Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
10BUDAPEST103
2010-02-22 15:38:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Budapest
Cable title:  

HUNGARY'S NON-PAPER ON NATO'S NEW STRATEGIC CONCEPT

Tags:  MOPS MAPP NATO PREL HU 
pdf how-to read a cable
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P 221538Z FEB 10
FM AMEMBASSY BUDAPEST
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4929
INFO RUEHXP/ALL NATO POST COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO PRIORITY 0495
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BUDAPEST 000103 

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CE JAMIE MOORE, RPM

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2015
TAGS: MOPS MAPP NATO PREL HU
SUBJECT: HUNGARY'S NON-PAPER ON NATO'S NEW STRATEGIC CONCEPT

Classified By: Political Officer Jon Martinson, reasons 1.4 b and d.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BUDAPEST 000103

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CE JAMIE MOORE, RPM

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2015
TAGS: MOPS MAPP NATO PREL HU
SUBJECT: HUNGARY'S NON-PAPER ON NATO'S NEW STRATEGIC CONCEPT

Classified By: Political Officer Jon Martinson, reasons 1.4 b and d.


1. (SBU) The MFA's NATO Office Director, Eszter Sandorfi,
provided PolOff a copy of the following Hungarian Non-paper
on NATO's new strategic concept Februray 19.


2. (C) The non-paper text, dated February 2010, follows:

Begin text

-------------- --------------
Core principles, collective defence and new threats
-------------- --------------

- The Strategic Concept must clearly reaffirm our common
commitment to collective defence, as enshrined in Article 5
of the Washington Treaty, as the core purpose of the
Alliance. Article 5 is, and must remain, the most effective
guarantee we have for maintaining peace in the Euro-Atlantic
area.

- We must maintain our preparedness to conduct our core
mission (through, among others, contingency planning, joint
exercises and an effective NATO Response Force - NRF),even
as we continue to assert that the Alliance does not consider
itself to be any country's adversary.

- Security challenges in the decade to come will entail
scenarios not originally perceived under Article 5. Given the
broad range of new security threats, we should maintain a
degree of strategic flexibility sufficient to keep responses
to unforeseen challenges open.

- The formulation of NATO's general approach to new threats
should recognize that there will be instances when the
Alliance should not or cannot be the primary forum for action.

-------------- --
NATO's political role in Euro-Atlantic security
-------------- --

- We must preserve and enhance the Alliance as the foremost
political embodiment of the transatlantic community. The
principles of the indivisibility of our shared security and
solidarity among all allies must guide our thinking about the
role of the Alliance in an increasingly complex global
security environment.

- NATO remains the central pillar of the Euro-Atlantic
security structure. While discussions on how to enhance
interaction among the structure's components can be useful,
there is no room to call into question NATO's place within
the architecture.


- As the very concept of security continues to expand, an
ever broader range of issues, such as cyber defence and
energy security, will require our political attention. In
this regard, Alliance solidarity should be further reinforced
through the essential role played by political consultations,
as defined in Article 4 of the Washington Treaty.

- Besides their defensive and deterrence value, military
capabilities remain a potent political symbol of the
indivisibility of Alliance security. NATO's nuclear policy
should continue to play a key role in this regard. A
potential Alliance missile defence architecture would also be
a powerful political demonstration of how NATO can respond
collectively to new threats.

-------------- --------------
Enlargement, the Western Balkans and Partnerships
-------------- --------------

- We must continue to uphold our firm commitment to NATO's
open door policy. While the European landscape has changed
dramatically in the last 20 years, the basic idea behind
Article 10 of the Washington Treaty has lost none of its
relevance. The purposes and principles of enlargement as
defined in the 1995 Study on NATO Enlargement remain valid.

- We must stress that the accession process is performance-
and merit-driven. States that have gone through the process
must be assured that the final decision on membership rests
exclusively with the allies themselves.

- We need to send a clear positive message to the Western
Balkans, particularly with regard to the open door policy.

BUDAPEST 00000103 002 OF 002


Attending to "unfinished business" in the region means that
NATO will continue to have an important role to play in terms
of maintaining and consolidating security and stability. In
the end, those countries fulfilling the
stringent requirements for membership should be able to join
the Alliance.

- The interconnectedness and complexity of many modern day
security challenges means that NATO and Russia can and should
work together on a range of issues. We should, therefore,
continue the process of enhancing our relationship, keeping
the channels of political dialogue open, while focusing on
pragmatic and tangible cooperation in those areas where we
can further objectives related to genuine common interests.
At the same time, Alliance solidarity and cohesion must be
upheld, and reciprocity emphasized, in our dealings with
Russia.

- Deepening NATO-EU ties must remain on the Alliance's
agenda. We must capitalize on the essential benefits to be
reaped from enhanced NATO-EU cooperation, which range from a
more efficient allocation of limited resources to enhancing
coordination in responses to security challenges.

- NATO's various partnership structures will become
increasingly relevant as security challenges continue to
assume a global nature. A shared vision and shared interests
with respect to common challenges should continue to form the
basis of our partnerships. Recognizing the role partners
have already played in contributing to Alliance operations,
we should remain open to deepening these relationships.

--------------
Capabilities
--------------

- In order to address the entire spectrum of future
challenges, the Strategic Concept should give renewed impetus
to the transformation process. In terms of guiding the
process, the 2006 Comprehensive Political Guidance remains
highly relevant.

- As the Level of Ambition of the Alliance expresses the
ultimate guidance for capability development, its
determination merits our highest political attention. Since
military capabilities provide the Alliance with a specific
tool for achieving its core objectives, it is credible
military capabilities that form the foundations of credible
political ambitions.

- The complex and costly nature of required capabilities
limits the vast majority of member states from developing or
acquiring the full range of assets individually. The Alliance
must therefore adopt innovative solutions to overcome
potential shortfalls. We should, in particular, put a strong
emphasis on the potential advantages of multinational
co-operation in the field
of capability development. It is also important to find the
right proportion between the different funding mechanisms the
Alliance presently employs.

- The new Strategic Concept should also reinforce the
requirement to further strengthen a coherent, coordinated and
mutually reinforcing capability development between NATO and
the EU.

End text
KOUNALAKIS