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NATO Summit

My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall now repeat a Statement made in another place by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence. The Statement is as follows: ““Mr Speaker, with permission I would like to make a Statement on the NATO summit in Riga, which I attended in support of my right honourable friend the Prime Minister. ““Before going any further, I should stress that there was an overwhelming consensus among the leaders of the 26 NATO countries on the crucial importance of strong collective defence to meet the security challenges of the 21st century. We reaffirmed NATO’s central role in defending our countries and our common values. ““The UK had three priorities for the Riga summit. These were: ensuring success in NATO’s military operations, notably in Afghanistan; improving NATO’s expeditionary capability; and improving NATO’s ability to work more closely with civilian partner organisations and with the rest of the international community. ““I am pleased to report that, despite the complexity of some of these issues, and some genuine and legitimate differences of approach between member countries, real progress was achieved in all three areas. The primary focus of the summit was NATO’s current operations. ““Today, more than 50,000 NATO personnel are deployed on six missions on three continents. Over half—32,000—are in Afghanistan, which remains NATO’s top priority. All 26 NATO member states reconfirmed their commitment to the mission. There was a shared recognition that success in Afghanistan is crucial not just for the Afghan people and for regional and global security, but for NATO itself. As the Prime Minister has said, now that NATO has taken on this vital but challenging mission, its credibility is at stake. ““The summit offered an opportunity to take stock of the progress in Afghanistan, particularly since 2003, when NATO took on the mission in the form of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). ““In place of the despotic rule of the Taliban, the country now has a democratic Government. The economy is growing. The infrastructure and basic services are being rebuilt. At last, after 30 years of conflict, the everyday lives of millions of Afghans are visibly improving. According to UN figures,4.5 million refugees have returned to rebuild their lives. ““Of course, at the same time, the mission faces serious challenges. The Taliban and the drug lords are determined to fight to resist progress, and continue to exploit the impunity they have enjoyed in the south. ISAF forces have seen hard fighting over the summer and have taken significant casualties; but they faced down the Taliban and reinforced the Afghan Government in extending legitimate governance and the rule of law throughout the country. ““We know that some member countries have had their reservations about the mission. Their domestic audiences have been concerned about the intensity of the fighting and have asked questions about the prospects for success. But even after this difficult summer, everyone at Riga agreed that the mission in Afghanistan has to succeed. We should not underestimate the significance, at this moment, of all member countries explicitly reaffirming their support for the mission and their common pledge to provide ISAF with the forces and the flexibility to ensure the continued success of this vital mission. ““My right honourable friend the Prime Minister led calls for allies to reconsider how they might do more to provide such forces and flexibility. There was a welcome signal from a number of nations that they would lift the national caveats on the use of their forces. There were also pledges of additional force contributions. I cannot give full details today: Members will have seen reports in the press, but we must wait for national Governments to confirm these commitments in due course. ““I can say that the pledges made at Riga are small steps in the context of a 32,000-strong mission, when the ideal, as I have been impressing on my NATO opposite numbers for months, is that there should be no national caveats at all—which, I am proud to say, is true of our 6,000 personnel in Afghanistan. ““Nevertheless, we should acknowledge that, even if these are small steps, they are steps in the right direction. Before Riga, the secretary-general estimated that 85 per cent of ISAF forces’ requirements had been met. We must continue to work until we reach 100 per cent. ““We must also continue to work on the wider challenge of transforming NATO. The threat facing NATO members has changed dramatically since the alliance was formed in 1949. There is agreement that NATO must transform its capabilities to meet the challenges of a changing world. We must become more agile and more efficient. ““This is easy to say in theory but harder to achieve in practice in the context of an alliance of 26 countries, each with its own approach and its own sovereignty. But there are signs of progress. Yesterday, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe declared the NATO Response Force fully operational. The NRF was established following the 2002 summit to provide a high-readiness force able to deploy quickly, where required, to carry out the full range of alliance missions. This is a key development. Even before it reached full operating capability, it showed its worth in the relief effort following the Pakistan earthquake last year. ““We also agreed new initiatives to increase the strategic airlift available to allies, to enhance co-operation between our Special Forces, to improve alliance logistics support and to streamline the NATO command structure. ““Of course, as I have said countless times from this Dispatch Box, success in the kind of operations that NATO is now undertaking will not be achieved by military means alone. This is especially clear in Afghanistan. The international community needs to work in a co-ordinated way across all the different lines of operation—security, governance, law and order, reconstruction and development, and counter-narcotics—to deliver a truly comprehensive approach. ““But this comprehensive approach is not unique to Afghanistan. It is equally important in Kosovo, where KFOR has been crucial not just in maintaining security but in supporting the political process; and it will be needed in the majority of operations the international community undertakes in future. ““NATO cannot do the work of supporting governance and development by itself, and nor should it. We have to improve the way we work with organisations such as the United Nations, the European Union, NGOs and national Governments who provide the civilian capability. Yesterday we agreed to develop new proposals to do this, improving civil-military partnerships throughout all the stages of operations, from planning to execution on the ground. NATO does not and should not pretend to be the sole means of creating and maintaining security, and in places such as Afghanistan or Kosovo the civilians and military are working for the same aims. This is not a zero-sum game where support for the UN or the EU is a defeat for NATO or vice versa. ““Many commentators feared that the summit in Riga would be at best a waste of time and at worst a failure. These fears were unfounded. The summit reaffirmed the strength of purpose within the alliance and its commitment to remain a force for good in the 21st century. NATO is not perfect. It needs to prepare for tomorrow’s challenges while continuing to adapt to today’s operational needs. It has started the process of transformation and it is the responsibility of all of us, individually and collectively, to support that process. In protecting our security and our vital national interests, there is no alternative to working within international organisations, and over the past 50 years NATO has proved itself to be one of the best we have. It deserves our continuing loyalty and support””. My Lords, that concludes the Statement.