Remarks of Defence Minister Kodheli at the Vilnius Conference 2014

: Published: Thursday, 03 April 2014 20:38

Dear Colleagues good evening,

Many things have changed ten years after the largest increase of membership in NATO. Albanians and Croatians have joined the Alliance. We are now a group of 28 countries with a strong will for peace, stability and security all around the world. The nature of conflicts NATO has faced in this decade has been wide in range and geography, but it seems that everything is going back to nationalistic conflicts, with a return of East-West differences.

Right at the borders of our Alliance, we are facing two major conflicts. The annexation of Crimea by Russia is of major concern for all the allies. We all know the dimensions and perspectives of the soviet empire, with all its implications. And this is not a crisis of the region, but implicates everyone in this room and beyond. Meanwhile, Syria has brought in our immediate borders what we fought against in Afghanistan and Iraq. A rogue state in the middle of a civil war, with many implications due to radical groups involved. We live in a realistically cruel world and we shouldn’t forget it.

Too many things happening, lots of involvement and need for action. We all are aware of the never-ending will to strengthen our collective defense and reinforce our transatlantic bond. And since NATO is more than a military Alliance, we should look also in our own backyard.

There is an area in Europe devastated by nationalistic conflicts during the last decade of the 20th century. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, together with Macedonia and Montenegro have not yet joined the Alliance. All these 5 countries have their different path towards the Alliance, with different wills and agendas. From those whose existence was assured by NATO’s direct involvement but still are fragile in building up their democracies, to strong candidates that had to join since 2009.

To make things more worrying, this area of our continent is not integrated into the European Union as well. NATO Allies and European partners have their doubts, economic constraints, political agendas and social worries. But in these times of the return of nationalistic conflicts, I think that integration is the only tool for preventing further conflicts.

Integrating the remaining Balkan countries into our community, I strongly believe will make our Alliance a better group of countries with common values for a collective defense. This area is our continuity. We share the same European values and we all have the same goals for the future. If there is more political will, and I repeat, just more political will, no conflicts can be exported from the East. So, we will be more concentrated in our Alliance’s borders and able to tackle all concerns coming, the primal threat of this Alliance.

Thank you.