Brussels, 17/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - The New Defence Agenda (NDA) held a conference in Brussels last Wednesday on global security, with politicians, researchers, and representatives from the defence industry from around the world. In light of the Iraqi crisis, delegates gave their views on various issues: What are the world's security and defence priorities for the 21st century? Does NATO need a new role, or is it up to the EU to clarify its common foreign and security policy? Are new global mechanisms needed to face the challenges, or should UN mechanisms be strengthened? Can the USA, the EU and Asia have a common approach to issues related to global security? Could a transatlantic partnership between defence industries emerge?
By way of introduction, Eduardo Serra Rexach, former Spanish Defence Minister and NDA President, reiterated the fact that the attacks of 11 September had brought about two changes: terrorism has become the main priority for world security, and the American government "is no longer satisfied with having the power to protect its people, it wants to use it". Whereas the United States "are strong and use all available means", the EU is "weak and uses diplomacy", he stated, calling upon Member States to increase the EU's military capability and to "go further than the Petersberg missions". Ronald Asmus, German Marshall Fund researcher, expressed his view that in the years to come, the EU's priorities will be the Balkans and enlargement, whereas for the United States, the main strategic issue will be the Middle East. Both partners can work together on their respective priorities, but this will require the definition "of a common agenda", he said. In the view of General Gustav Hägglund, President of the EU Military Committee, the difference in military capability will impact upon the differences of perception and aspiration of the US and the EU, as the latter only uses force "as a last resort". This is why he wanted to see roles distributed according to capability: the EU should ensure its own collective defence, and, after restructuring, NATO should provide international crisis management. Lithuanian Defence Minister, Girts Valdis Kristovskis said that the Iraqi crisis showed the need to strengthen international organisations (NATO, UN, EU, G8), and to develop legal mechanisms at international level, allowing immediate action if necessary. Romanian Defence Minister Ioan Mircea Pascu also pleaded in favour of "a set of co-ordinated rules" for security and defence at international level, and his Bulgarian counterpart, Nikolai Svinarov said that NATO should ask itself whether its current capability and mechanisms are adequate for new threats and crises (the Alliance is already adapting its capability: Ed). Sergei Ordzhonikidze, under-Secretary General of the UN said that the Iraqi war had caused irreparable damage neither within the UN, nor between the US and the EU. The United Nations will play an important part in political rebuilding and disarming Iraq, which proves that "a single power cannot resolve everything on its own".
Jan Dirk Blaauw, President of the WEU, voiced his concern at the work of the European Convention and, whilst welcoming the initiative of asking Javier Solana to present a global strategy for CFSP at the Thessaloniki Summit, was worried that this strategy would go no further than drawing up a catalogue of potential risks, threats and responses, on which "it will not be difficult to agree". He said that a catalogue of ambitious objectives to achieve these results should also be drawn up, and on this, confessed "I have my doubts". British Conservative MEP Geoffrey Van Orden said "there is nothing to be gained in having a separate structure for security matters. We need greater capability, but under NATO. The EU has a civil role to play, NATO a military one". Chinese deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Qiao Zonghuai, said that for the time being "we all share security interests, as no country is protected any more, even internally". For this reason, his country was prepared to take part in "a new world order", and was working towards resolving the crisis between the United States and North Korea.
European and American defence industries felt that transatlantic industrial partnerships in the field of armament could be developed. Hartmut Bühl, Vice-President of European company EADS, said "we need major joint-interest projects under NATO, financed jointly" by the EU and the US. European industry can propose such projects, but financial resources and political goodwill aside, we will need a transfer of American technology, not currently available to European companies. This request was repeated by Michel Lenton, Vice-President of Italian company Finmeccanica. The TIPS (Transatlantic Industrial Proposed Solution) project is, in his view, a good example of co-operation between European and American businesses. According to Robert Trice, Vice-President of the American Company Lockheed Martin, governments must also co-operate to harmonise military requirements and remove the trade barriers which apply to the military sector within EU territory. WEU President Jan Dirk Blaauw pointed out that "American legislative protectionism is everywhere, including the military industry".