“Public Promotion of the NATO Smart Defence Model”
21 November 2011, Army Hall, Skopje

•    Ladies and gentlemen, it is a pleasure to be here today in my capacity as Head of the NATO contact point embassy in Macedonia, to address a topic that is indeed relevant to all nations, especially in times of a changing security environment and financial difficulties.

•    Indeed, all NATO members and candidate members are suffering from the financial crisis. However, the need for a strong military alliance remains. Therefore NATO’s Secretary General Rasmussen has recently introduced the concept of smart defence.Smart Defence is aimed at providing security more effectively and efficiently with less resources: retain capacities and economize at the same time. The way to accomplish this is for nations to work together in a more flexible manner: pool and share capabilities in a well-coordinated way. NATO as a transatlantic alliance, is perfectly positioned to take up this coordination role.

•    By a multinational approach under NATO-flag, a group of countries can work at niche-capacities, without all 28 member states having to chip in. For a small country like the Netherlands,close cooperation with other states is the only way to continue its military activities across the globe. Therefore the Netherlands is supporting Rasmussen’s idea of smart defence.

•    Indeed, for decades we have had military cooperation with our neighbors, particularly Belgium, sharing and pooling resources even before it was tagged “smart”. We just called it “common sense”. Under the new tag, the Netherlands is participating in multinational projects like the center of excellence for education and the multinational logistics partnership for the maintenance of our helicopters. This phased approach in which NATO serves as a catalyst for multinational cooperation can be seen as a very positive step forward. Through specialization and prioritization, nations can economize and at the same time still make a relevant contribution.  Also, it can help to bring down overhead in terms of infrastructure and personnel.

•    In the past 10 years, Macedonia went from a net importer of peace to an exporter of peace through missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia, etc. Its contribution to peacekeeping missions is truly impressive and per capita bigger than most NATO members.The country has pursued reforms to bring its military up to NATO requirements. Macedonia has moved away from a commitment to a large standing army and conventional warfare to flexible force structures designed to cope with a wide range of missions and tasks. Progress made in this field is impressive.
•    Macedonia, a small country like the Netherlands, can contribute even moreto global security if it works closely together with other nations. The smart defenceconcept can be applied here as well, in sync with the developments in NATO. That is why we are speaking about this important topic today. So that Macedonia will become even more effective in exporting peace.