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Ambassador Stephen Sestanovich, Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for the New Independent States Briefing at the Foreign Press Center, Washington, DC, April 21, 1999

AMBASSADOR AMBASSADOR SESTANOVICH: Let me just open with a few remarks about the upcoming summit, and in particular the role of NATO partners and members of the Partnership for Peace at this event.

As you know, the NATO summit will be an occasion not just to commemorate 50 years of alliance cooperation but also an event at which NATO will discuss its new missions, its new capabilities, its new partnerships, and cement the mechanisms that will make all of those successful. The conviction of the members of the alliance is that NATO is not a Cold War relic but a continuing crucial element of European security, the security of all its members and of its partners.

The summit will involve, of course, a meeting of the heads of all of the -- the leaders of all the members of the alliance in the North Atlantic Council. But there are a series of other meetings which will take place over the course of the weekend in the framework of the summit that are of special interest to those states that are partners of NATO. And I want to mention three of those which I think will be helpful to you in looking ahead to the event and understanding its broader purposes.

First, the meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council itself. As you know, this body was created in 1997 by the alliance and its partners to provide a political framework for the military cooperation that has been built up since 1994 under the Partnership for Peace. This will be the first meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council at the summit level. Leaders, heads of government, heads of state and their foreign ministers will participate in this session late Sunday morning.

The broad aim of this meeting is to take NATO's cooperation with partners to a new level. To this end, NATO and its partners have already agreed in Brussels, at meetings of the EAPC at ambassadorial levels, on a document titled "Partnership for the 21st Century." And that document envisions expanded cooperation among partners, efforts to create a more operational foundation for cooperation in the future.

Let me mention half a dozen elements of this expanded cooperation among partners. The summit of the EAPC will endorse a number of initiatives that will improve this cooperation. First, what's called the political-military framework for NATO-led PFP operations. This is an agreement that will make possible improved consultation and decision-making between NATO and partners when they undertake joint military operations. An example: Many partners are involved in the work of SFOR in Bosnia.

Secondly, the partners have agreed with NATO on what's called the operational capabilities concept. This goes beyond consultation and decision-making to an effort to increase the ability of partners to operate together.

Third, the partners have agreed on an expanded PFP planning and review process. This is a parallel planning process to the one that NATO itself works under, and partners will be able to join in this coordinated planning and review process.

Fourth, partners have agreed on the establishment of new training centers in Ukraine and other partner states.

Fifth, they have agreed to implement a simulation network for the Partnership for Peace that will increase interoperability of the military establishments of partners by providing computer-assisted simulations for their operational planning.

And finally, NATO will establish a consortium under the Partnership for Peace of defense academies and of security studies institutes.

These are the kinds of practical efforts that the members of the Partnership for Peace have agreed on as effective mechanisms for expanding their cooperation.

The second meeting that I want to call to your attention will also take place this Sunday morning, and that is a meeting of what's called the 19 plus 7. This weekend a lot of us will get used to NATO expressions and terminology. Nineteen plus seven refers to the 19 members of the alliance plus five frontline states, so-called, to the conflict in Kosovo, and those are Albania, Macedonia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria, plus Bosnia and Croatia, which are not members of the Partnership for Peace but will be represented at this meeting. This is a meeting, by the way, also at the head-of- state or government level, with foreign ministers participating.

Our expectation is that this meeting will produce a renewed commitment by the participants to working together during the current crisis in Kosovo and beyond, in particular looking beyond the current crisis to the modes of cooperation that will be necessary to make Southeastern Europe, as the president said last week, not a source of instability in Europe but part of the European mainstream. Right now, as the Kosovo crisis demonstrates, this region shows once again some of the instability that has, in the past, affected all states in Europe and all members of the alliance.

A third meeting that I would call to your attention will take place on Saturday afternoon, and that is a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission. This is the first meeting at the summit level of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, which was also formed by the alliance and Ukraine in 1997 at the Madrid summit. It was created as part of the agreement between NATO and Ukraine on their distinctive partnership.

Ukraine has been one of the most active members of the Partnership for Peace. As a sign of its interest, the government of Ukraine prepared a program for cooperation with NATO through the year 2001 which issues directives to all ministries of the Ukrainian government to enhance their cooperation with NATO. I might note that at this meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission, there will be, we expect, a designation of Yavires (ph) in Ukraine as a Partnership for Peace training center.

With this overview of some of the very substantive meetings that will occur over the course of the weekend, let me conclude, but with this note. The conflict in Kosovo has made this summit more of a set of working meetings than was anticipated when it was first being scheduled and conceived. It's a working meeting because these institutions and mechanisms that I have described are highly relevant to addressing a real problem for European security.

This will not be a set of ceremonial meetings, wholly prescripted, in which the participants affirm general principles and depart. This is a set of meetings at which leaders will be addressing a current problem and developing modes of cooperation to deal with it now and in the future.

With that, let me take your questions. I believe I'm going to be in your hands in recognizing questioners.

MARJORIE RANSOM: Okay. Yes, Ivan.

QUESTION: Ivan Lebedov (ph) with Russian news agency TASS. Foreign Minister Ivanov today officially announced that Russia won't take part in the summit and Euro-Atlantic Council meeting. Any comments about that? And the follow-up question: What do you think should be done by NATO and by Russia to try to bring back the relations on the formal level? And what steps should be undertaken by both sides to try to overcome the stalemate in the relations between Russia and NATO?

AMBASSADOR SESTANOVICH: We certainly regret this announcement. And, for reasons that have been made clear by Secretary Albright and President Clinton, we regard Russia's place in the creation of a stable and just European security order as a very important one. Secretary Albright mentioned that yesterday in her testimony in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She and the other -- she and President Clinton and other leaders in the summit will, I'm sure, reiterate that point again.

NATO and Russia created an effective framework for cooperation two years ago, in 1997, the permanent joint council. That has been a very useful forum for consultations on many issues, from military infrastructure to theater missile defense to Kosovo, and in particular Kosovo, which has been on the agenda on numerous occasions.

That framework for cooperation between Russia and NATO continues to exist. And we hope that we can make good use of it in the future. Secretary Albright has emphasized that one aim in our search for a political solution to the Kosovo crisis is to work with Russia to find areas of agreement that can be the basis for a real and durable solution.

We continue our consultations with Russia on this issue, and that reflects the same kind of common interest that led to the creation of the NATO-Russia relationship in the first place. So I think that that common interest will draw NATO and Russia together again, because both have a large role to play in European security.

MARJORIE RANSOM: In the back.

QUESTION: Nick Simeone, Voice of America. Two questions. First, what do you say to a country like Macedonia, that wants entry to NATO immediately but doesn't want anything to do with NATO's operations right now in the Balkans? They've clearly distanced themselves, very sensitive to what's going on, but they want immediate membership.

And second, what is your time line for admission of these new countries into NATO? When do you envision them coming about? Who are the next ones to be admitted, and what time will they be admitted?

AMBASSADOR SESTANOVICH: The question of new members for NATO will be under discussion at the summit. I think there is broad agreement among the members of the alliance that this is not a moment for issuing new invitations, but there is also an agreement that NATO must maintain an open door for new members in the future. At the summit, the members of the alliance will adopt -- are likely to adopt a membership action plan, which is a serious effort to help aspirants, countries that desire membership, to become stronger candidates in the future.

As you know, the Madrid summit stated the open-door policy toward membership in NATO; that is, that the alliance would be open to countries that are interested in membership, able to take on its responsibilities, and whose membership would serve the interests of European security and stability. The formula that is adopted by the alliance at this summit for future membership will apply to Macedonia as well. But in the interim, NATO can cooperate with partners in very fundamental and important ways that address their security needs. That's the second part of an answer to a country like Macedonia.

QUESTION: (Inaudible.) Could you elaborate? Why isn't it a good moment to issue new invitations? And are these frontline countries, are they going to get some security guarantees from NATO for their help in the conflict with Yugoslavia?

AMBASSADOR SESTANOVICH: The judgment that the alliance makes as to whether this is a good time is based on an assessment of the readiness of new candidates to assume the responsibilities of membership. There will be some assessment of their readiness and a forward look to some future consideration of them.

As you know, NATO, in connection with the opening of its air campaign in Yugoslavia, has stated its strong interest in the security of the frontline states, who are, of course, most at risk in this conflict. And on that basis, NATO has expanded its cooperation with them.

MARJORIE RANSOM: Yes, in back.

QUESTION: Jerry Branston (sp), Radio Free Europe. I'm interested in the relationship with Ukraine, given that this is going to be a very important part of the summit. Have the events in Kosovo not affected this relationship at all? Are the original agenda plans going forward, as earlier planned before the crisis?

AMBASSADOR SESTANOVICH: The agenda for the NATO-Ukraine Commission will cover a great many practical questions of expanding the NATO- Ukraine relationship. But as with all the meetings of this summit, it's understandable that the participants will want to talk about Kosovo. President Kuchma has issued a program from a set of proposals for the resolution of the conflict. There are many points in common between his plan and the position taken by the NATO ministers last week in Brussels. And I'm sure that there will be further discussion of how to bring our thinking and that of the Ukrainian government still closer.

In addition, Ukraine has been active diplomatically, has extended humanitarian assistance to the refugees. So the crisis in Kosovo has been the occasion for still broader consultation and cooperation between NATO and Ukraine, and bilaterally between the members of the alliance and the Ukrainian government.

QUESTION: (Inaudible) -- Polish Press Agency. To follow up on this, what is the biggest difference between Ukrainian plan and what NATO is asking for? Is it that they want NATO to stop bombing first? And the second question: You said that this is very much a working summit and that you are going to address very concrete issues. Could you please specify? I mean, you can say that Kosovo is such an issue. But specifically, what can leaders discuss about Kosovo? For example, ways to stop -- (inaudible) -- into Yugoslavia or some other issues like that? Thank you.

AMBASSADOR SESTANOVICH: I don't want to prejudge the agenda, although I'm confident that the issues you mention will come up in discussion. As for President Kuchma's proposals, one issue that he addressed was the need for an international peacekeeping force. And he suggested that be composed of neutral countries.

Our judgment has been that to be effective, such a force will have to have NATO at its core. And let me say why. It's not because NATO aspires to dominate this region. It's because there's a practical problem that has to be solved. And that practical problem is how to ensure security and stability in Kosovo.

Without the participation of NATO forces at the core of an international peacekeeping contingent, it would be impossible, in our judgment, to create the confidence among hundreds of thousands of refugees who want to return to their homes. It would be impossible to provide for the demilitarization and disarmament of military units now operating in Kosovo.

The discussion about such a force will, I'm sure, continue between our government, between the NATO alliance and the government of Ukraine. Our feeling is that the recognition that there has to be such an international security force is a positive element of the Ukrainian proposal. We differ on the importance of bringing NATO in that force -- having NATO at its core.

QUESTION: How far away are we from the next round of admissions for NATO? And would Macedonia be in that group? Do you see that? Is Macedonia ready? And if not, why not?

AMBASSADOR SESTANOVICH: I can't comment on that issue. I think that will have to be discussed in the course of the summit. I think, as I said, our judgment now is that this will not be the time for issuing new invitations, but we want to work with countries that are interested in membership to make them stronger candidates.

QUESTION: Why is now not the time to talk about new members?

AMBASSADOR SESTANOVICH: I can only repeat the answer that I've already given you. I think it speaks for itself.

MARJORIE RANSOM: Do we have any further questions? If not -- yes, Ivan.

QUESTION: Mr. Ambassador, is it correct that this membership action plan for nine aspirant countries who are seeking membership in NATO will be adopted at this summit? And if yes, what is the difference between Membership Action Plan and individual programs of cooperation between NATO and each of these countries?

AMBASSADOR SESTANOVICH: Programs of cooperation do not necessarily culminate in membership. The Membership Action Plan is for countries that have expressed an interest in becoming members and focuses on those areas where an aspirant country needs to kind of improve its qualifications for membership.

QUESTION: Will it be adopted at the summit?

AMBASSADOR SESTANOVICH: Yes.

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