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Intervention by State Secretary Ms Åslaug Haga, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Baltic and European security

Baltic Sea security Conference, Warsaw, 6.-8.3.98.

Dear friends,

Being the last speaker in the panel, I will far from cover all challenges facing Baltic and European security. I will pick a few- of which others have touched upon some- but not all.

We are gathered to discuss the changing European security architecture. It is fair to say that no-where have these changes been greater than in the Baltic Sea region. In the wake of the political changes in Europe conflict prevention - in the wide sense of the word- has become as important as crisis management. The security agenda as we approach the 21. century is not limited to traditional security policy issues. Security also depend on environmentally sound economic growth, democratic development, social justice and stability. Our objectives must therefore be pursued and coordinated within a broad range of activities and institutional frameworks - there is no quick fix. Our challenge is to make “soft” and “hard” security come together. Both are equally important.

Security in the Baltic Sea area must be regarded within the broader pan-European and transatlantic framework. In my view, there are two main premises that must be fulfilled: Firstly, the recognition of each state's legitimate claim to security and to choose its own security arrangements. Secondly, an inclusive approach which aims to integrate Russia. Stability at the sub-regional and European level are closely linked, and a true partnership with Russia is a precondition to both. Russian ideas regarding a "confidence-building regime" in the Baltic Sea area have been elaborated upon in several statements since they were first introduced by president Jeltsin last spring. These proposals could be considered as a sign of increased Russian attention to, and contribution to, a dialogue on Baltic Sea matters, and thus a positiv development. In our view proposals for confidence-building measures in the Baltic Sea region should be developed within existing fora.

The Nordic countries, the Baltic states and Russia are all members of the OSCE, the Council of Baltic Sea States (CBSS), and have close ties to NATO through the Euro - Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) and the Partnership For Peace (PFP). Russia has entered a close relationship with NATO through the creation of the Permanent Joint Council. This network of ties- which needs to be futher developed- contributes to confidence-building and ultimately to the security of the entire Baltic Sea region.

Norway supports the decision of the Madrid Summit that the doors of NATO will remain open to future members - and Norway will participate actively in the European integration efforts in the Baltic Sea region.

As we explore the security implications of regional cooperation and, in particular, the Baltic Sea region, over the next few days at this seminar, we should keep in mind that regions and sub-regions are political creations as much as geographical entities and they should be viewed as such. We should take advantage of the existing mechanisms for regional cooperation to bring people together in concrete cross border cooperations. People to people contacts across borders in areas like culture, education, health or business creates ties which don`t have an expressed security purpose - but which certainly will contribute to an enhanced security environment.

The Barents cooperation is a interesting creation in this respect. The cooperation is based on a two-pillar system - it has a national pillar which can be seen as more traditional cooperation between Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway, and it has a regional pillar which promotes cooperation at the local level in a wide range of areas. It’s really only the lack of fantasy that puts a limit to what cooperation one could enter into.I dare to say that the regional ,or rather, local pillar of the Barents cooperation has been the most successful. People in the Barents area now come together across the borders in a scale that was unthinkable only a few years ago. We obviously could have achieved more, but I still get enthusiastic about what we have achieved . We are convinced that we should develop this cooperation further and I believe we also could apply our experience from the local pillar in the Barents Co-operation into the Baltic Sea Co-operation.

Taking a broad look at Europe, old lines of conflicts have luckily been replaced by new patterns of cooperation, the EU has started an important enlargement process eastwards, new democracies are emerging in Eastern Europe and regional systems of cooperation are being expanded and strengthened. This is all extremely positive and give raise to optimism. At the same time we are witnessing widespread unemployment and social unrest, ethnic conflicts, waves of refugees and environmental degradation to mention just a few of the challenges we are facing and which have to be adressed in order to safeguard our security environment.

We are in the fortunate situation that the Baltic Sea area is among the most dynamic areas in the world regarding economic development. This provides an unique basis for stability and prosperity. However, increasing social differences between countries and within countries, public poverty and the negative implications that follow can represent a serious future threat to our security. We must not allow this to happen. The Summit in Riga of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, on 22-23 January, focused on energy supply -an area which is extremely important to the stability and long term development of the region. As a major energy producer Norway hopes to contribute in this field . It will be a challenge for the energy ministers when they meet in Oslo this fall, to hammer out a future strategy for closer cooperation.

Organized crime represents another threat, not only to stable economic growth and welfare in the Baltic Sea region, but also to democratic development . We cannot allow organized crime to undermine democratic institutions. The Riga Summit renewed the mandate for the “task force” combating organized crime. This work should be given high priority.

The environment area poses many challenges. Challenges left over from the past as well as new ones occuring from rapid economic growth. Allow me in this context just to emphasize the extremely dramatic consequenses that could occur if we are not able to safeguard nuclear installations and waste material. We can not allow Tsjernobyl to be repeated.

It is maybe something about Nordic mentality that make us focus on the difficulties - I might too have fallen in that trap today. Let me, however, conclude by stressing that if somebody 10 years ago had suggested that we would be sitting here today discussing a completely new security architecture for Europe, we probably would have thought he or she was out of his or her mind. We have plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the future, and we should be eager to take advantage of the many possibilities that the new era has put within reach.

Thank you for your attention.