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Last week, the Atlantic Alliance’s Heads of State and Government held a Summit in Riga.  This was not just another international gathering.  The Riga deliverables have charted the path for the Alliance for the coming years and will make the world’s foremost political-military alliance even more effective in addressing the complex security challenges Allies face today and into the foreseeable future.

   Prior to the summit, there was a plethora of analysis of NATO’s perceived rifts, and gloomy predictions that the Allies’ inability to reach consensus on some key issues would, in all likelihood, lead to an empty and meaningless NATO summit in Riga.  But NATO is in better shape after Riga than before.  In fact, everything I had expected the Summit to deliver was achieved: significant decisions regarding our operations; on our partnerships; and improvements to our defence capabilities.

  Contributing to peace and stability in Afghanistan is, and will remain, NATO’s key priority.  At Riga, our Heads of State and Government pledged to ensure that ISAF has the forces, resources, and the flexibility needed to ensure the mission’s continued success.  Caveats have been lifted.  Of course, I am not fully satisfied and will be pressing for all remaining caveats to go as well, but we are making progress and Allies know what they have to do to make Afghanistan a success story.  More forces have been committed, particularly to the South of the country where combat operations have recently taken place.  Allies agree that they must support each other in in extremis situations.  At the same time, Alliance leaders agreed the need for a comprehensive approach by the international community and asked me to explore the possibility of the establishment of a Contact Group for Afghanistan, to ensure that we have a clear political strategy bringing together all the key actors, countries as well as international organisations.  One of my priorities will be to bring the European Union, among others, into this Group, reflecting the strong agreement in Riga on the urgency of giving greater substance to the NATO-EU strategic partnership.  As fully coordinated organisations working together in Afghanistan, we can achieve far more than we could ever hope to achieve individually.  We agreed too that we need a much more coordinated approach on the ground in Afghanistan between NATO’s forces and the civilian agencies working on reconstruction.  Security and development are two sides of the same coin.

  The Afghan people, and the country, have suffered for over 25 years – we forget too easily the toll that war and terror took during that period, and we also overlook the tremendous progress that has been made in recent years since the NATO-led force took responsibility for security assistance.  There is a constitution, an elected Head of State and Parliament, women participating in politics, 6 million children in school, 4 million returned refugees and a tripling of GDP.  The commitments and new measures agreed upon in Riga mean that ISAF will have what it needs to carry out its mission successfully, that the international community will be better coordinated in its actions, and that the people of Afghanistan can look forward with confidence to even further improvements in both the security and redevelopment of their country. 

  Afghanistan may have dominated the headlines but it was not the only reason why Riga was a significant event.

  Alliance Heads of State and Government also clearly stated their intention, at NATO’s next Summit in 2008, to extend further invitations to those countries that meet NATO’s performance based standards, and are able to contribute to Euro-Atlantic security and stability.  This is a strong signal of encouragement to Albania, Croatia, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia* who all aspire to become members of NATO.

  They also took another major step towards finishing Europe’s unfinished business, by bringing Southeast Europe into the European mainstream.  Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia have been invited to join the Alliance’s Partnership for Peace and Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council.  All countries in the Balkans will be associated with NATO.

  In other words, the Riga decisions on NATO’s enlargement and partnership policies will take further the success NATO has already enjoyed in promoting, and consolidating, a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace.

  Heads of State and Government also agreed a number of measures that will promote greater interoperability between NATO nations’ armed forces and those of partners and other non-NATO nations.  They decided to enhance the ability of non-NATO nations to contribute politically and militarily to NATO-led operations.  A new Training Cooperation Initiative for NATO’s partners across the Mediterranean and the broader Middle East will enable the Alliance to share its unique experience in training with others.  And new opportunities have been opened for closer cooperation with countries which share NATO’s values and have a common interest in upholding security and stability.

  The decisions at Riga have also further advanced NATO’s defence transformation, and will increase the capacity and effectiveness of its forces.  The NATO Response Force has now reached its full operation capability, and will enable the Alliance to meet new challenges even more rapidly.  Strategic airlift capabilities will be significantly enhanced with a groundbreaking agreement to establish a consortium to pool C-17 airlift assets.  And we took new initiatives in areas such as tactical missile defence, air-to-ground surveillance, and cooperation between special operations forces.

  In sum, the Riga Summit was a great success for the Alliance.  NATO’s political and defence pillars have been significantly enhanced and will ensure even better chances of success where it matters most – on operations and missions.  

*  Turkey recognises the Republic of Macedonia with its constitutional name.