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Secretary General,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today's topic gives us a good opportunity to discuss wide issues of common concern. Over the past several months, all of us have closely followed the development of the situation in Kosovo. It has become a major subject of the Alliance and also us because of humanitarian sufferings and violations of the basic rules of liberty and democracy. Lithuania has strongly supported the position and the efforts of the Alliance directed to ensure full compliance of the Yugoslav federal government and Kosovo's Albanians to UN Security Council resolutions (No.1199 and 1203). To that end we proposed 10 people, three already in place, two on the way, to participate in the OSCE's Kosovo Verification Mission and remain ready to contribute with troops and other means, if necessary, to allied efforts in Kosovo. The Kosovo crisis once again confirms the need to further develop the Alliance’s interaction with partners.

PfP enhancement is contributing to the founding of the new security architecture and fostering the ability to address future security challenges. It is a path to follow in strengthening and deepening interested partners practical readiness and ability to contribute to non-Article 5 missions. In this regard, the development of the political-military framework for NATO-led PfP operations, development of the future multinational unit concept, and expansion and adaptation of PARP are central elements.

The progress achieved in developing political-military framework for NATO-led PfP operations and the trends of ongoing discussions on modalities for participation of Partners in operational planning, in command arrangements, and involvement in political consultations and decision-making in such operations promises encouraging results. We expect that the political-military framework, together with the implementation of the CJTF concept, will strongly underpin our practical interaction on the ground and create a basis for rapid crisis prevention in the Euro-Atlantic area. We should enforce our efforts to develop the framework in time for the Washington Summit.

A great part of our joint efforts is devoted to participation in multinational initiatives in the Baltic Sea region. We are committed to further develop joint Baltic defence-related projects such as BALTBAT and the joint Lithuanian-Polish peacekeeping battalion LITPOLBAT, which will be operational in 1999. Multinational regional military formations involving Partner or NATO and Partner forces contribute to security and stability in the respective region and the Euro-Atlantic area as a whole. Bearing in mind our activities and experience we welcome the work undertaken in developing common modalities encompassing guidelines and principles for multinational regional formations involving Allies and Partners and believe that Lithuania is ready to share experience in this area.

We place special emphasis on the strengthening of PARP. We look forward to receiving initial Partnership Goals next year. The initiatives and progress that Lithuania has achieved so far in this area together with the Danes leaves us confident in the ability to make another step ahead in this important endeavour.

Implementation of PSEs gives new input to military co-operation and enhances interoperability. In this regard, we look toward to further deliberations, as reported in the May EAPC ministerial, on the PSEs involvement in the third level of the command structure. It is simply natural to complement implementation of PSEs with the creation of opportunities for civilians to assume the role of PfP internships at NATO HQ.

We are satisfied that already two initial stand alone NSIP/PfP projects were given life. We know the complexity of the process, but in 1999 we would expect other infrastructure projects to be considered by the Allies in order to start their implementation.

Dear colleagues,

With the view to the continuation of the enlargement process, we welcome today's decision by the Allies to task the North Atlantic Council to develop a comprehensive package for the Washington Summit that will continue the enlargement process, operationalise NATO's commitment to the open door policy and underscore NATO's willingness to assist aspiring countries in meeting NATO standards. We count on NATO's vision and support the launching of the subsequent round of enlargement in 1999 so as to make movement through NATO's open door a tangible reality for every qualified aspiring member.