A. F. RASMUSSEN: Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have been looking forward to visiting Athens today, and sharing the podium with Minister Dimas. To be able to congratulate Greece on its sixty years in NATO. To discuss its future role in the Alliance. And to assure you all that you can continue to count on the support of your 27 NATO Allies.
It must seem to many people here in this country as though everything is changing -- and not for the better. The international economic crisis has hit Greece extremely hard. And the certainties of the past – jobs, salaries, pensions – now seem much less certain.
Against that background, I understand that the Greek Government needs to focus on getting finances back in order. And on re-shaping the economy. I also understand that for many Greeks, social security is your main security concern right now.
Unfortunately, it is not only the global economic landscape that is changing. The international security landscape is changing too -- and fast.
Terrorism, proliferation, piracy, cyber warfare. These are just some of the new, complex challenges that affect all our nations. Challenges that won’t wait until we have our economies back in order. Like the economic crisis, they require urgent attention, and the closest possible international cooperation.
Sixty years after it joined NATO, the North Atlantic Alliance continues to offer Greece a unique framework for that kind of close international cooperation. And this will ultimately help your economy too. Because by working with your Allies in NATO, Greece can strengthen the security that is a precondition for its long-term economic revival.
I want to illustrate that point by highlighting three key features of our Alliance: first, our shared security and common values; second, how we multiply each other’s defence contributions, and; third, how we can spread stability well beyond our own borders.
So first – shared security and common values. This is really what NATO has been all about since it was created back in 1949. Allies standing together, and working together. To protect not only the security of our nations and populations, but also the values that we share.
Freedom, democracy, dialogue. These are all values that originated right here, the very heart of Europe in ancient Greece. And they are values that have been at the very heart of NATO for well over six decades.
During the Cold War, we successfully defended our security and our common values. We then engaged many of our former adversaries in dialogue and cooperation, making our entire continent more stable. And we have frequently demonstrated our determination to safeguard our security and our values. Bringing an end to genocide in the Balkans was a very good illustration of this.
Greece continues to make welcome contributions to our operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan. And last year, you helped to ensure the success of our NATO-led effort to protect the people of Libya, by making available Souda Air Base in Crete. This was another strong demonstration of support, and solidarity with our Allies. Your active role in NATO gives me great confidence that we can continue to work together to meet new challenges.
Let me just give one example: maritime security. With its world-leading merchant navy, Greece has a big stake in the safety of global sea lines of communication. NATO is already conducting a maritime counter-terrorist operation in the Mediterranean, and a counter-piracy operation off the coast of Somalia. We are exploring how we can build upon that experience in the future. And I hope Greece will also play its full part of that effort.
A second, key characteristic of NATO is how it multiplies the individual defence efforts by its member nations. In essence, the Alliance offers its 28 member nations – including Greece -- far greater security, at a much lower cost, than they could ever achieve alone.
And of course, getting value for money is particularly important now. At a time when not only Greece, but many other NATO Allies too, are going through a difficult economic period. And when many Allies are cutting their defence spending to balance their budgets. This includes the United States, which has announced a significant change in its defence posture here in Europe.
All this requires a fresh approach. It requires all Allies to focus on the risks and threats of the future, rather than those of the past. It requires countries like Greece to use the current crisis as an opportunity to introduce significant defence reforms. To concentrate on deployable forces, rather than to waste scarce resources on static forces stuck in barracks. To work together with other Allies to provide the high priority military capabilities we need in NATO – but that individual Allies cannot afford to provide on their own.
I have called this approach “Smart Defence”. It is my goal that, at our next NATO Summit meeting, in Chicago in May, all Allies will adopt “Smart Defence” as a guiding principle for the development of capabilities within our Alliance. And that all Allies, including Greece, will fully commit to it.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A third characteristic of NATO is our capacity to spread stability well beyond our own borders. We all realise that our security as NATO Allies, cannot be seen in isolation from that of the countries around us. So we have engaged a wide range of partner countries in dialogue and cooperation. This helps them to feel more secure, and it helps us to feel more secure too.
For a long time, Greece and Turkey were the only two countries from this region who were members of the Alliance. Talking and working together in NATO provides a forum to defuse tensions. To discuss sensitivities together with the other Allies. And to arrive at pragmatic solutions.
Today, many of Greece’s neighbours are firmly embedded in NATO, and also in the European Union. And several other countries in the Western Balkans are working hard to be able to join our Alliance in the future.
The steady Euro-Atlantic integration of the Western Balkans region has been an enormous boost for security and stability in this country, in this region, and in Europe more widely. But it is unfinished business. We need Greece’s political support and its engagement with its Western Balkans neighbours to continue to advance the process.
Greece’s continued engagement is also vital to bring NATO and the European Union closer together. The integration of the Western Balkans region is just one of the many issues where our two organisations have shared concerns, and where we can complement each other. The current economic crisis, and the need to find pragmatic, cost-effective solutions to the many challenges before our nations, is an important additional argument for making the NATO-EU partnership work.
Finally, Greece is also well-placed to help build greater security across the southern Mediterranean region and into the Middle East. The Arab Spring last year has raised hopes of greater stability, prosperity and justice throughout this vast region. The extent to which those hopes can be fulfilled will have an important bearing on our security here in Europe.
There are important differences between the countries in the region. Change will need to come first of all from within. But outside assistance will be important. Although NATO cannot and will not play a leading role, it does have important expertise to share - especially in defence and security sector reform. And as we make that expertise available to interested countries, I hope we can benefit from Greece’s excellent relations throughout the region.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Anniversaries are often used to look back upon past achievements and successes – and to look forward to the future. I am sure that Greece’s sixty years in NATO will also spark that kind of thinking, including at this conference.
My own conclusion is clear. Greece’s membership of NATO gives you the ultimate security insurance policy.
Today, you live in an unprecedented period of peace. NATO provides you with greater security than you could ever achieve on your own. And through NATO, you are building important relations with other countries here in this region, and beyond.
All this will help create the right conditions for Greece’s economic revival and its long-term prosperity. And that is what I, and all Allies, wish for your country and your people today.
Thank you.
S. DIMAS: My Dear Secretary General,
Honorable Guests,
I would like to start by making just two observations: one regarding the economy, the other one regarding democracy. You mentioned, and we thank you very much, that Greece is the country where democracy, freedom were born, because we very much appreciate this, but I would like just to remind everybody of something that we forget.
In modern times, since its liberation from the Ottoman Empire, Greece has lived under a democratic regime longer than most of the other eastern, central or western European countries. Our Parliamentary Democracy was established in 1843 and, with some intervals, has continued up to now. And if we compare this period of time Greece has lived under democracy and with freedom, it is longer than most of our partners in the European Union.
Regarding the economy, I would like to assure you, Mr. Secretary General, that Greeks, with all their protests, differences of opinion – because we are a democratic country and we have different opinions of how we can deal with the crisis – are determined to face this crisis, and save our economy, and set the basis for recovery and growth, for the good of our citizens, of our country and of Europe.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a particular honor and pleasure to welcome NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen to Athens on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Greece’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty.
I would also like to congratulate the Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) for organizing today’s conference, which, at this critical time for our country, comes as a reminder that Greece was, is and will be one of the principal factors for peace and stability, both on the European continent, as well as in our wider region.
Though the world has changed significantly since Greece joined the North Atlantic Alliance, what has not changed are the fundamental principles and values NATO is called upon to defend: democracy, individual freedoms and the rule of law, as well as the principles and goals of the UN Charter.
These principles are as pertinent now as they were 60 years ago. It is precisely these values that Greece remains dedicated to and serves unswervingly, both on the national level, as well as within international and regional organizations like NATO and the European Union.
Greece’s ties to NATO are directly linked to our national defense doctrine, as well as to the perception of our country’s position on the major changes in the international system.
In an international environment characterized by complex security challenges and threats, national and collective security are in fact ever more interlinked, both operationally and on a strategic level.
Greece’s contribution to strengthening stability beyond its borders, through participation in UN-mandated international peacekeeping and humanitarian missions, is, in the end, key to the defense of its own national security as well.
Moreover, NATO’s open door policy and the EU accession process for the region of Southeast Europe have changed the geopolitical map of our northern neighborhood, working as a catalyst for stability. Today, Bulgaria and Romania are partners and allies of Greece, while the other countries of the region have developed partnerships with the EU and NATO, creating great potential for cooperation and development. Greece has played a leading role in this process. It is our strategic choice to see the completion of the efforts to incorporate the countries of the region, always with respect for the criteria and procedures of each organization.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
How NATO is perceived in Greece is closely interwoven with the way Greece perceives its national security. When Greece joined NATO in the early 1950s, the country was coming out of the Second World War and a catastrophic civil war.
At that time, Greece’s accession to NATO, in combination with the Marshall Plan, created the environment of stability necessary for dynamic development. Despite the difficulties, Greece participated in the international campaign on the Korean Peninsula, and, since then, has contributed consistently and actively to Alliance missions and the evolution of the Alliance itself.
That being said, since the mid-1970s, Greece has faced a permanent threat from one of its Allies. NATO’s silence during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus was resounding. Despite the fact that there have been ups and downs in Greek-Turkish relations, Turkey’s systematic questioning of Greece’s sovereign rights is seen by Greeks as a real and immediate threat.
Through this prism, Greece’s participation in NATO has not managed to respond effectively to what Greeks see as the greatest threat to their security.
At long last, the ties, values and conduct that unite us in the Alliance must prevail. A greater effort must be made for these values of the Alliance to govern relations between Allies, as well.
This would be the natural course of things if there were full support for international law and the procedures of good neighborly relations, which are so vital to the long-turbulent region of the Eastern Mediterranean.
My Dear Secretary General,
Despite the fact that Greek and NATO perceptions of threat do not always coincide, in its 60 years in the Alliance, Greece has consistently shouldered the burden and cost of supporting the Alliance’s mission, while at the same time striving to defend its own national sovereignty.
Greece is making a significant contribution to critical NATO missions, including KFOR (Kosovo), ISAF (Afghanistan), Active Endeavour (patrols in the Mediterranean) and Ocean Shield (piracy off the horn of Africa), and has participated in major humanitarian operations, like those in 2005: following Hurricane Katrina in the U.S., and the earthquake in Pakistan.
More recently, Greece’s strategic location played a key role in the carrying out of NATO’s mission to protect civilians in Libya, while Crete functioned as a protection and transit center for refugees from the combat zones.
Equally important is the undertaking by NATO Deployable Corps HQ in Thessaloniki (NDC-GR) of command of the ground section of NATO’s Rapid Deployment Force, as well as the fact that the Combined Air Operations Centre in Larissa will continue to operate at a national and multinational unit, within the framework of the NATO Force Structure, fulfilling national and allied operational needs.
In the area of training and logistical support, as well, Greece is providing important centres, like the Maritime Interdiction Operational Training Centre, in Crete, the Athens Multinational Sealift Coordination Centre, the Missile Firing Installation, in Crete, and the Multinational Peace Support Operations Training Center, in Kilkis.
As NATO and the EU continue to enrich their crisis management capabilities, the know-how provided by Greek training centres in areas like confronting piracy and participation in peacekeeping operations has great added value and is the “multiplying power” par excellence that the Alliance is pursuing through promotion of its Smart Defence initiative.
Secretary General,
During your term, the Alliance – as well as the international environment within which the Alliance is active – has changed considerably. Your personal efforts to ensure that NATO will be in a position to successfully confront the many new challenges have been noteworthy.
Our common goal remains the development of NATO capabilities and ever closer cooperation between NATO and other major international players, like the European Union, the UN, regional organizations with increasing influence and a growing role in international relations, and important partners such as Russia.
Looking to the future, we all agree that new strategies need to be developed soon; strategies that with enable NATO to meet the unprecedented challenges of the 21st century. As an active member of the Alliance over the past 60 years, Greece is determined to remain on the front line in the process of shaping these new strategies.
In the context of the new Strategic Concept, supporting a dynamic and effective Alliance of sovereign member states in the 21st century will depend, in the final analysis, on three main factors:
a. maintaining structural unity and solidarity,
b. the need to continue formulating the Alliance’s goals based on the longstanding, tested and fundamental principle of unanimity, and
c. strengthening and enhancing the Alliance’s legitimacy as a community of values dedicated to preserving peace, democracy, the rule of law, and human rights
In this critical state of affairs, vigilance and preparedness are vital. The current global economic and political reality presents new and extremely complex challenges for all of us. A retreat into “re-nationalization” of our defense is not a viable alternative.
The Alliance’s evolutionary journey continues. Our next stop is the Chicago Summit Meeting.
Dear Anders, I thank you for being in Athens today to celebrate with us yet another important milestone on Greece’s 60-year journey as a member of the Alliance.
February 16, 2012