Wydarzenia 2006

Daniel Fried, asystent sekretarza stanu ds. Europy i Eurazji, były ambasador USA w Polsce w latach 1997-2000

By Vince Crawley
USINFO Staff Writer

The United States and European nations will continue to work together closely to advance freedom, security and democracy in “far-flung” regions well beyond the traditional borders of Europe, a senior U.S. diplomat says, previewing U.S.-European relations for 2007.

Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, met with reporters December 12 at the State Department to discuss trans-Atlantic cooperation in Afghanistan and Iraq, the status of the Kosovo province of Serbia, U.S. relations with Russia and other issues.

In contrast to the Cold War era -- when trans-Atlantic relations focused on threats within Europe -- today’s U.S.-European relationship “is concerned with far-flung areas around the world,” Fried said. “This is where the problems are. This is where the opportunities are to advance freedom, security [and] prosperity.”

According to Fried, three recent diplomatic meetings underscored current and future U.S. cooperation with Europe:

• The second annual Forum for the Future meeting held in Bahrain November 11-12 brought together governmental and nongovernmental representatives from the countries of the Middle East, North Africa and the Group of Eight (G8). Civil-society leaders there spoke of a strong demand for reform and democracy across the Middle East, Fried said. “Here, overlooked by many, is a European-American consensus that we should be supporting these voices, these groups that call for change,” Fried said. (See related article.)

• The November 28-29 NATO Summit in Riga, Latvia, focused largely on the issue of the United States and Europe working together to support Afghanistan. The 32,000 troops of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force now provide security throughout the country of 31 million people. Fried said the idea of U.S. and European military leaders discussing a joint large-scale military operation in Afghanistan would have been “dismissed as utterly ludicrous” before September 2001. (See related article.)

• On December 4-5, senior ministers from 56 member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) met in Brussels, Belgium, to discuss European and Eurasian issues. The meeting was unsuccessful in finding OSCE solutions for so-called “frozen conflicts” in Georgia and Moldova, Fried said, “but we worked together successfully, as it turned out, and happily with Russia to defend” the OSCE’s election-monitoring group “This showed that Europe and the United States take seriously our responsibilities to work with the OSCE to advance democracy … across Europe, and in particular the places where democracy is the least advanced and therefore needs the most help.” (See related article.)

At the Riga Summit, NATO invited Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia to join the Partnership for Peace, which allows nonmember nations to cooperate formally with the alliance. Until now, Serbia’s entry into Partnership for Peace has been blocked because ethnic Serb leaders indicted for crimes in the 1992-1995 Bosnia war remain at large, Fried said.

“NATO determined that it would be in the interests of Europe … to make clear to Serbia and the Serbs that they did have a future with Europe,” Fried said. “Serbia … needs to embrace a European future. I’m sorry that we’re going to face the choices that we’re all going to face in 2007. There was a better way. But [former Serb President Slobodan] Milosevic destroyed old Yugoslavia, and we must make the most of [today’s] circumstances.”

KOSOVO STATUS A PRIORITY FOR 2007

The Partnership for Peace decision was connected to an upcoming decision on Kosovo. Fried told reporters that Kosovo’s future international status “will be one of the major issues of 2007.” The province has been administered by the United Nations since 1999, and U.N. talks have been under way to determine whether Kosovo will be granted independence or remain a part of Serbia. The U.N. mediator in Kosovo, former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, plans to announce his recommendation shortly after Serbia's January 21, 2007, election.

“The people of the Balkans need clarity about the future and the way ahead,” Fried said. “They need and deserve a clear road to Europe. They need and deserve leaders who will take them from the past into a better future.” And, he added, “Kosovars deserve clarity about their future.”

Fried also said the United States continues to seek regional cooperation with Russia. U.S. and Russian negotiators work well on issues relating to nonproliferation and Kosovo, where Russia advocates protecting the minority Serb community, he said. “It’s always important to remember that U.S.-Russia relations now -- the disagreements notwithstanding -- cover some of the world’s most important issues, and we look forward to working with Russian wherever we can.”

The Bush administration also looks forward to Germany’s six-month presidency of the European Union, beginning in January 2007, as well as Germany’s yearlong presidency of the G8 in 2007, he said.

• Pełny tekst wystąpienia Daniela Frieda
• Stany Zjednoczone i NATO