March 7, 2006

Ambassador Marcie B. Ries Remarks
at Conference "NATO’s Past, Present and Future"

Tirana International Hotel

Mr. Prime Minister, Croatian Ambassador, other Ambassadors, Honored Guests and NATO course students.

It is an exciting time to gather here to discuss NATO and the future of Albania within our Alliance. In the past few weeks, Albania has taken a significant step in the EU integration process by initialing the SAA; the Adriatic Charter countries - Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia - had an important Partnership Meeting in Washington; Admiral Ulrich of the Allied Joint Force Command in Naples and the Croatian and Macedonian prime ministers visited Albania; and yesterday a delegation led by our Ambassador to NATO, Victoria Nuland, visited Tirana to discuss Albania's NATO aspirations.

But of course joining the Alliance is about a lot more than meetings and visits, so I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on our Alliance, how it is changing, the values at the core of the Alliance, and what this means for countries seeking membership.

NATO is an evolving organization, as the PM so eloquently said. Not just because it has taken on new members -- and the door remains open -- but also because it has been adapting to new challenges.

During the Cold War, NATO's essential role was to provide a belt of security that allowed democratic and economic development in Western Europe, in the face of confrontation with a hostile and aggressive enemy. In the 1990s, NATO acted to put an end to tragic ethnic conflicts in the Balkans and to protect the peace. We had KFOR as a peacekeeping deployment and in August 2003, NATO took over the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, in its first operation outside the Euro-Atlantic area.

Whereas the NATO of the Cold War era did not conduct a single military deployment, last year it was involved in eight military operations globally.

Currently, the Alliance is conducting a challenging and complex peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan, in which Albania is participating; providing logistical support to the African Union in Darfur; helping to train Iraqi security forces; and delivering humanitarian relief supplies through an airlift to Pakistan.

So, today's NATO is a very different organization than the one that protected Western Europe and the United States during the Cold War.

The threats posed by terrorism, unstable states, weapons proliferation, and humanitarian crises are quite different from those of the Cold War. And that is why NATO is engaged in a process of transformation. To meet them, we need different tools, both individually as members, and together as an Alliance.

This means a different set of capabilities than were needed during the Cold War, with more emphasis on the ability to deploy quickly and on peacekeeping operations, rather than on territorial defense. This is why NATO will hold a transformation Summit in Riga at the end of this year. Thus aspirant countries' plans for military reform must be focused on meeting the requirements of the 21st century not the 20th.

The other point I would like to make about NATO is that it is not just a military alliance. What binds the members of the Alliance together is our shared belief in a clear set of values, freedom, respect for human rights, democratic governance, the rule of law, and free-market principles. These are the values that guided the Alliance during the Cold War, and they continue to be at its core. In the North Atlantic Council, countries that share common values meet and discuss the challenges that we face in the world and try to decide what actions are appropriate.

I have no doubt that Albania and its neighbors share NATO's commitment to freedom, because you know all too well what it is like to live without it. But joining the Alliance also means work, and it requires political, institutional, and economic—as well as military—reforms. And yes, fighting crime and corruption is also an important and necessary part of the reform agenda, a part that is going to require a commitment not just by government, but also by society as a whole to succeed.

Equally military reform is not free, and appropriate resources should be dedicated to it. Just as importantly, the resources need to be spent wisely. It's also important to be realistic about what is possible: what counts far more than the quantity of forces is their quality. Albania is a small country; nevertheless, in Afghanistan and Iraq it has already demonstrated it can play a role well beyond its physical size.

I hope, given the broad support that NATO and EU integration enjoys among Albanian people and across the political spectrum, that you can use this consensus as the basis for working on the things that need to be done to meet the standards of the Alliance. We support the Euro-Atlantic aspirations of Albania and its neighbors because you are our friends, because you share our values, and because you can make a real contribution to a NATO on the move; a NATO that, through transformation, will be stronger and better prepared to meet tomorrow's security challenges.

For the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall and perhaps for the first time in history, and in large part through the promise of Euro-Atlantic integration, democracy, peace, prosperity, and sovereignty are entirely realizable goals for Albania and its neighbors in Southeastern Europe. The challenge is clear, but success is up to you.

Thank you very much.