1955 2015 60 years of parliamentary diplomacy 60 years of parliamentary diplomacy The idea of engaging Alliance Parliamentarians in collective deliberations on the problems confronting the transatlantic partnership first emerged in the early 1950s. The Assembly’s creation reflected a desire on the part of legislators to give substance to the premise of the Washington Treaty – particularly Article 2 – that NATO is as an Alliance of democracies. Sir Geoffrey de Freitas (United Kingdom) President of the North Atlantic Assembly 1977-1978 As early as 1951, he called for the Assembly of the Council of Europe to be transformed into an Atlantic Assembly which, he believed, should have a formal consultative role within NATO. Mr Finn Moe (Norway) Senator Guy Gillette (United States) Chairman of the Norwegian Parliament’s Foreign In 1952, he was a participant in the Affairs Committee, and one of the co-organizers meeting between American and Canadian of the first Conference of Members of Parliament legislators which unanimously called for the from the NATO Countries creation of a NATO parliamentary Assembly. In 1953, at the Copenhagen International Study Conference on the Atlantic Community, he drafted the resolution which called for the creation of an advisory conference of NATO parliamentarians. The first “Conference of Members of Parliament from the NATO Countries” was held at NATO Headquarters at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris on 18-22 July 1955, bringing together 158 parliamentarians from 14 NATO nations. The conference elected Senator Wishart McL. Robertson of Canada as its President, and agreed to establish a Continuing Committee – the precursor of the Standing Committee – consisting of the President, three vice- Presidents, and one representative from each delegation. It also decided to appoint a small, part-time secretariat, initially based in London until it moved to Paris in 1960. 60 years of parliamentary diplomacy In 1956, the NATO Committee of Three’s Report on Non-Military Cooperation in NATO recommended closer relations between NATO and the parliamentary conference. 58. (…) the formation of national Parliamentary Associations and the activities of the Conference of Members of Parliament from NATO countries have contributed to the development of public support for NATO and solidarity among its members. 59. In order to maintain a close relationship of Parliamentarians with NATO, the following arrangements are recommended: a. that the Secretary General continue to place the facilities of NATO Headquarters at the disposal of Parliamentary Conferences and give all possible help with arrangements for their meetings; b. that invited representatives of member governments and the Secretary General and other senior NATO civil and military officers attend certain of these meetings. (…).” Committees were established during the second conference in 1956. In 1958, the number of Committees was set to five – Economic, Cultural Affairs and Information, Military, Political, and Scientific and Technical. Although committee titles and terms of reference have evolved over the years, this basic structure remains today. The 12th Conference unanimously agreed to rename the organisation as the North Atlantic Assembly. In December 1967, the North Atlantic Council (NAC) authorised the NATO Secretary General to strengthen co-operation with the Assembly. Since then, the NATO Secretary General addresses Assembly sessions, and responds in writing to the recommendations and resolutions adopted by the Assembly. Following France’s withdrawal from NATO’s military structure in 1966, NATO and the NAA moved their respective headquarters from Paris to Brussels The leaders of Allied governments, in their Declaration on Atlantic Relations, recognised that: “The cohesion of the Alliance has found expression not only in co-operation among their governments, but also in the free exchange of views among the elected representatives of the peoples of the Alliance." This declaration endorsed the work of the Assembly without mentioning it directly. Leaders of the US Delegation, Senator Jacob Javits, Congressman Wayne Hays with Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, greeting Assembly member, Piet Dankert (Netherlands) and other members In 1980, the Assembly began holding two plenary sittings each year. With the introduction of a plenary session in the spring in addition to the autumn annual session, the pattern of Assembly activities was set to remain largely unchanged until the end of the Cold War. 60 years of parliamentary diplomacy In the late 1980s, the Assembly reacted promptly to a rapidly changing security environment. By reaching out to Central and Eastern Europe, involving legislators from countries in the region in co-operation and dialogue, and assisting them in exercising effective parliamentary oversight and control, the Assembly made a vital contribution to the construction of a more stable, secure and democratic Europe. First Assembly visit to a former Warsaw Pact country. The Sub-Committee on Central and Eastern Europe travels to Budapest at the invitation of the Hungarian National Assembly. First Assembly visit to Moscow At the Annual Session in London, the Assembly adopted Resolution 224 on ’New Regional Responsibilities for a Transformed Alliance’ which created the new status of ’associate delegation’. This status allowed the integration of parliaments from Central and Eastern Europe into Assembly activities before the establishment of Assembly President Charlie Rose (United States)with the leaders of the equivalent ties by NATO itself. delegations of the three newly independent Baltic states taking their place as associate delegations, Madrid, 1991. Then President of the Assembly Congressman Charlie Rose and Senator William Roth initiated a substantial programme of practical assistance to the partner parliaments with a particular focus on the development of appropriate civil-military relations. Charlie Rose William Roth The Rose-Roth initiative remains today the Assembly’s primary tool for engagement with delegations from non-NATO member countries. The first Rose Roth seminar was held in Lithuania in a tense environment with Soviet troops still present in the country Sandbags in the Lithuanian parliament as a precaution against further violence, December 1991. 60 years of parliamentary diplomacy In 1996, the Assembly established a Mediterranean and Special Group (GSM), a forum for co-operation and discussion with parliaments from the Middle East and North Africa. Meeting of the Mediterranean Special Group with the Marrakech Chamber of Commerce, during a visit to Morocco, April 2004. Countries aspiring to become NATO members used the Assembly as a channel to build support for their integration into Euro-Atlantic structures. The requirement for parliamentary ratification gave an additional emphasis to Assembly debates on enlargement. The Assembly was directly concerned with assisting in the process of ratification of the Protocols of Accession signed at the end of 1997, which culminated in the accession of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to the Alliance in March 1999. At the historic Madrid Summit, in which Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland were formally invited to accede to NATO, then NATO PA President, US Senator William Roth, addressed NATO Heads of State and Government. The invitation from NATO leaders to Senator Roth represented a tacit acknowledgement that the Assembly had played a key role in paving the way to enlargement, and would have a central role in encouraging parliamentary ratification of enlargement. Since then, NATO PA Presidents have been invited to address all NATO Summits. In 1998, the Assembly established a Joint Monitoring Group with the Russian parliament to oversee implementation of the NATO-Russia Founding Act and a Joint Monitoring Group with Ukraine to oversee implementation of the NATO- Ukraine Charter on a Distinctive Partnership. The NATO-Russia Joint Monitoring Group at NATO headquarters being briefed by senior NATO and Russian military representatives, 1998. In 1999, the North Atlantic Assembly was renamed as the “NATO Parliamentary Assembly” to take into account the profound transformation it had undergone since its creation. NATO Press Service file No. 16938-05 NATO Press Service file No. 16943-19 The NATO PA created a New Parliamentarians Programme aimed at giving new members of parliament or members of parliament new to defence issues a better understanding of NATO’s structures and processes Visit to SHAPE, July 2004. 60 years of parliamentary diplomacy The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 brought to the forefront the new reality of the 21st century an unpredictable world characterised by a new set of global challenges including terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the emergence of lawless territories in “failed” and “failing states”. As NATO adapts to these new challenges, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly plays a key role in explaining the reality and requirements of today’s security environment to citizens in Europe and North America, and dispelling misperceptions about NATO. The US National Defence University hosted the first Parliamentary Transatlantic Forum in Washington, the largest annual gathering of European parliamentarians in the United States Nancy Pelosi & John Tanner In 2002, the NATO PA-Russia Joint Monitoring Group became the NATO-Russia Parliamentary Committee; The NATO-Ukraine Joint Monitoring Group became the Ukraine- NATO Inter-parliamentary Council