Brussels, 03/05/2006 (Agence Europe) - Meeting the members of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs in Brussels on Tuesday evening, NATO Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, again urged in favour of “closer links” between the EU and NATO, although he did recognise that this is not easy for institutional reasons. He said it would nonetheless be necessary to find ways and means to strengthen EU-NATO relations, and called on MEPs to support this approach.
After highlighting NATO-led activity in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Darfur, Iraq and the Mediterranean region, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer again said that he expected a “qualitative step to be taken on the road to NATO transformation” at the Riga Summit in November. There will be no invitation to join but messages will be addressed to Skopje, Tirana and Zagreb, he added, pointing out that he awaits formation of the government in Ukraine and expects Georgia to soon be able to benefit from “intensified dialogue” with a view to preparing its membership in due course. Generally speaking, “it is too soon to say what kind of messages” will be sent as this depends on the individual performances of the countries concerned, he recalled. The Summit will examine the future of the different NATO partners and the form to be given to the new relations that the Alliance hopes to establish with countries like Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Answering a Spanish MEP who asked him why Latin American countries were not associated with this, the secretary general said that there would be no reason to exclude these countries should they express an interest in establishing relations with NATO. He nonetheless recalled that NATO does not aim to become a global alliance or a global policeman. The Riga Summit, moreover, may note that the NATO Response Force has reached its full operational capacity and that ISAF has managed to extend its coverage to the whole of Afghanistan.
For now, NATO is ready to commit itself further in Darfur. The Alliance is ready to do more to help the African Union and is willing to serve as a bridge between the AU and the UN, as well as to assist a UN force, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said, stressing that this depended on what the African Union wanted and on a “clear Security Council mandate”. He went on to add: “We await a political framework (…). I know that Solana and the EU are helping with this, but it is not easy”.
Answering a question put by British Conservative Geoffrey van Orden, the secretary general pointed out that there is “no intention for a NATO use” of the bases that Bulgaria has made available for the United States under the terms of a bilateral agreement. With regard to the energy sector, the secretary general stressed the need to examine how to improve infrastructure security, especially for ports and harbours and transport networks. This is a debate that must be held at every level, within the EU as well as NATO. Speaking on the same theme as General James Jones who recently tackled the matter, he said: “I can very well imagine a role for NATO when it comes to protecting maritime routes, especially those used for gas and oil transport”. In response to several MEPs who brought up the subject of CIA flights, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer reaffirmed that he did not have any information on this subject, that there have been no detainees in KFOR prisons since 2004 and that NATO abides by international human rights rules.