NATO Secretary General and New Zealand Prime Minister (Q&A)

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg praised the cooperation between NATO and New Zealand and described how the partnership strengthened international security. Speaking alongside Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Mr. Stoltenberg highlighted that over the years, NATO and New Zealand have worked together to end conflicts in the Balkans, fight piracy off the Horn of Africa, and patrol the Mediterranean. The Secretary General also discussed with the Prime Minister New Zealand’s important contributions in the fight against terrorism, including its role in NATO’s training mission in Afghanistan

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Transcript

Reporter: Television New Zealand, and to the Secretary General. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the war in Afghanistan since it began. The United States is now in peace negotiations with the Taliban. Has the conflict been worth it in your eyes and when do you think it will end?

Secretary General: We welcome the fact that we are now closer to a peace deal on Afghanistan than we have ever been before. And NATO’s main task, main purpose of being there has been, and still is, to make sure that Afghanistan doesn’t once again become a safe haven for international terrorists. And the main purpose of the talks is to make sure that we have an agreement where we achieve exactly that. And we have to remember that the military presence of NATO and other international forces, including New Zealand, has created the conditions for peace talks and a peaceful negotiated solution, because we have sent a clear message to Taliban that they will not win on the battlefield. They have to sit down at the negotiating table and they will achieve more around the negotiating table than they will achieve on the battlefield. And by staying in Afghanistan, we have sent that message and created the conditions for a negotiated solution. I welcome that we are closer to a deal. Of course, nothing is agreed before everything is agreed. We support the efforts of Ambassador Khalilzad. He consults closely with NATO Allies and partners. He has been many times in Brussels. And I also welcome the fact that New Zealand, NATO Allies and partners, continue to provide support to the Afghan army and security forces. We need to train them to enable them to stabilize their own country. We went into Afghanistan together, we will make decisions on our future presence there together and when the time is right we’ll also leave together.

Craig McCulloch, Radio New Zealand, to the Secretary General. Are you disappointed that New Zealand is withdrawing from Iraq, given the challenge that remains there?

Secretary General: I welcome very much what New Zealand has done in the Global Coalition over a long period of time, training Iraqi forces, local forces. This is something we highly value. At the same time, we see that we have made a lot of progress. The caliphate, the territory that Daesh/ISIS controlled, they have lost control of that territory. Not so many months ago, they controlled a territory as big as the United Kingdom, eight million people. Now they don’t control that territory anymore. So we are moving into a new phase. And therefore, I welcome the fact that New Zealand has committed to step up the financial contributions to training. Again, training local forces is one of the best weapons we have and we very much welcome the financial support from New Zealand in doing exactly that.

Moderator: Question from Sky News?

Jackson: Secretary General just at the back here, Jackson Williams from Sky News. You were Prime Minister of Norway when Anders Breivik killed 69 people at a summer camp. The alleged Christchurch mosque shooter claimed he was inspired by Breivik. And in recent days the Texas shooter claimed he was inspired by the alleged Christchurch attacker. What do these links say about the way we need to fight terrorism and do you see a link between these attacks and xenophobic politics?

Secretary General: I think what we see is that terrorism comes in many different forms and wears many different guises, but in the end it’s all about the same. It’s about hatred, it’s about violence, it’s about lack of respect for democracy and individual liberty, and the idea that you can use violence to achieve your political goals. So it doesn’t matter what kind of ideology or religion terrorists are misusing. It is all about the same. It’s about violence and hatred. And therefore we need to fight terrorism, regardless of the form the guise they use, because terrorism is contradicting our most fundamental values. I am impressed by the way New Zealand handled the terrorist attacks in March. The way you stood together, the way you have stood up for our core values, tolerance, democracy, individual liberty, the freedom, the trust. And as long as we do that in New Zealand, in Norway and elsewhere, then the terrorists will not win, because as long as we are standing up for our values, they are losing, we are winning. And I am absolutely certain that our values are stronger than their values, because tolerance will prevail over intolerance and love will prevail over hate. And New Zealand is an example of the strength in that message and therefore it was also touching and an important experience for me to visit Christchurch yesterday, to meet with the people in Al Noor Mosque and the Mayor and the local community, the first responders, and to see how they have been able to deal with this very difficult situation in a united way and a way which has impressed the whole world.

Jackson: Just to the second part of the question, do you see a link between xenophobic politics and these attacks that I outlined, including the one at the Walmart in Texas?

Secretary General: We see that terrorists around the world are referring to each other. I’ll be very careful about commenting on El Paso, because that’s, you know, it happened very recently, and there is an ongoing investigation, so I will not comment on that. What I will say is that we all know that what happened in Christchurch and what happened in Norway, the terrorists conveyed the same message about hatred, but also about right wing, extreme right wing views. And it reminds us that terrorism comes in different forms, they misuse different religions and different political ideologies. So they refer to each other, they try to inspire each other, but we just have to stand together and defy them, regardless of their political message, because this is about the violence, it’s about terrorism, it’s about crimes, it’s not about, actually, political views. It’s about crimes.

Reporter: Secretary General. How effective have New Zealand’s defense force personnel been in Afghanistan? And would you personally like them to stay there long term? And Prime Minister, have you given much thought to that?

Secretary General: The New Zealand contribution to our mission in Afghanistan has been of great importance, partly because you provide high-quality trainers, advisers. You are part of our training efforts at the Military Academy in Kabul and, of course, the whole idea is that prevention is better than intervention. To train the Afghans to stabilize their own country is the best way to avoid us being forced back into combat operation in Afghanistan. And New Zealand has participated and is participating to those efforts. And I greatly value and appreciate those efforts by New Zealand in our training mission. I also welcome strongly that New Zealand has been focused and is stepping up its efforts when it comes to Women, Peace and Security, because we know that women are in many conflicts, also in Afghanistan, vulnerable. There will be no lasting peace without the full inclusion of, also, women. And the role of women in Afghanistan has been, how should I say, under pressure for decades, for centuries. Now, women have a stronger role in Afghanistan than ever before and that’s, of course, also very much because of the presence of NATO and partner nations, as New Zealand. And the presence of New Zealand trainers, women advisers in our mission helps also to recruit women to the Afghan police, Afghan security forces, and that also strengthens the role of women in Afghanistan. We will not stay longer in Afghanistan than necessary. But the thing is that we have to make sure that the gains we have made, both when it comes to making sure that Afghanistan doesn’t once again become a safe haven for international terrorists, which is actually important for our security, and the gains we have made when it comes to social progress, not least the role of women, are preserved. And that’s what we now are focusing on in the peace negotiations. And, as I said, we are sending a message that we stay in Afghanistan to create the conditions for a peaceful solution. We have to also remember that we have totally changed the nature of our operation. We had more than 100,000 NATO troops and partner troops there in the combat operation as late up to 2015. Now, we have 16,000 troops in a train, assist and advise mission, showing that we are making progress, the Afghans are taking more and more responsibility for the security themselves. But we continue to support them and help them.

Prime Minister: Just to quickly answer your question. New Zealand’s obviously had a presence in Afghanistan for some time, but what Cabinet’s recent decision acknowledges is that the environment is changing. As the Secretary General has acknowledged, obviously, peace negotiations are underway and the decision we recently made around our troops, which is a slightly lessened presence from 13 to 11, but actually, really specifically targeting roles that can support the peace process. And as has been pointed out, one of the really important features of those negotiations will be, how we preserve the gains that have been made on behalf of women in Afghanistan in that time. So, today we’re confirming that three of our personnel, starting from two going into roles in the field from September 2019, will be focused specifically on the role of women, supporting their role and the preservation of what’s been gained for women in Afghanistan, in support of the work that NATO is doing there. So our role is changing, but so is the conflict there. And I think it’s right that we use New Zealand’s strengths, but also our values and reflect that in the job that we do in Afghanistan.

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