NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during Question and Answer session at the 65th Annual session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in London
Transcript
Right, we now move on to Afrim Gashi from Macedonia, Irakli from Georgia and Yemov Chernev from Ukraine. Afrim?
Thank you, Miss Moon, President. Distinguished Mr. Stoltenberg, as you mentioned earlier, my country, North Macedonia, very soon is going to be the 30th member of NATO. In accordance with that thank you. You are taking my seconds. Even though our process of joining NATO is a long standing in time, even though 18 MAPS were delivered in past 18 years, even though our real military contribution to NATO peace missions in the world is evident and highly appreciated by NATO Allies, at the end of the day we can all openly say and acknowledge that all these achievements, national and painful concessions are the result of the adherence and commitment of all our governments so far, of all our parliamentarians so far, and of all the large majority of citizens who support Euro-Atlantic integration. We believe in the benefits of NATO membership, not only because we know that the states and armies of the 29 Allies will be beside us and with us, but also for the future of our children and future generation. Thank you.
So, I did give you a few extra seconds for the applause. Irakli?
I would like to thank you very much, Secretary General, for your great address and for your continued support to Georgia’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and our membership aspirations. NATO membership is a value based choice of the citizens of Georgia and 2019 has been very special and very unique in terms of enhancing political and practical dimensions of our cooperation. We witness more NATO in Georgia and more Georgia in the NATO. We attach great importance to the recent visit of the North Atlantic Council to Batumi, which is a strong signal of political and practical support to our country, as well as an ample proof of Georgia’s significance in the Black Sea security architecture, in land, air, and maritime domains. My question is, to what extent does Georgia’s engagement on the Black Sea contribute and approximate our country to its top foreign and security policy objection, which is NATO membership? Thank you very much.
Yemov from Ukraine?
Dear Secretary General, dear Madam President, we have been fighting against Russia aggression for our sovereignty, for the European values, for Europe, since 2014. We have already paid high price for it, by losing more than 13,000 people. NATO has supported us, both politically and practically. We do appreciate this strong support. However, it is so important for Ukraine to see major signs that NATO’s door is open for Ukraine, I’m talking in particular about the enhanced opportunity program and growing cooperation together, in particular navy, as the steps to Membership Action Plan. I kindly ask you to bring Allies’ attention to us as part of the modern security environment and consider various options to make Ukraine and thus Europe, even stronger. Thank you.
First, North Macedonia, it’s a great achievement and I would like to commend North Macedonia for the enormous progress you have made and I really looking forward to welcome you as a full member. As you know, you’re already participating as an invitee at all NATO meetings, you will also, at least most of the meetings, and you will also be present at the Summit in December. So, I look forward to having you as a full member. Georgia, I have not so much to add, but just to say that you’re, we are also working with you on the Black Sea and everything you do to modernize, to improve your defense and security institutions, including naval capabilities, is of course helping you to move towards NATO. We also work with your Coast Guard, so Black Sea is also part of the cooperation with Georgia. The last one was Ukraine. First of all, I think we have to understand that NATO stands in strong solidarity with Ukraine. We provide practical support, political support, and it’s absolutely not acceptable what Russia has done, illegally annexing, taking a part of another country, illegally annexing Crimea and continuing to destabilizing eastern Ukraine. And therefore we are stepping up our support, our cooperation with Georgia. After the incidents and the capture of the Ukrainian vessels in the Strait of Azov, we decide also to do more in the maritime domain, to work with the naval academy in Odessa. And in a few weeks, the whole North Atlantic Council will go to Ukraine, visit Ukraine, and express our strong political support, and I urge also NATO Allies to provide even more practical support to Ukraine. They need our support. This is about supporting Ukraine, but it is also about upholding and supporting a rules-based order, which is of great importance for all of us. We are supporting Ukraine’s ambitions for further Euro-Atlantic integration, including membership. We think that the focus should be on reforms, on how to modernize Ukraine. I see that President Poroshenko is back in the crowd back there, and we have worked together on these issues for many, many years. And we of course also work with the new President on how we can further strengthen the partnership with Ukraine, that’s good for NATO and it’s good for Ukraine. And to modernize their defense and security institutions is the best way also to move towards membership.
We’ve got two final questions. Dragan Sormaz from Serbia and Andranik Kocharyan from the Head of the Armenian Delegation.
Thank you, Madam Moon, Mr. Secretary, short question. What is your assessment of NATO-Serbia cooperation, NATO-Serbia partnership today?
Andranik?
[Interpreter] Thank you. Secretary General, Prime Minister of Armenia made a declaration that solution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be acceptable both for Armenian people, Nagorno-Karabakh people, and Azerbaijan. This signal from Armenia fully complies with the appeal of the Co-Chairs of Minsk Group on preparation of people to peace. Unfortunately, we haven’t heard any similar declaration from another side, even more from there we hear militant rhetoric. My question is, how the North Atlantic Alliance can help to resolve Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on a fair and long-term basis? And how are you going to support the efforts of the Co-Chairs of the Minsk OSCE group?
First, on Serbia, I strongly believe that we have a very good and strong partnership with Serbia and I welcome that, based on the fact that NATO fully supports the decision by Serbia to be a neutral country. NATO of course respects the decision of any country when it comes to what kind of security arrangements it wants to be part of, or don’t want to be a part of. So, when North Macedonia or Montenegro want to the join NATO, we welcome them. But when Serbia decides that they don’t want to be a member of NATO, we absolutely fully respect that. So, we respect the sovereignty and the sovereignty of Serbia to make its own decisions about its path and its role in the international community. Based on that, we have a good partnership with Serbia. I visited Serbia not so long ago and I saw how we actually had a big civil preparedness exercise together, NATO Allies and Serbia, and how we are working also in other areas together, strengthening both the practical cooperation and political cooperation. So, we welcome that partnership. We also hope that it is possible to make progress in the Pristina-Belgrade dialogue, to deal with the challenges we have in Kosovo, and therefore we urge all parties to be constructive and find a political solution and to reactivate the Pristina-Belgrade dialogue. Then on Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, first of all, I met the Armenian Prime Minister in the UN not so many weeks ago, that was a very good meeting, we addressed a wide range of issues. When it comes to Nagorno-Karabakh, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is an unresolved conflict and of course we are concerned about that we have not been able to find a political and a permanent solution to that conflict. It is clear that there is no military solution to the conflict. NATO has no direct role, but what we do is to support the work of the OSCE Minsk Group and the Co-Chairs, to try to find a political solution. Then I would like to thank you all for all your questions, on a wide range of issues. I think it is extremely important that I, as Secretary General, meet the parliamentarians. This demonstrates that NATO is an alliance with 29 democracies, with many partners and many, many parliamentarians, and that is what makes NATO so strong, that we are an alliance of democratic nations with democratic institutions and parliaments. Thank you so much. It’s great to see you. (applause)