Embassy Events
State Department Official Briefs Slovak Press on Bucharest NATO Summit
March 31, 2008
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Kurt Volker spoke with reporters from Slovak media at the Embassy March 31 via digital video conference, briefing them on the NATO summit in Bucharest. Mr. Volker stressed the U.S. view that NATO has been and will continue to be a valuable contributor to global peace and security. To that end, the U.S. will seek commitments from its partners during the summit in Bucharest to enhance contributions to missions in Afghanistan and the Balkans. For its part the U.S. supports the widest possible enlargement at the NATO summit. Mr. Volker also spoke about strengthening NATO’s “global partnerships,” launched first at the 2006 Riga Summit. In Afghanistan, there are 13 non-NATO countries participating in ISAF, including Australia and New Zealand. In Kosovo, 10 non-NATO countries form part of KFOR. But NATO’s partnerships are much broader than these military efforts. In fact, through programs such as the NATO-Russia Council, NATO’s Mediterranean dialogue and the Istanbul Cooperative Initiative, NATO has 40 global partners.