| Public Promotion – SMART DEFENCE – the New NATO Concept |
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| Wednesday, 23 November 2011 11:58 |
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The Euro-Atlantic Council of Macedonia (EACM) in cooperation with the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Macedonia, The Embassy of the Kingdom of Netherlands (NATO contact-point embassy), the British Embassy and the Embassy of the Republic of France to the Republic of Macedonia organized a public promotion of SMART DEFENCE – the New NATO Concept. This event for promotion of the new NATO concept aimed to introduce the Macedonian public to the newest processes in the North-Atlantic Alliance. Furthermore, the event was supposed to develop a public debate within the professional circles in the area of security, political and military part. Therefore, at the event were present diplomatic representatives in the country, political representatives of the Ministry of Defence, the military representatives of the highest rank and the key staff in the Army of the Republic of Macedonia, as well as representatives of the academic community and the civil society. The Smart Defence concept is especially related to the European part of NATO that faces bigger and bigger challenges in the defence budget and efficient use of the resources and capacities. The concept of smart defence means building of defence capacities of the collective defence by joint projects and processes. Thus, this would signify more efficient use of the military budgets by pushing the multinational concept. The concept is based on efficient use and resource management, decrease of the double expenses and increased coordination between the partners. Speakers at the conference were:
The minister of defence of the Republic of Macedonia Fatmir Besimi in his speech underlined the support of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Macedonia for the new NATO concept. Among the others, Besimi said: - The integration of the Republic of Macedonia into NATO represents a high political priority of the country. In order to meet this goal continuous and long-term efforts are made in all the areas – political, economic, defence and security. Macedonia has fulfilled the criteria for NATO membership and is completely prepared for undertaking the liabilities and the obligations arising from the membership. - The objectives of the new concept are not sufficient if we are not determined that they should be our obligation. These objectives represent a rational direction for the evaluation of the national defence policy and its adjustment to the requests of the future challenges. Furthermore, the minister Besimi, in front of the other speakers, pointed out that in terms of economic crisis there is a possibility for new concepts that will enable more rational behavior and better results and in line with that he emphasized that in this case we can speak about the three objectives of the "Smart defence" that is "3C – capacity" meaning development of bigger operational capabilities "connectivity" – stronger bond between the member-states and the partners and "commitment" – strong commitment to the full contribution in the euro-atlantic stability and security.
The President of the Euro-Atlantic Council of Macedonia, Mr. Lazar Elenovski underlined the following: - All the countries, even the big ones have limited resources at their disposal for the building of the military capacities. NATO means joint building of these capacities in order to efficiently respond to the dynamic changes in the security environment. Each partner of the Alliance must carry their own part of the burden. The new concept mainly signifies efficient use of the military budgets by forcing the multinational concept. The other speakers, the ambassadors of the United Kingdom, France and Netherlands, Christopher Yvon, Jean-Claude Schlumberger and Mariette Schuurman, respectively, spoke from the aspects of their representing countries and underlined that the implementation of this concept represent efficient and effective use of the limited resources or in one word "common sense". According to the British ambassador, Christopher Yvon, the new concept in regards to Macedonia has arrived at the real time and he emphasized the interest of the country in the strategic concept of NATO and the development of the occurrences within the frames of the Alliance. Mariette Schuurman, the ambassador of Netherlands, pointed out that the issue of "smart defence" is important for each country, whether big or small and that the smart defence is a way of efficient defence management of the countries. Furthermore, she said that only by successful cooperation and coordination, with a multinational approach to this issue, the concept will be successfully implemented. Ambassador Schuurman added that Netherlands and Macedonia are very similar countries because they are small, but nonetheless, give significant contribution to the multination functioning of the smart defence concept. The ambassador of France, Jean-Claude Schlumberger stated: "France has favorably welcomed the Smart Defence initiative of Secretary General Anders fogh Rasmussen. Even after some recent cuts due to the economic crisis, the French Defence budget for 2012 will be increasing, up to 31, 5 billion Euros". According to him, the aim of the Smart Defence concept is to increase the responsibilities of the Allies and push them to develop their capacities, not to dilute them through a common funding. "Spending better, not spending less is a good motto". The event initiated a debate between the participants dominated by the awareness for the need of acceptance of this new concept. After the event, the Ministry of Defence organized a cocktail for the participants. |
The public promotion took place in the Army Hall in Skopje on 21st November 2011 (Monday).