Brussels, 28/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - On 3-4 June a weekly meeting of the NATO Council will take place in Madrid at a Foreign Affairs Ministerial level and with the 19 in configurations that have become the norm, we can now add that of a meeting between NATO and European Union Ministers.
The programme of meetings in Madrid is as follows: Tuesday: firstly, the meeting of the NATO Council with 19; during dinner, Ministers will meet with their counterparts from seven of the future members invited to Prague to join NATO; then there will be the meeting between NATO and the European Union and finish with the NATO-Ukraine Committee; Wednesday: there will be a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council and later that of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council.
In connection with the NATO Council, there will not be any major decisions but Ministers will notably be examining a series of documents on the progress achieved over the last six months, notably in areas that formed part of the main part of the Prague summit last November. This will therefore involve a review of the implementation of the transformation agenda decided upon in Prague, including the NATO/EU agreement reached in December, which created a framework for the strategic partnership and adoption of Berlin+, which is the basis of the EU's succession to NATO in the stabilisation operation in Macedonia. Ministers will be discussing the decision taken last month for assuming a coordinating and planning role for the ISAF-4 command in Afghanistan and examining assistance to Poland in military control of a sector in the centre of Iraq (the NATO military authorities were require for presenting options for this support; Defence Ministers will be examining in more detail these two issues in mid-June, Editor's note).
The 19 Ministers, indicated a senior NATO leader, would be reaffirming the need for NATO to be able to respond to the challenges in the security arena even outside the Euro-Atlantic area, the need to reinforce military capability, notably in the context of the Prague Capabilities Commitment (PCC) (also a theme for discussion by Defence Ministers) and will examine the ongoing enlargement process. They will also be discussion the post-war situation in Iraq.
Together with their Russian counterpart, the 20 will highlight the "spectacular" achievements in NATO-Russian cooperation, which is to be enlarged further. During the NATO-Ukraine Committee meeting, continued cooperation will be highlighted but also the need for a strong commitment to reforms that would allow the country to "attain its Euro-Atlantic aspirations".
During the meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) the 46 Ministers will be examining the opportunities for more individual cooperation - notably following the future seven new members of the Alliance have left the forum - or regional and the strengthened cooperation between them and NATO.