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Ambassador Kurt Volker
“Secretary Clinton’s First Visit to NATO, NATO-Russia Relations,
and Consulting with Allies on Afghanistan”
Brussels, Belgium
March 6, 2009
Ambassador
Volker: Secretary of State Clinton has just completed her first meeting
with NATO Foreign Ministers here at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. This
was an opportunity to try to bring our Alliance closer together, to
rebuild it, to build greater unity, and deal with the many challenges
that we face together.
As she entered the building it was very interesting to see members of
the international staff and national delegations lining the corridors
waiting to catch a glimpse of Secretary Clinton or to shake her hand and
at one point there was even spontaneous applause. This is just an
illustration not only of America’s commitment to reaching out to Europe,
but also Europe’s desire to reengage with the United States. This played
out in the meetings that took place here at NATO.
Concerning NATO and Europe’s East, I think that we build a strong
platform moving ahead, how we can reach out to Russia by formally
restarting meetings of the NATO-Russia Council, but recognizing that
we’re going to have to raise issues where we agree and also areas where
we disagree. Among those, for example, are Russia’s recognition of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, something with which we fundamentally
disagree, or its intention to create a new military base in Abkhazia
which is still part of Georgian territory. These are areas that we
disagree on and we’ll have to raise those, but also created a platform
for reengaging Russia on practical cooperation where we can in the
NATO-Russia Council. We also reemphasized our commitment to Georgia and
Ukraine by having meetings of the NATO-Ukraine and NATO-Georgia
Commissions here at NATO.
Another major issue that NATO needs to be united on in dealing with the
challenges ahead is of course Afghanistan where we have NATO’s largest
military operation. Here again, Secretary Clinton came to listen to the
views of Allies, to consult, to share some of our initial thinking as
the United States goes through a strategic review. This will be followed
up by Vice President Biden coming to NATO on Tuesday, March 10th, in
order to share views with Allies as we go through the strategic review
and again to listen and consult and bring Allied thinking into our
considerations as the United States.
While she was here Secretary Clinton also proposed the idea of a very
large meeting of international donors, troop contributors, transit
countries, neighboring states, to try to bring the international
community together around a comprehensive approach to dealing with the
challenges in Afghanistan.
These issues -- building a stronger community, dealing with the
challenges in Europe’s East, dealing with the challenges in Afghanistan,
are all critical components leading up to the NATO Summit that will take
place on April 3rd and 4th in Strasbourg, France and Kehl, Germany.
That’s NATO’s 60th Anniversary Summit, and it has been one of the most
successful military alliances in history. Our job is to get the NATO
business done right today and look ahead to NATO’s future beyond the
first 60 years.
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