By Ambassador Alexander Arvizu
We are here to reflect upon the past five years of Albania’s NATO membership, but Albania’s association with NATO is much longer. Albania officially began its journey to NATO by entering the Partnership for Peace more twenty years ago. Following that, Albania received a Membership Action Plan in 1999, which laid out a specific path for joining the Alliance. And through hard work, and the joint effort of all political parties, Albania was able to join NATO ten years later, on April 1, 2009.
Over these past five years, Albania has repeatedly demonstrated its value as a NATO ally, especially by participating in the ISAF Mission in Afghanistan. Albania also contributed trainers to NATO’s small, but effective, training mission in Iraq, and has soldiers deployed in Kosovo with NATO’s Kosovo Force mission. Albania has also been a constructive voice as the Alliance addresses other challenges that we face together in the Trans-Atlantic community. Whether it is piracy off the coast of Somalia or acting under a UN mandate to protect Libyan civilians, Albania has a valued seat at the table.
Looking ahead to the Wales Summit this September, the North Atlantic Council still has not determined the specifics of what will be discussed, but three key themes appear to be emerging.
First, is Afghanistan – how the current NATO mission will conclude. What we have accomplished during the mission and what future NATO may have in Afghanistan beyond 2014. One clear result that we have seen already is that millions of Afghan voters went to the polls on April 5 to vote for a new President – a critical positive step in Afghanistan’s democratic future.
Second is the nature of NATO’s military capabilities – to reflect on the past 20 years of NATO operations and the needs of the future to determine the most important capabilities the Alliance should pursue, especially in a time of economic challenges.
Finally, NATO will examine partnerships, since NATO partners add critical capabilities and diversity that the Alliance needs to maintain an understanding of the security challenges facing the world – and NATO wants to examine how to protect and maintain those partnerships, even when we aren’t operating together daily. The more effective partners for NATO, the greater the possible reach for the Alliance.
Let me briefly address situation in Ukraine. Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine, its illegal occupation of Crimea, and its ongoing efforts to destabilize the Ukrainian government by fomenting unrest in the east are violations of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and a breach of Russia’s core obligations under international law. Russia’s actions threaten international peace and stability. No amount of Russian propaganda or disinformation can obscure the fact that these destabilizing acts are being directed by Moscow. It is critical that we stand together in challenging these violations of international law and imposing costs on Russia for its actions. Russia must not believe that it can play us off one against the other.
Russia’s illegal and illegitimate actions have generated understandable concern among some Allies for their own territorial integrity. They also serve to remind us of the genuine security guarantees that the NATO security alliance offers. To allay those concerns, earlier this month, NATO allies tasked the Supreme Allied Commander to provide visible reassurance that NATO’s Article 5 obligations will continue to be met in land, sea, and air – the United States has already begun to contribute to that mission by adding six F-16s to NATO’s Baltic air policing mission, by deploying twelve F-16s to Poland, and keeping a destroyer in the Black Sea.
It should be clear that maintaining the capacity to fulfill those Article 5 obligations, as well as other missions that only NATO can execute, such as ISAF and Operation Unified Protector in Libya, does not come without cost. Spending on defense budgets throughout the Alliance is too low. As President Obama recently said, in conference with NATO Secretary General Rasmussen during his trip to Brussels last month, “the United States and Europe are going to have to make sure that we are stepping up our game and making the contributions that are required in order for us to give full effect to our NATO obligations.”
The United States recognizes that Albania is committed, in spirit and in heart, to meeting all its NATO obligations. Achieving that reform requires sufficient resources, and at the moment, Albania’s defense spending is too low, hampering its ability to reform and modernize its military even further. I would strongly urge the government to invest more in its defense budget and to resist the temptation to seek cuts which would prevent Albania from meeting its NATO commitments.
Nobody is advocating that Albania purchase modern fighter jets or costly systems it cannot operate and maintain. Yet as a member of the North Atlantic Council, Albania does have national commitments, and the other 27 Allies expect Albania to meet them.
Looking at reform, the U.S. assesses that Minister Kodheli’s efforts to pursue reform and fight corruption have indeed been productive, and the U.S. encourages the continuation of these efforts. At the same time, we recognize that the most lasting contribution to defense reform is to strengthen the foundation for a more modern, mobile, and well-trained NATO-compatible force, which requires high-quality training methods, smart procurement, and recruitment and retention. I urge the Ministry to stay focused on those issues as it continues the excellent work achieved so far.
In addition, the United States supported and contributed to the development of Albania’s Strategic Defense Review, also known as SDR, a document that was drafted under the approval of former Prime Minister Berisha and the Council of Ministers, and which was completed more than one year ago. However, to date, Albania still has not finalized an implementation plan for this document. This SDR is a critical tool in helping the Albanian Armed Forces do more with its existing resources – to be able to implement smart reforms and better spending choices to improve the force’s overall modernization. The SDR should be implemented as soon as possible as there are no valid reasons for delay.
The economic situation here is challenging, and it is tempting to seek out every opportunity to reduce spending, but as the crisis in Ukraine reminds us, freedom is not free, and security does not come without cost. An alliance built around collective defense requires collective effort from all its members.
The path Albania took to achieve NATO membership was lengthy, but it reflected a desire from all parts of Albanian society to join together, to rise above partisan politics, and to reach across party lines for the good of the country. Each of the 28 NATO member states has its own unique democratic characteristics, but that value of working together, despite deep political differences, to advance a nation’s defense or general foreign policy, should never suffer from partisan division or exploitation. The broad support among the Albanian people for NATO demonstrates this point very clearly. And this type of cooperation is a critical characteristic of political maturity that remains just as vital today as it did five years ago.
Albania’s current policy of European integration is an important, challenging, but achievable goal. It is a goal that all major political parties have actively supported and one that the average Albanian strongly favors.
We all recognize the path to realize European integration is a difficult one. It will require lots of hard work, compromise, tough decisions, and determination. Most of all, it will require all parties to commit themselves, to commit their organizations to finding common ground for the good of the nation. People may not always agree on the details of how to accomplish certain goals, but they can and should agree that those goals need to be achieved.
It’s easy to become discouraged, but we should not be. On the contrary, we should be encouraged. Why? Because Albania has made such a commitment before – an achievement that we rightly recognize today. I believe that Albania can build on this success in the future and fulfill its goal of European integration. The United States is fully supportive of this goal and looks forward to working with all the Albanian actors and the other like-minded partners to help the Albanian people realize these legitimate aspirations.
These were the remarks of the U.S. Ambassador to Tirana at a conference this week organized by the Albanian Institute for International Studies to mark Albania’s fifth anniversary of NATO membership.
