Dear Secretary General,

Dear Ministers of Defence,


At the very outset, I would like to greet you and express my pleasure for having the honour to join you at this exceptionally important meeting.

I would like to underline that in today’s world of globalization, there is no space for drawing borders. This is not the time for selfishness, neither for partial approaches and solutions. This is not the time for making distinctions; on the contrary, this is the time for intertwining and binding.

In this context, I would like to explain and acknowledge the commitment of my country to the future of Afghanistan. Although geographically distant, Afghanistan is our priority, in the same way as it is a key priority to the Alliance itself. Our dedication to this crisis region, which is only one of the many hot spots in today’s world, reflects our awareness, our experience and our strategic priorities.

Our present contribution to Afghanistan is indeed significant in providing security, as well as in building the security capacities of Afghanistan. During my visit to Afghanistan in April this year, I was especially proud to see for myself that our peace troops do an excellent job in conducting their assignments as guards of the ISAF HQ, instructors in the OMLTs, members of the A-3 team, as well as military medical experts within the joint Macedonian – Norwegian medical surgical team.

Furthermore, I am particularly proud for being able to announce that our contribution to Afghanistan, which was already significantly increased last December, will be additionally reinforced in the future. Namely, the Government of the Republic of Macedonia has demonstrated its will by declaring two additional platoons in Afghanistan as of 2010, together with the troops from the Vermont National Guard for the training of the Afghan Security Forces. This forthcoming reinforcement of our contribution will entail an increase of our current deployment by over 40 percent.

I hope that our example will re-energize our joint efforts in Afghanistan. At the same time, we hope to reach our place among the equals before long, as in addition to completing the security architecture of the Alliance in the Balkans, this will provide an additional impetus for our country to further contribute and expand the goal we all share.

Thank you.