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The Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association has the honour to present its REPORT on the Spring Session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, held in Berlin, Germany, May 25-27, 2008. The Canadian delegation was represented by the Association’s Chair, Mr. Leon Benoit, M.P., Senator Raynell Andreychuk, Senator Jane Cordy, Senator Joseph A. Day, Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, and Mr. Scott Brison, M.P. OUTLINE This year’s Annual Spring Session was the third held in Berlin. The first came four years after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1993, with 16 member nations of the then North Atlantic Assembly. In November 2000, Berlin again hosted the 46th Annual Session of the newly re-named NATO Parliamentary Assembly which by then included 19 member parliaments. This year, the now 26 delegations from NATO member countries met again, along with legislators from more than 20 non-member parliaments, including Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Altogether, about 340 parliamentarians participated. Assembly President, José Lello opened the plenary meeting and was followed by speakers Klaus Wowereit, Governing Mayor of Berlin and Göran Lenmarker, President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. These opening remarks were followed by question and answer sessions with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer; Supreme Allied Commander Europe General Bantz John Craddock and Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The Berlin meetings were also the third time that the NATO PA proved a forum for the discussion of women in the armed forces. This lunchtime discussion was hosted by the Canadian Delegation to the NATO PA, and was attended by some sixty participants. Chaired by Senator Jane Cordy, the discussion had the aim of drawing the attention of the parliamentarians to the need to boost the presence of women on the front lines of peacekeeping missions. According to presenter Charlotte Isaksson, Senior Gender Advisor Swedish Armed Forces, taking gender into account is an essential step in the preparatory phase of any military deployment. Too many operations already underway lack an “overall vision” and the question of women is still often neglected in the drawing up of operational plans. However, the speaker also observed that there was a more marked awareness in the chains of command of how essential it was to have women as part of the regular forces. Women obtain “better results” not only when talking to women and girls on the ground but also when dealing with the natural hostility of the local populations with regard to foreign armed troops. Ms. Isaksson also stressed that, despite the ongoing shortfalls, senior officers have become aware of the implications of this issue and have acquired a better understanding of United Nations resolution 1325, which explicitly mentions the effects of armed conflict on women and highlights the importance of the participation of women in the peace process. Participants also heard from Anja Ebnoether, Deputy Director at the Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (Geneva) who presented a number of documents, published by the Centre, and which were intended to improve the understanding of gender issues and to adapt this concept to post conflict situations. She also described the enormous difficulties encountered in recruiting women into the Afghan National Police and the efforts of the international community to resolve the problem. She also called upon Parliamentarians to spare no effort in making their own assemblies aware of the need to establish policies within their countries’ armies on this issue. During the ensuing debate, reference was made to the difficulty of recruiting women, while at the same time attention was drawn to the efforts of Hungary, France and Spain, whose female enrolment numbers have doubled since 2000. The Defence and Security Committee heard from Daniel P. Fata, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for European and NATO Policy, US Department of Defence, on the matter of the US perspective on the Bucharest Summit. With respect to Alliance efforts regarding, Afghanistan he noted that the adoption of the NATO strategic vision document and the development of a political-military implementation plan was a remarkable outcome. He also underlined the importance of the additional contributions offered by Allies, most notably France. Among other initiatives taken with regard to defence capabilities, Mr. Fata called for Allies to raise defence spending to the agreed benchmark of 2% of GDP, and noted that the US Defence Secretary had proposed increases of 0.2% of GDP annually towards that goal. Regarding NATO enlargement, he expressed disappointment that Membership Action Plans (MAPs) were not granted to Georgia and Ukraine at Bucharest. He pointed out that MAP was just a step in the membership process, and even though the two countries were not ready to join the Alliance as members, they were, in his opinion, ready for the membership Action Plan. Even so, he considered the language adopted for the summit declaration on this issue a step forward. In concluding his presentation, Mr. Fata focused on the role of the NATO PA in supporting the Alliance’s efforts. He was convinced that the Assembly’s members, in their roles as MPs, were in a perfect position to educate their colleagues and constituents, as well as develop new initiatives to propose to both their governments and the Alliance. He underlined the importance of strategic communication and public diplomacy, encouraging members to ensure deploys felt supported at home. Members then went on to a discussion of the Assembly’s Contribution to NATO’s Strategic Concept, followed by consideration of the Committee’s various draft reports. Thereafter, there was a panel presentation on Security Developments in Afghanistan, featuring Lieutenant General Karimi, Chief of Operations, Afghan National Army, and Air Marshal Christopher H Moran, Deputy Commander, NATO JFC Brunssum. General Karimi committed himself to continually improving the army’s capabilities and training and suggested that in order to be an effective partner for the Western forces in achieving security the ANA needs to be larger than currently planned. He also hoped that the future role for ISAF would be one of primarily training and mentoring Afghan’s security forces as they became increasingly capable of leading and sustaining operations independently. Air Marshal Moran provided the operational perspective on the situation in Afghanistan. He outlined ISAF’s mandate, and argued that, in his view, was no limit on the mandate to help ensure a secure environment for the Afghan government, the UN and other international actors. He went on to define four phases of incremental development in Afghanistan, and suggested that we are currently entering phase 3 (stabilization) and that the Alliance needed to prepare for phase 4 (transition). As a consequence the Alliance needed to think about how best to prepare the handing over of power to the ANA. Moran also emphasized the continuing challenge of coordination between the various civilian and military agencies in the country. He concluded that while progress is slower than one would like, it is taking place. He concluded by suggesting that it was important that participating members press their heads of state and governments to take responsibility for implementing their pledges. The Committee also heard from Dr. Franz Joseph Jung, Minister of Defence of the Federal Republic of Germany on the matter of Transatlantic and NATO-EU Relations. The Defence Minister proceeded to outline the new threats and challenges facing NATO. While discussing out of area missions he pointed out that the Bucharest summit was important in providing a clear direction for ISAF. Regarding NATO-EU relations, Jung reminded members of recent statements on a strong European defence policy made by the Presidents of the United States and France. He considered this a positive development and went on the underline that such a policy must be advanced in cooperation with NATO. The Joint Meeting of the Science and Technology Committee and the Committee on the Civil Dimension of Security, heard from a panel on the matter of European Energy Security and the role of Russia. Panel members included Dr. Roland Götz, Researcher, Research Division, Russian Federation and CIS, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, and Dr. Margarita Balmaceda, Associate Professor, John C Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University, New Jersey, USA. Dr. Götz presented current and future trends in energy supply and demand in Europe with a focus on oil and gas and the key role played by Russia in contrast to earlier forecasts. He argued that oil consumption is not expected to increase significantly over the next 20 to 30 years in Europe. Nearly one third of the oil consumed in by Europeans comes from Russia. According to Götz Russian oil deliveries to Europe should remain stable in the future while Europeans are more likely to import from the Caspian area. Dr. Balmaceda focused her presentation on the elements of energy dependence, in transit countries of the former Soviet Union. The network of pipelines from former Soviet republics is connected to Russia which has succeeded in taking control over the energy resources market (gas and oil) as well as the distribution infrastructure. While energy dependent states have attempted to diversify their supplies by developing links with Central Asia, the impact of these policies has been largely undermined by the monopolistic contractual relations of Russia with Central Asian countries. Russia, through Gazprom, has also successfully established intermediary companies in the post-Soviet space. Geographical diversification is therefore not enough and should be complemented by contractual diversification. After consideration of its various draft reports, the Committee entered into a discussion on the Assembly’s contribution to the next NATO strategic concept. Senator Pierre Claude Nolin (Canada) argued that a new strategic concept should take into account five major points: · NATO must focus on Article 2 of the Treaty, i.e. economic development as an integral element of security; · Environmental concerns must be incorporated into security considerations; · NATO must take into account the specific interests of countries that are located in the north; · NATO should develop clear parameters regarding burden sharing; · NATO must rethink and deepen its understanding of its work with the EU. Along similar lines, Jan Arid Elingsen (Norway) argued that NATO must clearly define its goals before undertaking a new mission and should explain them to local communities (voters). NATO must address the problem of cyber attacks and improve its cooperation in that field. Finally, he suggested that NATO must address the issue of energy security. The Economics and Security Committee heard from Douglas Bereuter, President of the Asia Foundation and former President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Mr. Bereuter explained the mission and structure of the Asia Foundation. He noted that the Foundation operates principally as a grant-maker working through Asian civil society and governmental partners. Its mission is to “assist in the development of a peaceful, prosperous, just, and open Asia-Pacific region.” Bereuter explained that the four core areas of competence included: · Economic reform and development; · Governance, law, and civil society, including election training, provision of observers, etc; · International relations; · Women’s empowerment, including greater access to education and the justice system, as well as the fight against the trafficking of women and children. Mr. Bereuter also provided an overview of the Foundation’s work in Afghanistan. He noted that, while progress has been made, major efforts were still needed to strengthen the core institutions of government in order to overcome challenges to the credibility and legitimacy of the government. He also suggested that the UN was playing a vital role and that, despite a lack of resources, it has established a good deal of credibility for itself. After consideration of its various draft reports, the Committee went on to hold a discussion on the Assembly’s contribution to NATO’s New Strategic Concept. Mr. Benoit (Canada) noted that there was a need to focus on the problem of resource distribution and that it was important to integrate the military side of matters with aid distribution. The Political Committee began its session by considering the draft report on NATO’s Future Political Agenda, presented by Senator Raynell Andreychuk (Canada). The introduction of the report was followed by a wide ranging discussion. In response to the comments made, Senator Andreychuk noted that she agreed that the NATO-EU relationship was different from NATO’s relationship with other international organizations. She added that the updated report would expand the section that addresses NASTO-EU relations and that she would consider making it a separate chapter. Senator Andreychuck also noted that success in Afghanistan and the Balkans necessitated closer cooperation between the two organizations. She also affirmed her support for an open door policy toward Georgia and Ukraine.
Respectfully submitted,
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