News

Conference about the NATO Summit in Riga

24.11.2006

Short Report on the Conference "NATO Summit in Riga - What Can We Expect?"

On November 14, 2006, the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI) in cooperation with the Embassy of Latvia, Jagello 2000- Association for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation and the American Information Center organized a conference on the upcoming NATO Summit in Riga.
The conference was hosted by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which facilitated live video link with NATO HQ in Brussels.
In his introductory remarks, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, outlined the main agenda for the Riga summit and referred to his recent visit to Prague. The following debate - with Jamie Shea, Director of Policy Planning and Gen. Ray Henault, Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, in Brussels - focused on expected deliverables during the Riga Summit.  Other speakers included Foreign Minister Alexandr Vondra, Defense Minister Jiří Šedivý, Janis Karlbergs, Deputy State Secretary for Defense from Latvia, John Kriendler from the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, former Chief of Staff Gen. Jiří Šedivý and Petr Luňák from the NATO Public Diplomacy Division. The topics of current NATO operations, major tasks of military transformation and new global challenges (new agendas and new partnerships) were thoroughly debated. Members of Prague diplomatic corps, security community representatives and journalists took part in the discussion.