Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
I am very happy that we meet at this panel discussion today. I was not able to make it to Munich when the Atlantic Council hosted a similar lecture in January, but I am glad that I can make up my absence by joining the Atlantic Council here at the Czech Embassy in Berlin.
The title of the panel discussion talks about the Czech and German perspectives on NATO and European security in the run up to the Chicago Summit. So, where do we stand?
The agenda for Chicago is clear: For the United States, the issue number one is Afghanistan; For Europe, the main theme for Chicago is austerity; for NATO secretary general Rasmussen, the headline is Smart Defense and Partnerships. And for Central Europe, on top of these issues, the bottom line for Chicago is interoperability, transformation, Article 5 and solidarity. And these are indeed the subjects I want to cover in my opening remarks.
Although I will speak mostly from the Czech perspective, I dare say that most of the views correspond to the views of our regional partners from Visegrad Four. Last week, I had the privilege to host the V4 defense ministerial in the town of Litoměřice in the Czech Republic.
Among all four nations, there was a sense of commitment and “responsibility for a strong NATO,” to paraphrase the title of the joint V4 declaration presented by the foreign and defense ministers a month ago in Brussels.
So here are my four takes on the agenda for Chicago:
First, on Afghanistan – We should finish the job we started. We need to step up our training and mentoring effort in order to complete the transition process in Afghanistan by 2014. We are determined to stick with our allies. “In together, out together” is the principle that is often raised in discussions on Afghanistan, and it is indeed the Czech policy as well. Next week, my government will discuss and approve a new mandate for the Czech troops for 2013 and 2014. The mandate will also include the prospect for deployment in 2015, in line with the enduring partnership policy of NATO.
The biggest question of the long-term commitment in Afghanistan lies in the issue of sustainability and financing of the future Afghan National Security Forces. NATO cannot pick up the entire check. NATO is a military alliance and not a humanitarian relief organization. What NATO can help with is training and demobilization plans for ANSF when and where appropriate, but let UN and others play their part as well.
Second issue – Smart Defense; I sometimes call it the “smart poetry.” Poetry can be idealist but some poems can make a difference. If we want to get smart defense right, we need to be patient. Defense cooperation takes time to develop. We need to look for long-term projects that are sustainable and that strengthen our collective and individual capabilities and strengthen NATO. All Smart Defense flagship projects (Joint ISR, Air Baltic Policing and Missile Defense) are indeed the kind of collective capabilities that should be endorsed strongly, and there should be no compromises or question marks when it comes to these capabilities.
The Czechs take smart defense very seriously. Not only we have signed up for 17 projects in the smart defense roster, but we have some tangible projects. The Multinational Aviation Training Center, a Tier 1 project for Chicago, will create a comprehensive and standardized training environment for helicopter pilots and ground staff. Our key partners are the United States, Croatia, Hungary and others.
The Multinational Logistics Coordination Center (MLCC) is another Czech asset in smart defense. Based in Prague, the center will play a key role in NATO’s efforts to harmonize logistics procedures such as fuel handling, storage, operations and maintenance.
Next year, MLCC will coordinate a large-scale logistical exercise called “Capable Logistician” taking place in Slovakia. Already now, we have 34 nations and 10 international organizations signed up for the exercise. It will be the largest live logistics exercise of NATO in the past seven years.
There is one another area in which we need to get smart, and that is defense planning. First, we – as NATO members – should start consulting our defense plans with NATO again. Right now, the Czech MOD is finishing a new mid-term plan, the first in last four years. Streamlining and coordination in defense planning will eventually allow us to reach more sophisticated harmonization of defense procurement, resulting in improved joint platforms and possibly savings.
Third – Partnerships. Open door policy is the cornerstone of the partnership dimension, and it should be reaffirmed at the summit. For us, having Western Balkans and Georgia on board is critically important.
But I want to highlight a different aspect of partnerships. As I watch the debates at NATO, sometimes it seems as if our partners were the cure to all problems we face (namely the lack of capabilities). I want to underline that involvement of partners should have its limits.
Partners should not and cannot step into missions or operations pertaining to collective defense of NATO allies. This is against the fundamental premise upon which NATO was founded. You simply cannot “outsource” your collective defense.
This leads me to the fourth point critical for NATO: Solidarity, Article 5, interoperability and transformation; I started my four points with Afghanistan, and I will finish with Afghanistan, but in a different sense. For the past two decades, foreign expeditions such as Iraq or Afghanistan were the main driver behind the transformation of our armed forces, but also the driver behind multinational and regional cooperation.
As we downscale our presence in Afghanistan, it is important that we re-focus ourselves on the core tasks of NATO. The source of transformation must be found in the preparation for the defense of our homelands and Article 5 operations. We need to conduct joint live exercises, and we need to revitalize the NATO Response Force. We have serious deficits in this area. (One good example, the Czechs and Germans indeed worked together in Afghanistan six years ago, but we hardly ever train together here in Europe.)
One exercise is of particular importance in this context – It is Steadfast Jazz that will take place next year in Poland and the Baltic States and will be an Article 5 live exercise. The Czechs indeed will participate with an air component and units assigned for NRF.
And finally, a few words on the EU. You may have noticed that I did not mention the European Union during my remarks when it comes to defense. As you all know, the European Union has developed its “pooling and sharing” scheme to address the capability shortfalls and cuts in the European defense budgets.
Although pooling and sharing is sometimes as poetic as the term smart defense, I am very glad that there have been cases when we managed to find a way how to avoid duplicities between the EU and NATO. One such example is the Multinational Aviation Training Center that I already advertised, which has been confirmed by both ACT and the EDA as complementary.
Avoiding duplicities and stopping the weakening of NATO is critical. Here is why we need to focus on NATO first: the future stability of the EU does not necessarily depend on defense cooperation (i.e. the challenges lie elsewhere), while preservation of NATO as a strong defense alliance is our vital interest. And this is the key message that I want to leave you with tonight.
Thank you very much, and I look forward to your questions.