It gives me great pleasure to participate in the inauguration of the Kosovo Verification Coordination Centre. This Centre is further proof of NATO's determination to help establish long-term peace and stability in Kosovo, and indeed in the entire Balkan region.

I would like to express, on behalf of the Alliance and Partner countries participating in the work of the Kosovo Verification Coordination Centre (KVCC), our deepest gratitude to the Authorities of your country for hosting this Centre. We very much appreciate your support of the efforts by the international community to find a lasting political solution for Kosovo. Your support has been steady even in difficult circumstances. This has not gone unnoticed, and I assure you of NATO's continued solidarity. The security of our Partners is of concern to us all.

The Kosovo Verification Coordination Centre will play an important liaison, planning, coordination and information exchange role with the OSCE mission in Pristina. The Centre thus represents another step forward in NATO-OSCE relations and in creating a workable system of mutuallyreinforcing institutions strengthening security for our continent.

The OSCE of course carries the main burden on the ground in verifying compliance by all parties with the provisions of UNSCR 1199 in Kosovo. But the OSCE cannot do it alone. The assistance offered by NATO - through its air reconnaissance and through the NATO-led Extraction Force - is essential for the success of the OSCE's mission. The KVCC, by providing for effective coordination between OSCE and NATO, will ensure that NATO's assistance will be carried out with the effectiveness and the professionalism that have always been the hallmark of this Alliance.

Peace and stability in Kosovo may still be a long way off. Yet the spirit of cooperation we can see at work here today makes me hopeful that a lasting solution ultimately can be found. More than once NATO and its Partners have demonstrated that determination can make a difference. If we remain resolute in our efforts, we will also succeed in this difficult endeavour.

I would like to thank General Amos and the men and women under his command for the excellent work they have done to establish the KVCC.

Again, my heartfelt thanks to our hosts, and my best wishes to the Kosovo Verification Coordination Centre.

(NATO statement 16 November 98)

‘We are not being as efficient as the alliance should be’, US Secretary of Defence William Cohen said in Norfolk, at the conference on the transformation of the defence capacity of the NATO. In his speech before the deputies of the 16 member states as well as Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, Mr. Cohen stressed the importance of improvement in four fields including mobility, the improvement of the survival capacity of the troops and the capacity of longer maintenance of the operations.

The Secretary said that the main elements required in order to achieve these goals are information, the processing and flow of such information and the utilisation by the alliance of the willingness to co-operate and of the technological development. William Cohen also proposed the necessity of the creation of a multinational logistic centre.

There is a need to co-ordinate and standardise the work of the Alliance, in order to ensure the enhancement of the defence capacity of the Alliance. To that end, Mr. Cohen suggested that a senior level managing body should be established, not as a replacement of the existing committees, rather as a means to promote the implementation of the proposals set forth in the Strategic Concept.

In his speech, the Secretary of Defence mentioned the late brigadier general István Szalai. He said Szalai gave proof of his outstanding talent in managing the transformation of the Hungarian armed forces. He also added that although the threat of global conflicts had disappeared, the world still has to face such perils as dictatorships, the reawakening of ethnic hostilities and the spreading of dangerous weapons. Fortunately the co-operation and the commitment that called NATO into being and survived 50 years of the cold war may help the Alliance overcome the difficulties it is facing today.

The new century needs a new NATO. The Washington summit to be held in April will not only be an opportunity to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the military alliance. The presidents will have an opportunity to adjust the defence capacity to meet the challenges of the next fifty years.

Besides the achievements, the operations in Bosnia also showed some weaknesses of the NATO: more flexible, more mobile forces will be needed in the future. Forces that can be used as co-ordinated, powerful and co-operative troops in the missions of the 21^st century.

(USIS, November 1998)