Opening Statement by NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson at the meeting of the NATO-Russia Council at the level of Foreign Ministers Madrid, 4 June 2003

Good morning. Bonjour. DOB-ray U-tro. Welcome to the second meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Foreign Ministerial session.

Just over a year ago, our Heads of State and Government gathered in Rome to put an end to the stereotypes of the past and take a bold step into a common future. A future in which the relationship between NATO Allies and Russia would be defined not by rivalry and mutual suspicion, but by a spirit of genuine partnership.

They created the NATO-Russia Council as a forum in which the twenty states gathered around this table could meet and cooperate as equal partners, facing shared threats and challenges.

The 20 leaders gave us an ambitious agenda, including the twin menaces of terrorism and proliferation, crisis management, and many other contemporary security challenges.

They asked us to develop capabilities and a depth of cooperation unprecedented in our history: to reform our military establishments and make them more interoperable; to explore ways to pool our resources in areas as diverse as theatre missile defence, search and rescue at sea, and air transport.

So how has the NATO-Russia Council responded to these challenges?

We have taken important political initiatives together. Building upon our shared experience in bringing peace and stability to the Balkans, we have worked to promote border security in South Eastern Europe. And we have consulted with increasing frequency and depth on the situation in Afghanistan, where NATO recently took on increased responsibilities.

One year on, the NRC has achieved concrete results in each of the areas of cooperation identified at Rome:

We have strengthened our cooperation against the shared threat of terrorism.

We are well on our way toward a similar level of cooperation against the spread of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile technology.

We have passed important milestones in our cooperation on Theatre Missile Defence, search and rescue at sea and peacekeeping; and in our combined efforts to stand up to new threats and security challenges.
Today, we will take stock of these and other achievements. More importantly, we will review what remains to be done, and consider how we can set our sights even higher for the coming year and beyond.

Much has happened in the past year. We have had to come to terms with the broad range of contemporary threats; we also noted honest differences, even among well-intentioned, responsible nations, on the best ways to deal with these threats; and, above all, that, at the end of the day, our common interests far outweigh such differences. This goes for both NATO and the NRC.

Ministers, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

A year ago, our presidents and prime ministers put us on a path of genuine cooperation and equal partnership. They did not promise that this path would be an easy one, but it is the only one we can travel if we are to succeed in defeating today’s threats. We have travelled far in the past year. Today, it is up to you to ensure that this journey continues.

Thank you. I would now like to ask the ladies and gentlemen of the press to leave us, so that we can proceed with our deliberations in closed session.