Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the margins of the NATO summit in Warsaw

Today (9 July 2016), Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier gave the following statement on the margins of the NATO summit in Warsaw:

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I believe that today we succeeded in sending the right signals at our summit meeting in Warsaw; these are directed at the Alliance and beyond, to the West and to the East.

There are, I think, three important messages:

1. Yes, we take seriously the concerns of our eastern Allies, but our measures threaten no one.

2. Yes, we are reinforcing our Alliance’s readiness and posture, but we do not want a Cold War.

3. And yes, we seek meaningful, continuous dialogue with Russia, and this is something we will act on immediately following the summit [through the NATO-Russia Council meeting on 13 July in Brussels].

We have achieved a clear affirmation by the Alliance of its commitment, in letter and spirit, to the NATO-Russia Founding Act. Furthermore, we have achieved that the Alliance’s missile defence system is not – neither now nor at any point in the future – directed at Russia. And most importantly: the primacy of politics remains in place. Dialogue and willingness to engage in dialogue have been defined as a strong, supporting pillar of our strategy.

We can manage to return to the peace order and security architecture that are set out in the Paris Charter, and to the increased security we had after the fall of the Wall and the end of the Cold War confrontation between the two blocs – provided we take seriously both pillars of our strategy, that is, assurance measures and dialogue, and if Russia is willing to constructively engage with us on that basis.

Apart from the major focus of NATO policy vis-à-vis Russia, a number of landmark decisions were taken at the Warsaw Summit:

1. Neighbours in Brussels are becoming true partners: NATO and the EU are finally engaging with one another and have agreed on strategic cooperation. We will thereby take better and more effective action, and there is much we can do to enhance coordination between our military and civilian operations.

2. Operation Active Endeavour in the Mediterranean is becoming Sea Guardian. This closes the chapter of OAE’s activities being defined as an Article 5 operation following the events of 11 September 2001 and opens a chapter of new and closer cooperation with the EU [i.e., its Operation Sophia in the Mediterranean] to combat human trafficking and arms smuggling.

3. Although NATO supports the fight to counter ISIS, it is also maintaining a strategic distance from these activities. We are assisting training efforts in Jordan and Iraq, and we can envisage NATO AWACS support to increase aerial situational awareness in Syria – but NATO is not assuming a lead role.

All in all, we can conclude:

The Warsaw Summit was a good meeting. We took landmark decisions on how to correctly deal with the risks and threats Europe is facing. We reaffirmed and strengthened solidarity among Allies and with our partners. We took balanced decisions, we chose the path of cooperation and dialogue, and we will not escalate any conflicts.

from
http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Infoservice/Presse/Meldungen/2016/160709_BM_NATO_Gipfel_Warschau.html?nn=479796