Ladies and gentlemen,

NATO is relevant. The need for multinational organizations that can provide peace and stability is as great as ever. NATO is unique in the way that it harbours a transatlantic perspective to the current security challenges. My view is that rumours of NATO’s demise are greatly exaggerated. The Alliance has adapted, and is maintaining its relevance.

Still, there is no room for complacency. We need to continuously stimulate and support the process of transformation and adaptation.

Reforming and transforming NATO.

The only way for NATO to stay relevant in the 21 ^st> century is that citizens perceive us as such. People need to feel that NATO is providing security and stability. Consequently NATOs decision makers need to clearly demonstrate that we are attuned to the ever-changing security challenges. This impels us to constantly strive to improve the way we do business.

This has institutional as well as political aspects. On the institutional side, the NATO organization is long overdue for reform. NATO’s Secretary General has successfully put this important issue on the agenda at NATO. As a result, serious efforts have been made to reorganize and streamline NATO. However, I think the Secretary General will agree that this is an extremely difficult task. Deeply entrenched national interests hinders much-needed reform.

The inherent problem is that we are continuously changing NATO in insufficient, incremental steps. In my view we are now at a point where we need to consider a more fundamental approach.

In my opinion, we should take a new and ambitious approach at the way NATO is organised and does business. We need a comprehensive review of how NATO Headquarters, the NATO Command Structure and NATO’s Agencies best can interact and meet the broad spectrum of future tasks. We must also address the need for fundamental change of our rather rigid and inflexible defence planning system.

This work must reflect the Comprehensive Political Guidance and the new Level of Ambition. It must also take into account the fact that NATO is heavily engaged in multiple demanding current operations, and that this changes the character of our Alliance.

A coordinated approach to operations.

On the political side, an important point that needs to be addressed is to improve how we plan for and conduct operations. In the operational theatres where NATO is engaged, military means alone will not provide long-term solutions.

Therefore Allies must adopt a coordinated and integrated approach to operations. Based on experiences from Afghanistan, there are three important steps that should be pursued.

Firstly, Allies must coordinate our civilian efforts in a better way. Today the civilian aspects of our engagements, e.g. in Afghanistan, is often fragmented and uncoordinated. This means that the overall effect is less than the synergetic potential we could yield if Allies coordinated their efforts in a better way. The Norwegian foreign minister raised this issue during the last NATO ministers meeting in New York. Norway will play an active part in providing the right impetus and leverage to bring this highly important issue forward.

Secondly, we need more coordination between civilian and military efforts. Reconstruction and development can not take place without the necessary degree of security. Our military security operations are in vain if reconstruction and development does not follow suit. In order to achieve what we are trying to do, development, humanitarian assistance and political efforts must be seen in conjunction and harmony with the military effort. An overarching policy that captures this mutual dependency should form the basis for NATO’s operations. Agreement on such a policy should be a deliverable for the Riga Summit.

Thirdly, NATO must coordinate better with other actors involved in areas where our forces operate. We must develop better cooperative arrangements with the UN, the EU, the World Bank and NGO’s. Visiting Afghanistan myself, and addressing our troops, it is clear to me that they on a daily basis frequently liaise and cooperate with NGOs and UN-personnel. To me it’s a great paradox that we can not have a dialogue at the strategic, institutional level. In particular we should be more focused on how NATO better can support and cooperate with the UN.

Other organizations, such as the UN and EU, are currently developing policies for civilian-military interface and concepts for integrated missions and operations. The time has come for NATO to do the same. The initiative on Concerted Planningand Action (CPA) is a comprehensive, yet concrete concept that underlines the armed forces’ role as a facilitator for reconstruction and development.

NATO must make progress in further developing and putting into effect the CPA concept. In my view, the key to success in Afghanistan depends on it. I would therefore like to see the CPA formally approved at the Riga Summit by the Heads of State and Government.

In conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen – “Meeting Global Security Challenges” is the overarching and very comprehensive theme for our conference. I believe NATO has come a long way in adapting to new security challenges. However, in order to stay relevant for the 21 ^st> century, we need to continue to improve. The political dimension of NATO, including political consultations and dialogue, must be enhanced. And, we need to improve our performance in peace and stability operations. These two factors will determine whether NATO will play the prominent role in the 21 ^st> century as it did in the 20 ^th> century.