Public debate on NATO’s future from Baltic prospective

Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak in a comprehensive speech highlighted the International community’s efforts on transferring security responsibility from International forces to the Afghan security forces. He also emphasised on the importance of training and equipping of Afghan National Army and National Police forces according the NATO standards. He thanked the International community and especially NATO, for their support to increase the number of soldiers in the Afghan National Army, National Police and equipping them with modern weapons. Abdul Rahim Wardak Minister of Defence of Afghanistan said: “At the moment Afghan National Army is in the front line of war against International terrorism and has the lead responsibility in military operations in Afghanistan.”  

In addition to key speeches of Abdul Rahim Wardak, Minister of Defence of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and Dr. Karl A. Lamers, President of the Atlantic Treaty Association, two discussion panels were launched as well.
The main topic of first panel discussion was: “What Baltic countries expect from NATO’s New Strategic Concept” with the participation of Dr. Karl A. Lamer, President of the Atlantic Treaty Association, Mr. Toms Baumanis, Chairman of the Latvian Transatlantic Organisation Board, Mr. Sven Mikser, Chairman of Estonian Parliament’s Foreign Affair Committee and Mr. Petras Austrevicius, Deputy Chairman of European Affairs Committee of Lithuanian Seimas. In this panel, the panellists primly focus on the tremendous changes in the International security environment and the nature of threats.

The discussion in the second Panel was based on “Afghanistan – NATO’s solidarity test” held with participation of Ambassador Manizha Bakhtari, the Afghan Ambassador to the Nordic countries, Mr. Imants Lieģis, the Minister of Defence of Latvia, Mr. Jaak Aaviksoo, the Minister of Defence of Estonia, Ms. Rasa Juknevičienė, the Minister of Defence of Lithuania, Prof. Dr. Christoph Zöpel, the former State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Germany and Professor at the University of Dortmund.

The main debates on the second Panel were based on NATO’s strategy toward Afghanistan. The Panellists also discussed the role and challenges of Baltic countries. They reviewed different ways to prevent the defeat of NATO and other International countries in fight against terrorism. They also emphasised on the importance of greater cooperation and coordination in the fight against terrorism.
Defence ministers of the Baltic countries also expressed their concerns about the economic crisis in Europe. But the query that all participants approved was to support NATO’s military presence in Afghanistan.

Ms. Rasa Juknevičienė, Lithuanian Defence Minister said: "We Lithuanians owe to Afghan People. In fact, today our freedom is because of sacrifices of Afghan Nation during the fight with Former Soviet Union; therefore we should not leave Afghanistan alone in this critical time.”

During panel discussion Ambassador Manizha Bakhtari said: “Strong parliament and other democratic institutions, freedom of speech and variety of media can be the answers to our today’s topic ‘Afghanistan – NATO’s solidarity test’. We can find out our answer if we focus on the achievement of Afghanistan Government with generous support of our international allies. Today Afghanistan is experiencing democracy, the existence of a modern constitution with Islamic principles and values of international civil society are the achievements that Afghanistan could not have obtained with out the help and support of International Community’s presence in Afghanistan. Today, millions of Afghan children go to schools, the access to the health care services has increased from 8 % to 85 % in past 9 years and we definitely can count a lot of other big and essential achievements.

Ambassador Bakhtari continued: “We should not disregard the challenges that Afghanistan is facing today. Currently training and equipping of the Afghan security forces are the priorities of Afghan government. Afghan government together with their International allies are working to transfer the responsibilities of maintaining of security to Afghan Security forces from the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. Afghan National Army is already taking the lead role in the military operations and control of the Afghan borders.” Ambassador Bakhtari also emphasized on the importance of civilian casualty during the military operations by the International forces and said that victory in war against International terrorism is not possible without the support of Afghan people.