Intervention of Ambassador Janez Premoze, Chairman of the Stability Pact of the RACVIAC Multinational Advisory Group

Dear colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank for your kind invitation to attend the 9th meeting of the RACVIAC Multinational Advisory Group here in Ankara. I would especially like to thank Turkey for hosting this important event.

In particular, I would like to thank the Chairman of the Multinational Advisory Group, Brigadier-General Canpolat, for his excellent and dedicated work. I consider this meeting as an essential part of the current preparations for the upcoming Stability Pact Regional Table and Working Table III meetings in Portoro_ / Slovenia on 7-8 June 2004. The events will be also linked with the upcoming 5th anniversary of the Stability Pact that will provide us with the opportunity to critically review our common achievements and the challenges ahead of us in a constantly changing security environment.

By the same token, I would like to use this opportunity to congratulate the colleagues from Bulgaria and Romania for their recent accession - together with my country and other Central European states - to NATO. This is not only a crucial step on their way towards full integration into Euro-Atlantic structures, but this historical step could also be seen as a vital contribution toward strengthening security and stability in the whole SEE region.

Last but not least, I would like to congratulate the BiH SEECP Chairmanship, i.e. the BiH Minister of Defence for the excellent meeting of the SEECP Ministries of Defence that was held last Thursday in Sarajevo. Indeed, this first meeting has initiated a new era in the relations among SEE countries and their respective defence structures.

Coming back to RACVIAC, I would like to reiterate and stress the continued support of the Special Coordinator dr. Busek to RACVIAC: Since its establishment 3 years ago, RACVIAC has matured from a bilateral initiative between Croatia and Germany, to a multinational centre which is located in the region, for the region, and supported more and more by the region. The center has made a significant contribution to arms control training, thereby fostering a comprehensive security dialogue and expanding cooperation in SEE. In this context, I am happy to see that Moldova will soon join the centre as a full member.

I would also like to cordially thank the new Croatian Government for its clearly expressed readiness to continue to fully support RACVIAC and its activities. This, in combination with the continued support and active involvement of the MAG countries, including the donors, is one of the basic preconditions for the successful continuation of the “RACVIAC mission”.

I am glad to see that RACVIAC, apart from its original purpose, also pays great attention to other security and confidence-building related also covered by the Working Table III and in particular by its Sub-Table on Defence and Security Issues. Let me mention in this connection the so-called Ohrid Border Process on Integrated Border Management and Security, SALW or Defence Conversion issues.

In the area of Defence Conversion, there is an agreement within the international community that the retraining of released military personnel and their reintegration to civilian structures, the conversion of military sites / bases and the conversion of military industry in some SEE countries are all critical issues with potentially serious and challenging social, economic and security consequences.

In particular many of our international partners, including NATO, underlined that regional cooperation in this area should be increased as well. With this in mind, RACVIAC could become a possible forum - the Regional Centre / Clearinghouse for Security Sector Reform and Defence Conversion - for discussion and cooperation in the area of Defence Conversion. It could contribute to a thorough analysis of what activities already exist and where there are gaps in Defence conversion. This, in fact, is not a completely new idea. We have mentioned this during a meeting of the Regional National Coordinators of the Stability Pact held in Ljubljana on 11-12 March this year. Another occassion to discuss this topic will be the forthcoming WT III meeting in Portoroz, where Defence conversion will be one of the core subjects of discussion.

Let me now put forward another proposal. During the last meting of the Expert Consultative Group of the Ohrid Border process, we discussed the possibility to provide military personnel of some countries of the Western Balkans region - temporarily deployed on the borders as "border guards"- with relevant training on "border policing". NATO will explore the possibility to take up leadership, my WT III colleagues and OSCE have suggested to think about RACVIAC’s involvement in this regard. We also see a potential role of DCAF in this area.

When discussing all these issues, I am fully aware that neither the current nor the future tasks of RACVIAC could be successfully carried out without the continued support from the side of MAG countries, without the efficient guidance of MAG, including its Chair and - what is also extremely important - its very experienced and highly performing Director of RACVIAC. That is exactly the reason why we consider the process of selecting the new Director of the centre as one of the crucial points of our gathering here in Ankara.

When speaking about the Director of the centre, it would be more than appropriate to use this opportunity and thank Brig.-Gen. Johann Pucher for an excellent job, which has been done by him and by his staff during the last two years. By the same token, as the Chair of WT III, I would like to emphasise my readiness as well as the readiness of my colleagues in WT III to fully cooperate with the newly selected Director.

In view of the multitude of tasks ahead of us, from our point of view, the role of the Chairperson of MAG should be further strengthened. Some ideas on how to do it are reflected in the Draft Terms of Reference on the Multinational Advisory Group (MAG) for RACVIAC. One of the possible ways how to support him, would be to identify "friends of the MAG Chair" and to establish an open-ended meeting of the Group of the friends of the Chair. “The friends” could e.g. assist the MAG Chair in reaching consensus where necessary or appropriate.

Such an informal group could also serve as a platform for exchanging inter alia our views on how to shape RACVIAC's scope of activities in the future. Some of these issues have already been reflected in RACVIAC’s Medium Term Strategy adopted last year and RACVIAC’s Programm for 2004.

By the same token, it is also clear that the overall success of RACVIAC will depend to a large extent on the ability and skills of RACVIAC’s seconded staff. Therefore, RACVIAC’s Personnel Policy paper that is supposed to be endorsed later during the meeting, is of crucial importance.

As a last point, I would like to use the opportunity to mention that my country will take over the OSCE Chairmanship in 2005. Since January this year, we are already an OSCE Troika Member. This offers us the opportunity to deepen existing ties and cooperation between the OSCE and RACVIAC.

I wish all of us stimulating discussions and a successful and pleasant meeting here in Ankara.
Thank you