The five-day spring meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly culminated today with a plenary session. Prime Minister Janez Jansa has highlighted the role of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly at a meeting of legislators and public-opinion makers for the alliance's mission.
"With your support for the alliance's operations, efforts for political and military reorganisation and stable defence budget, we can do even more for peace and security in the Euro-Atlantic area and world-wide," Jansa told NATO parliamentarians gathered in Ljubljana on Tuesday.
The PM urged for strategic partnership between NATO and the EU. According to him, NATO cannot operate alone and should therefore seek synergy, joint strategies, division of tasks and coordination with other international and regional organisations, in particular the EU, the OSCE and the UN.
The cross-Atlantic dimension is essential for NATO, and the alliance between Europe and North America is the fundamental principle of common security, Jansa said in his address.
He called for strengthening NATO's political role in the handling of international hot spots. He suggested that NATO focus on this together with Russia in the NATO-Russian Council and said greater emphasis should be placed on relations with Russia and the recently launched dialogue with Ukraine.
Speaking about Slovenia's position within NATO, Jansa said that "NATO membership is not a reward for us but the result of well-done work". He pledged Slovenia's decisive support for NATO issuing invitations to all candidate countries that meet membership requirements.
The president of NATO's Parliamentary Assembly Pierre Lellouche has stressed the need for NATO to continue the transformation to extend its activities to new areas in a bid to remain an important global player.
He said that NATO was currently undergoing a transformation whose aim was to meet today's security challenges.
Through this transformation, which follows the expansion of the alliance through enlargement and partnership, NATO is also hoping to retain its political role and relevance, he said.
"This is not yet complete, but it has already resulted in NATO's activities in Afghanistan, Iraq, and soon in Darfur and possibly even the Middle East."
According to him, the main issues that must still be resolved is the nature of the relationships between NATO, the EU and the United States, and finding a right balance for the alliance in terms of capabilities and decision-making.
"NATO must not shy away from these basic issues and our Assembly should not shy away from making its observations and recommendations on them," he said.
Stressing Afghanistan as an example of NATO's expanding role, Lellouche said that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had asked the NATO PA to help in monitoring the forthcoming parliamentary elections.
"This will be a real contribution that the Assembly can make to NATO's efforts in Afghanistan, and to the rebuilding of the Afghan state."
He also underscored the importance of nurturing Transatlantic dialogue: "We must take full advantage of every opportunity our organisation offers to conduct dialogue with our colleague from the US."
According to Lellouche, the NATO PA must also help the alliance in producing a new mechanism for funding operations so that the costs of deploying troops are shared by all member states rather than only those which contribute troops.
Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, who is also the OSCE chairman, has said that NATO should strive to spread peace and stability outside of Europe's borders.
"The main mission of the Transatlantic alliance upon conclusion of a bipolar international order is to expand the area of peace and stability within and beyond the borders of Europe," Rupel said as he addressed the NATO Parliamentary Assembly's plenary session in Ljubljana on Tuesday.
Among the priority areas for the international community, Rupel pointed to the political and economic stability of SE Europe and efforts for democracy and peace in Central Asia and the Caucasus.
According to him, NATO is not merely a political-military alliance and classical system of collective defence; instead the alliance has grown into a serious security community tackling the new, unconventional global threats.
"In its essence, NATO is a political-military component of Western civilisation determined by and grounded in values and institutions, such as freedom, democracy, respect for human rights and minority rights and the rule of law," he said.
"Today, NATO is about inclusion, integration, enlargement and growth," Rupel said, adding that this is an important message for the world.
Moreover, Rupel stressed that the importance of integration and inclusion has been manifested by the EU. In this light, he said he was worried that since the French referendum, "the 'no' attitude" may have made a comeback.
In his capacity as the OSCE chairman, Rupel also said that NATO and the OSCE should look to cooperate closely in order to tap into synergies and thereby enhance their activities.
"Both the OSCE and NATO address political-military issues from their respective points of view, therefore I strongly support cooperation in many fields, especially on the operational level," Rupel said.
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