PM meets with President Obama, Chancellor Merkel

NATO’s new strategic concept is trying to respond, twenty years after the end of the Cold War, to what the Alliance needs and this is done with success, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said at the end of a NATO summit here on Friday night, in which the leaders of the 28 member countries approved a relevant document.

Papandreou added that the new strategic concept evaluates the new threats against humanity, such as climate change, mass movement of populations, economic and social inequalities, fundamentalism and others.

All these change NATO’s form, which is called upon to support a more democratic society in the framework of the United Nations, Papandreou added.

The Greek premier also praised efforts for cooperation between the Alliance and Russia, saying that in this way Cold War taboos are overcome.

NATO’s former strategic concept dates back to 1999. The members’ heads of state and government (HoSG), at the 2009 summit in Strasbourg, tasked the Alliance Secretary general to develop a new strategic concept and convene and lead a broad-based group of qualified experts, on the basis of whose recommendations the secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, drafted the New Strategic Concept which was endorsed at the Lisbon Summit.

The Strategic Concept is a framework document reviewed every decade, aiming to equip the Alliance to effectively approach new and emerging security challenges and guide its future political and military development.

The New Strategic Concept text reaffirms the Alliance’s core task, that of collective defence and the members’ territorial defence, and stresses the need for modernisation how this is done, including cyber defence and missile defence, while it also aims to clearly define NATO’s mission to manage the full spectrum of crises in the 21st century.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou held here on Friday, on the sidelines of a NATO Summit, a brief exchange of views with Turkish President Abdullah Gul.

According to reliable sources, the discussion was held during the debate on the issue of NATO relations with the European Union and when the Turkish leader reiterated his country’s position on the Cyprus Republic’s participation in international organisations and specifically in NATO’s plans.

The same sources said the Greek premier responded that the Alliance was not the right forum for resolving the protracted Cyprus problem and asked from all those who could help finding a solution to do so towards a just and viable solution, in the framework of UN resolutions and the acquis communautaire.

Papandreou also held a brief encounter with U.S. President Barack Obama.

The Greek premier also met, on the sidelines of the Lisbon Summit, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Reliable sources said that Papandreou briefed Merkel on a Greek proposal for a different support mechanism. The two leaders agreed, the sources added, to examine the issue through specially appointed officials of the two governments. The meeting was termed by the Greek premier as constructive, the sources added.

Addressing earlier the Alliance’s Summit, Papandreou said, according to the same sources, that the NATO’s new strategic concept was to give a new direction in tackling problems, which would be solved through “synergies of more countries”.