussen added.

"We now have a once-in-a-generation chance to break the cycle of violence and extremism in Afghanistan," the secretary general said, "[and] to build long-term security for Afghans, the wider region and for ourselves. It's a chance we must all seize."

NATO SECRETARY GENERAL RASMUSSEN BELIEVES IN SUPPORTING AFGHANISTAN BEYOND 2014 PULL-OUT

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE

NATO Conference Focuses on Post-2014 Afghanistan

By Karen Parrish

BRUSSELS, April 18, 2012 - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen today emphasized support to Afghanistan beyond 2014 in remarks opening a conference of the alliance's defense and foreign ministers here.

Rasmussen noted the NATO summit in Chicago is a month away. "We have important work to do today and tomorrow to help set the stage," he said.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force has been engaged in Afghanistan since 2001, and Rasmussen said the alliance will continue to support that nation beyond 2014.

Meetings of NATO defense and foreign ministers today and tomorrow will shape the decisions on Afghanistan that the alliance's heads of state and government will make in Chicago, Rasmussen said, including completing the transition to Afghan security lead by the end of 2014 and what form NATO's contributions in Afghanistan will take after that transfer.

Rasmussen noted Afghan security forces defeated coordinated enemy attacks April 15 in and around Afghanistan's capital of Kabul.

"This shows that the Afghan security forces can deal with dangers and difficulties, and they are getting stronger every day," the secretary general said.

He said his clear message to Afghanistan's enemies is that they can't just wait NATO out. "As we gradually draw down," he added, "a still stronger Afghan security force is taking charge to protect the Afghan people against brutality and inhumanity."

NATO will maintain a training mission and financial support to Afghan security forces beyond 2014, Rasmussen said. "We must make sure we maintain the gains made with so much investment in lives and resources," he added.

Even in tough financial times, the secretary general said, supporting the Afghan forces is "a good deal in financial and political terms."

NATO remains committed to its strategy and its long-term partnership with Afghanistan, Rasmussen said.

"This is our message to the people of Afghanistan, to the enemies of Afghanistan, and to the neighbors of Afghanistan," he said, "because it is in the interest of our own security."

Before a morning meeting of defense ministers this morning, Rasmussen said their discussion would center on alliance "smart defense" efforts to acquire capabilities jointly that the alliance will need to counter future threats. Smart defense, he said, "means setting the right priorities. We must specialize in what we do best and focus resources on what we need most. And we must work together to deliver capabilities that many nations cannot afford on [their] own."

At the Chicago summit next month, Rasmussen said, NATO will demonstrate its commitment "to continue to invest political, military and economic capital in a transatlantic alliance that is fully fit to deal with the security challenges of today and tomorrow."

In a news conference following the morning session, he announced ministers have prepared an interim missile defense plan for Europe, with details to be announced in Chicago.

NATO defense ministers also discussed a "connected forces" initiative to be finalized at the Chicago summit, he added. This agreement will strengthen member nations' coordinated education, training and technology efforts, the secretary general said.

Financial support to Afghan forces after 2014 is expected to cost $4 billion per year, Rasmussen added, though details of NATO nations' contributions to that total have not been finalized.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton are both here for the NATO meetings, and are scheduled to hold a joint news conference later today.