Intervention at signing of the NATO-Russia Founding Act

Mr. Chairman,

Our signatures today marks a new chapter in the history of European security.

We have signed a balanced agreement. It takes into account the security interests of Russia and the NATO sixteen. It is forward-looking. It allows us to consult closely and work together in the interest of European security.

For people on both sides of the East-West divide, the Cold War meant decades of lost opportunity. With today's agreement we have one more tool to address the real issues that shape the conditions of peoples lives.

I speak on behalf of Norway, Russia's only NATO neighbour. We share a border of 196 kilometers. At the beginning of this decade no more than a thousand people crossed that border. Today the number is close to 100.000.

We are discovering the potential for cooperation, partnership, joint investment and people exchange. Together with our American and European friends we work to overcome the enormous post-Cold War challenges in the economic, environmental and security fields.

President Yeltsin knows both the challenges and the potential. His visit to Norway one year ago highlighted our common ambitions and advanced our common cause. Today's Founding Act will allow us to take new steps on the road of cooperation and partnership.

Mr. Chairman,

The Founding Act embodies a new spirit of cooperation. In the North we have become familiar with that spirit through what we have achieved over the last few years.

Around the Barents Sea we have developed a new kind of regional cooperation drawing in the local communities of Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway. Further south, around the Baltic Sea, Russia meets 10 neighbouring countries in close cooperation addressing a wide range of issues.

The Barents and the Baltic Sea Cooperation help promote democracy, prosperity, environment and security in Northern Europe. It will be a primary goal for my Government to sustain these processes. The Founding Act will allow us to push cooperation and confidence building further, not least in the military field.

Mr. Chairman,

NATO has undergone a fundamental transformation. Yet it will continue to change and adapt to the new security environment. Soon the Alliance will invite new members to join and we will launch the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. NATO is moving with history, working ever more closely with its partners.

A cornerstone in this process will be the parallel development of the NATO-Russia Joint Permanent Council and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. We now have an institutional framework that include all and excludes none.

The NATO-Russia Founding Act is an indispensable part of the new NATO. We should exploit the potential of this document to the full. This is our intention, and we expect it to be Russia's as well.