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PRESS CENTRE

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.


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