UK Ministry of Defence, NATO must press on with its transformation if it is to survive in the future and the NATO Response Force is to be a success, UK Defence Secretary John Reid said today.
Speaking at a meeting of NATO Defence Ministers in Italy, Mr Reid said that whilst NATO is the world's foremost defence and security Alliance, it is not guaranteed to survive and prosper unless it changes to meet modern challenges.
He said that, “NATO needs to continue the momentum of it transformation programme to provide advanced, flexible, rapidly-deployable and sustainable forces. These must be supported by a fit-for-purpose headquarters that can make timely decisions”.
Mr Reid also said that at the moment generating forces for NATO operations remains difficult. This situation would remain until individual member states put their money where their mouth is and offer real, deployable capabilities for NATO operations.
He said that Europe must do more to show that it will share risk as well as words. To do this Europe has to pay for its fair share of security by properly resourcing defence. Europe must also deliver Armed Forces fit for modern tasks and have the will to deploy them.
Mr Reid said that the NATO Response Force is the centre piece of our crisis response capability. We need it to be able to carry out all the missions for which it is designed, as and when the NATO Advisory Council decides. “We must not fail to deliver. Achieving full operational capability for the NRF, and then sustaining it, is imperative for us as Defence Ministers”, he said.
Mr Reid paid tribute to the success of the NRF's efforts in Pakistan, highlighting how the capabilities provided by NATO and the co-ordination skills saved lives and helped towards the reconstruction of the devastated region:
“NATO saved lives and helped people who had lost everything start to rebuild. We went to the aid of the Government and people of Pakistan, on whom we rely in securing the future stability of Afghanistan, at their time of need. We shall learn and build on our experience. This was a vital humanitarian mission in which the NATO Response Force played a crucial role.
“But NATO today faces greater threats to its long-term future than it ever did at the height of the Cold War. Now is the time to replace immobile armies with more flexible, rapid-response forces that can deal with today's global challenges at short notice.
Mr Reid also stressed that, “security is more than just a question of military hardware, or military defence”.
“We now have networked problems: the abhorrent phenomenon of the global terrorist network; the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; global drug and people-smuggling networks; and global pandemics. These problems need joint economic, political and security solutions. Regional crises will no longer be confined to a regional problem; they are a real challenge to us all”, he said.
Background Notes and Information:
John Reid is attending informal meetings of Defence Ministers in Taormina, Italy, on Thursday 9 and Friday 10 February 2006. The meetings will be Chaired by the NATO Secretary General, Mr. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. The Minister of Defence of Italy, His Excellency Mr Antonio Martino, will host the meetings at the Grande Albergo Capotaormina.
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