Ambassador Nuland: Thank you very much. It’s terrific to be in Tirana. I’d like to especially thank those participants at the tomorrow’s NATO conference that came out to see us. And more importantly for your interest in the Great Alliance which, as you know, is changing dramatically in the 21st century.

We are here today on the first day of a three-day mission to the three countries in the Balkans who are aspirants to join the NATO alliance. Today is Albania, tomorrow is Croatia and Wednesday is Macedonia. I am joined by a senior level delegation from Washington, with representatives sent by Secretary Rice, Secretary Rumsfeld and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And what we are here to do in Albania, and what we will go on and do in Croatia and Macedonia, is to talk very frankly with the government, with the opposition, with members of the press and public, about where our Alliance is today, about where each of the countries is in its candidacy, and how we can work together to strengthen each of the aspirants’ candidacies as they head towards the next NATO summit where heads of states and governments will meet, which will be, not this year, but in 2008. First let me say that this is a very different Alliance than the one from your mothers and fathers and mine were born to.

Last year in 2005, NATO soldiers and civilians provided security and comfort on four continents. We are in Afghanistan where as you know we are managing security with the Afghans, in half the country, soon to be three quarters of the country. We are in Iraq where we are contributing to training the next generation of leaders of Iraqi security forces. We are in Africa training the African Union and supporting the African Union’s mission in Darfur. November to January we played a significant role in bringing humanitarian relief to Pakistan. We are patrolling the Mediterranean against terrorism, and last September and October NATO nations flew tons of humanitarian missions to Little Rock, Arkansas bringing relief supplies from this part of the world and all over Europe to the people of my country after the tragedy of the hurricane on the Gulf Coast.

That is the NATO that Albania is seeking to join. And we had very, very good discussions today with the President, with the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Defense Minister, the Interior Minister, the Finance Minister and with a broad cross-section of parliamentary leaders. Our message today on behalf of the United States was that we strongly support Albania’s aspirations to join the Alliance, but there is a lot of work still to do.

Albania is a country that has made a strong contribution to global security. I think that it is fair to say that Albania is today a net exporter of security. We are enormously proud of Albania’s deployments in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and Bosnia, and around the world. We spoke quite candidly today about the need to ensure that your defense forces are supported financially and that reforms continue in the defense sector to make that kind of activity possible. We also had very candid discussions today about political, economic and rule of law development here in Albania, because, while NATO is of course a military alliance, it is first and foremost an alliance of democracy, it’s an alliance of values. And we are looking for the strongest possible candidates to join us. In this regard we spoke very extensively about efforts underway to combat the cancer of crime and corruption, implementing very well the good laws you have on the books, and the government’s efforts to implement a strong counter-corruption program. The United States is supporting Albania in this effort through some of our bilateral programs and we look forward to continuing work together so that, when Albania presents itself to NATO leaders in 2008, it presents the most democratic Albania, the strongest possible Albania, and the cleanest possible Albania.

I would now like to take some questions.

Q: Do you see any contradiction between NATO’s security police and the third pillar of the EU, that is its resolution to develop its own defense programs?

Ambassador Nuland: Let me first start by saying that of the 26 members of NATO and 25 members of the EU, 19 of them are the same countries. So the stronger European countries are in the security and defense sector, the stronger both the European ability to act is and the NATO ability to act is. So, our goal is to ensure that European militaries, whether they are doing it for NATO reasons, or whether they are doing it for EU reasons, or whether they are doing it for national reasons, become as strong as capable and as inter-operable as possible. So, we so see no contradiction at the moment as long as there is no duplication and no waste of effort.

Q: Madame Ambassador, my question is bit selfish as it concerns exclusively my country, Albania. Today you met the highest-ranking Albanian state officials, you have been briefed about the situation in Albania, both political and economic. Could you please specify what is the homework, so to speak, that Albania has to do in order to be a strong NATO candidate, both in the defense, the legislative and democratic areas?

Ambassador Nuland: Let me start by saying that NATO doesn’t give homework. What we do instead is we talk about what makes a strong NATO member. First and foremost, it is a strong democracy, it’s a national and global defense of shared values, it’s an open, transparent, clean economy, it’s a strong interoperable defense structure, and it’s a willingness to deploy in defense of our common values. So we talked today about how Albania is doing in all of those categories, and particularly about the importance of sustaining and accelerating defense reforms, and, as I said, about rooting out the cancer of crime and corruption and joining together as a nation in that effort.

Q: I am a Faculty of Philosophy student, University of Tirana. A few years ago there were some rumors, coming both through formal and informal channels by certain European officials, that European nations would establish a EU joint rapid deployment force. I would like the official stance of the U.S. -- do you think this would weaken NATO?

Ambassador Nuland: As said in response to the first question, the U.S. interest is very firm in having the strongest possible European partners not only in defense of our values, but also in defense of our common security. So, the EU has a rapid reaction corps that it is trying to build, NATO also has its NATO Response Forces, a rapid reaction forces. The bulk of these forces are both drawn from the same national pools. So, what we need is the strongest possible EU force, the strongest possible NATO force, the strongest possible of 32 nations working together.

Q: Eno Trimçev, from the Albanian Institute for International Studies. Madame Ambassador, I have a question regarding the Adriatic Charter between Albania, Croatia and Macedonia. There is a keen public perception that A3 has been very successful in ensuring cooperation between the Presidents of these three countries and other senior executives relationships, but the public at large has very little information about the implications of A3. Except for the establishment of what was called a ‘Presidential Club,’ what other added value did the Adriatic Charter bring to these three countries?

Ambassador Nuland: Let me start by reminding you that the Adriatic Charter was written among four countries -- it's actually the A-4. The fourth country is the United States. And, the concept was not only so that you can help each other, but that we can help all of you. From our point of view, it has been a huge success, not only at the level of presidents, but at the level of defense ministries, at the level of soldiers, at the level of foreign ministries where you've worked together on issues of regional concern, and even among economic ministries where you've been working to strengthen your regional ties, and on this key question of crime and corruption, which is obviously a regional question as well.

I would ask you: what have you done to strengthen the A3 – A4 structure, where is the A3 – A4 student movement? I'm glad you are all here today, but I think, in all three countries, we are at a crucial moment, where it's important for the next generation that will potentially benefit from NATO membership to work together to strengthen their knowledge about NATO and to strengthen the public's knowledge about NATO. Does your mother and does your grandmother know as much as you do about NATO? And what about the student who is not studying international relations, but is studying math? So what I say to you is: A3 is not presidents, it's you.

Q. I am a student of Political Science at the University of Tirana. Albanian officials have mentioned the year 2008 and other times, the year 2009, as the year of Albania's entry into NATO. Based on the information you have and have received during your visit here, do you think Albania will be able to achieve this goal in 2008 – 2009?

Ambassador Nuland: I would say very simply – that it is up to Albania and Albanians. There is more work to do.

Q. Thank you, Madam Ambassador. I am not a student. In fact, I was born before there was a NATO, so I respect and appreciate your perspective. My question follows on your response to Mr. Trimçev about the public. It's really a procedural question, but also a policy question.

Ambassador Nuland: Apart from your age, where are you from?

Q. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As you know, as countries move on their path towards NATO, they develop and work on what's known as a Military Action Plan, MAP. Given your response to this question about having the public participate in or at least know about NATO and their countries' participation, wouldn't it be a good idea if these plans, these MAP plans were made at least in part public? To my know knowledge, these are not public. So, for example, unlike the acquis communitaire of the EU, the public cannot see what is being asked of their country and what their country is doing.

Ambassador Nuland: First, a technical correction, but I think it's important. These are not military action plans, these are Membership Action Plans and they cover all aspects of an aspiring country's development, in the political sphere, in the economic sphere, in the sphere of public support for the Alliance, and in the full range of military and security issues. The standard form questions that NATO asks are publicly available on NATO websites. It's a national decision of each applicant country how much of their membership action plan is classified and how much is unclassified. I would remind you that for many countries, my own included, aspects having to do with, some aspect of military budgeting, military issues, countries like to keep classified, because it goes to both strengths and weaknesses of the military. So NATO allows each aspirant country to make those decisions for itself, which parts it likes to make public and which not. And, what is important to us is that as we look at countries, we have the most complete picture of how money is being spent. So if it helps some countries to keep some of that classified, we'd much rather have a factual answer.

Ambassador Nuland: Anybody not from Pennsylvania.

Q. In meetings with Albanian officials, did you touch upon American investments in Albania?

Ambassador Nuland: We did talk in general terms about the Albanian Government's efforts to improve the business climate. We talked about a number of programs of support that the U.S. Government is providing, both in the economic sphere, in the crime and corruption sphere, and in the military. But I'm here today to sell NATO and not the United States. That is Ambassador Ries' job to do. Any more questions?

Q. Good evening. I am from the Faculty of Political Science in Belgrade. I have a question on public support for states attempting to become NATO members. When they want to send their army troops to peacekeeping operations, in Belgrade, there were some rumors two years ago, when PM Zivkovic spoke to Colin Powell, that Serbia would send peacekeeping troops to Afghanistan. There was no public support for this and the Serbian Government I think does not have the money for some kinds of activities, to ensure the citizens that our forces will do good things in peacekeeping operations, protecting democracy, human rights, etc. What can be done to help countries that do not have public support?

Ambassador Nuland: In any democratic country, it's a sovereign decision whether to deploy and that needs to be done with the consent of the people, however that is expressed. The United States is not in the business of putting pressure on countries. We are in the business of trying to create common interest in fighting shared threats. We do have a number of programs bilaterally and through NATO to help countries that have decided to deploy but lack some of the capabilities to get ready to meet the challenges of the situation they have agreed to participate. For example, in the case of Lithuania, where they are leading a provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan, they lacked certain communications equipment necessary to make that mission a success and we used some of our bilateral military support funds to help them acquire them. Last question?

Q. I am a student from Gjirokastër. As you said before, to be a NATO member depends on Albania and Albanians. Today, you spoke with our government as we heard from you, and I want to ask you when do you think, from your viewpoint, we will join NATO? Albania has been focused on two goals: EU and NATO. So, as an Albanian student, I would like to know when exactly do you think?

Ambassador Nuland: Let's try this again. If it depends on Albania and the Albanians, then the question should not come from you to me. It comes from all of us to you. Good luck and thank you very much.