NATO experts praise Latvia's goals and progress on path to alliance
Following five-day work at a variety of Latvia's institutions NATO experts praised the progress made by Latvia on the path to NATO.
The group of NATO experts who were working in Riga to assess progress of Latvia in defence system planning and defence structure in the light of general development of the country concluded the goals of the Latvian government are clearly set out.
Head of NATO expert group
NATO Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Mr Gunter Altenburg and Latvian Defence Minister Mr Girts Valdis Kristovskis said on 11 January 2002 in a news conference that expert work results will be summarised in approximately 200 page report that will be forwarded to governments of NATO member countries to assess readiness of candidates for alliance membership."Latvia has set out the right goals," Mr Altenburg believes citing the ability of the country to complete talks in several areas before the term as a "good sign". He encouraged Latvia on behalf of the alliance to continue pursuing the course Latvia has launched and said the alliance is ready to help with advice in the future as well.
Mr Altenburg said the report will be an "important source of information" for alliance member countries about readiness of the candidate countries on the path to NATO and will to a great extent serve as grounds for making decisions in alliance summit in Prague expected in November. But, the report will not tell NATO countries what kind of decision should be made, he said.
The experts studied Latvia's progress in defence planning, defence structure, staff planning and other defence-related spheres noting it is Latvia's own responsibility as to when the set goals will be attained, Mr Altenburg said.
Mr Kristovskis meanwhile said the reform of the National Armed Forces (NAF) will be completed in 2008 and at this point the biggest attention is devoted to staff, armament, equipment and compatibility with NATO forces.
The upcoming round of enlargement, comparing to the previous round in 1998, is already "a politically accepted phenomena" in the European Union and NATO countries, it is regarded as part of Europe's common security policy architecture while the first round of enlargement required enormous political effort, especially in relations with Russia, said Mr Altenburg.
At that time NATO requirements were not fully clear to the candidate countries and the alliance did not have precisely developed instruments for the assessment of candidate countries readiness. "It was somewhat disorderly process," he said.
Mr Altenburg highly appreciated contribution of Latvia to the fight against international terrorism because in the current international situation "no one can be only security consumer, one's own contribution also should be given". Integration of Latvia in NATO presently is closely linked to building of Europe's security architecture, said Mr Altenburg.
On Friday the group of NATO experts closed five-day working visit in Latvia that lasted from 7 to 11 January 2002. During the visit the experts assessed in detail the work performed by Latvia in implementation of NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) putting an emphasis on Latvia's military capacities and their development planning, defence budget development as well as legal and information safety issues.
Latvia is the first NATO candidate country which is assessed by NATO experts.
BNS http://bnsnews.bns.lv/ (11.01.2002)
