Current Security Challenges in the Euro-Atlantic Area
Address by H. E. Dr. Dimitrij Rupel, Minister of Foreign Affairs of
the Republic of Slovenia on the occasion of the Euro-Atlantic
Partnership Council at the level of Foreign Ministers on December 7,
2001 in Brussels
Secretary General,
It is twelve years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the World
has again changed dramatically: the terrorist attacks on the United
States, resulted in not only thousands of innocent victims, but also a
thoroughly changed global security environment. The brutality of the
attacks demands both a new understanding of security and the adoption
of a new agenda for fighting the plague of terrorism.
The new global insecurity challenges the conventional security
concepts. This situation is not about simple straight - forward
polarisation. Aggression is coming from many sides that are hard to
define, isolate and fight. A qualitatively new response is needed, and
some conceptual questions have to be addressed. We should not succumb
to the rhetoric which claims that terrorism is a direct product of
backward social conditions. To assert itself, terrorism in fact uses,
reproduces and even produces backward social conditions. We should not
search for any justification of terrorism.
For Slovenia the fight against terrorism is of the highest
priority.
We welcome the recent NAC decision to invite to an EAPC-wide
inventory of national capabilities and assets, which could be made
available to assist nations in protecting civilian populations against
possible attacks with chemical, biological or radiological agents. We
have already provided to the Director of Civil Emergency Planning the
relevant information on the inventory of national capabilities, which
also include antibiotics produced in Slovenia.
To further contribute to the enhancement of the conditions
necessary for the building of prosperous and stable societies in
Southeast Europe, Slovenia is to offer to increase its participation
in NATO-led peace-support operations with a third platoon in the SFOR
mission in Bosnia.
Additionally, the Slovene managed International Trust Fund for
Demining and Landmine Victims Assistance (ITF) has announced that
Kosovo has been cleared of all landmines. The new Slovene sponsored
"Together" Regional Center for the Psychosocial Well-being
of Children affected by armed conflicts will extend our efforts in
this area. We welcome donations in support of this new Slovene
initiative and would also like to take this opportunity to warmly
thank all the ITF donor nations gathered at this meeting and inform
you that the Slovenian government will propose that ITF study the
possibility of joining the demining efforts in Afghanistan after the
fighting has ended.
The new terrorist threat with its biological, chemical and nuclear
components does not divide the world between us and them, but menaces
to destroy all people and nations that appreciate freedom, human
rights, individual enterprise, democracy, quality of life and dignity
of the individual person. Therefore, a large coalition of human
dignity against nihilism and fanaticism of terrorist networks is
needed.
In closing, I must emphasise that it is essential to understand
that the enlargement of NATO is not directed against anyone and that
it is just a process of building both, a common Europe and a fruitful
Transatlantic cooperation, from which no country from this area should
be excluded. Accordingly we warmly welcome the recent evolution of the
relationship between NATO and Russia.
Therefore, we believe that the decision of the respective
governments and heads of state of alliance countries in Prague
concerning new invitations should not be a difficult one.
| 
