25 May 2007 - NATO NEEDS NEW STRATEGIC CONCEPT, SAYS NATO PA PRESIDENT JOSE’ LELLO

“As a parliamentarian I believe,” Mr Lello said, “it is imperative that we present our publics with a clear and comprehensive vision of what we want the Alliance to achieve”. The existing 1999 Strategic Concept, according to the NATO PA President, made “considerable progress” in adjusting NATO to the security realities of the post-Cold War world, but now “we need to go further”.

The four-day session brings together some 300 national parliamentarians from NATO countries, associate delegations from Central and Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Russia; Mediterranean Associate delegations from Algeria, Israel, Jordan and some nations with observer status.

In a wide-ranging speech, Mr. Lello outlined some of the issues parliamentarians are set to debate, including the recent debate about missile defence in Europe, following the negotiations on the deployment of US missile defence assets on the territory of Poland and the Czech Republic.

The NATO PA President particularly emphasised the two major military commitments of the Alliance : Afghanistan and Kosovo. “Afghanistan continues to be NATO's top priority” he said “Our commitment there is the best hope for the Afghan people and is also a decisive test for NATO to live up to its new role”. In Madeira, two delegations from the Afghan and the Pakistani parliaments respectively will participate for the first time in an Assembly Session.

The deliberations in the UN Security Council over the future of Kosovo are equally significant for Alliance security and will have far-reaching consequences for stability in the region and in Europe. Moreover, Mr Lello highlighted, “NATO forces will continue to shoulder the burden of providing security for Kosovo”.

These and other challenges require, according to Mr. Lello, that the Alliance define further its role in confronting the threats of the 21^st Century. A new Strategic Concept — to which NATO parliamentarians would be ready to contribute — would give “greater clarity”, the NATO PA President indicated, “on questions such as: the range of security threats to which the commitment to collective defence in Article 5 should respond; the relationship between operations and stabilization in determining our capabilities; the geographic scope of the Alliance in terms of membership and partnership; the development of more effective co-operation between NATO and the UN and the EU”.