New Challenges - Better Capabilities

Experts specialized in relations with Russia will arrive to Bratislava in order to participate on „New Challenges – Better Capabilities“, security conference which takes place during the informal meeting of NATO Defence Ministers in Bratislava. In the framework of the panel entitled “The future of the relations between NATO, EU and Russia“ experts will discuss their views on mutual cooperation.

Renowned persons from Europe and Russia will participate in the debate, amongst others Eckhart von Kladen, who is a member of the German parliament and the main foreign policy advisor of Angela Merkel (CDU-CSU), who recently won the elections in Germany, or Eugeniusz Smolar, important polish journalist, dissident and expert on international relations. The attendance of Mr. Igor Yurgens, foreign policy advisor of the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, promises a dynamic debate. Moreover, a world-known journalist from The Economist, Edward Lucas, will chair the panel.

The future of relations with Russia has become a hot issue mainly after the last year’s conflict in Georgia and the January gas crisis. For many countries of the Alliance this was a signal that Russia is becoming more assertive in its foreign and security policy. It is determined to enforce influence in its nearest neighbourhood and thus affect security conditions in Europe more actively.

The NATO – Russia Council has showed up as an insufficient tool of convergence with Russia in certain cases and stopped meeting for a certain time after the Georgian conflict. Therefore one could ask a question – how would the upcoming NATO Strategic Conception deal with the question of strengthening Russia, to what extent should NATO involve Russia in its activities, how important it is to be ready for fundamental differences in understanding the security.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen during one of his press conferences admitted that in „few key areas the different opinions will remain, mainly because of the differences in principles and interests. On the other hand, we can build the net of teamwork that will be strong enough to live through these differences“ he added. Rasmussen suggested the developing of common revision of security challenges of the 21st century, so that it would create a basis for sober evaluation of common interests and common threats.

The two-day event is the biggest security conference organised by non-governmental organisation in Slovakia. The conference is organised by the Slovak Atlantic Commission, in cooperation with the Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic and NATO Public Diplomacy Division on October 21 – 22, 2009 in Bratislava. The conference will be broadcasted live at www.ncbc.sk.