Dr. Karl Lamers
President of the Atlantic Treaty Association (ATA)
Vice-President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
We need to explain people why is NATO doing what is doing.
Mr. Lamers, what are you future plans as a newly elected ATA President and what are ATA plans?
Most important thing is to bring the mission to the people in our countries: what does NATO stand for, what are we doing, why are we sometimes very far away of the borders of our country. We all share common words like democracy, freedom, peace, tolerance and therefore it is the biggest task to win the minds and hearts of people for that for what is NATO doing.
Only if we stand together side by side, gives us a chance to master major challenges.
What are you expecting from upcoming NATO summit to be held in Strasbourg-Kehl and what will the role of ATA there be?
Next NATO summit will be in Germany and in France, in Strasbourg and Kehl and it will be the first meeting with new-elected president Barack Obama. We will look forward to the big missions of NATO. What we can do together to master the big challenges of today and of tomorrow: international terrorism, proliferation of mass destruction weapons and the problems of failed and failing states. Only if we stand together side by side we have a chance to master all these challenges. And that would be very good signal for this time and for the future.
Finding new ways of communication with young people will be YATA's main goal.
Atlantic Treaty Association during 54 years of its existence did a great job in approaching people. What can do ATA and YATA do more to communicate security issues to a broader public?
ATA is a great association and I am very happy to be the new president of this association. It connects people from more than 40 countries all over the world and it is our task to win especially young people to work together. We have to go new ways, alternative ways to bring our missions to people, not always to meet in hotels to make seminars but sometimes to go to places where people meet and to make events with infotaining character. And also we should be open for new ways of communicating: to get new access to media. In this way we will find access to young people because we have to win them and to communicate on our mission.
Transcript by Kristína Vaníková (Slovak Atlantic Commission)
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