From NATO: [I]n less than two weeks, we will enter a new phase in the development of the new Strategic Concept.

On May 17th, Madeleine Albright, and the other Experts will come to NATO Headquarters to present their report. That report, based on extensive consultations with NATO Allies, partner countries and the civil society, as well as of course their own long experience in international affairs. …

[O]n May 17th, the Group of Experts will make their conclusions and recommendations public. Mrs Albright and I will hold a press conference here, and we will put those conclusions and recommendations up on the website as well.

May 17th will start the next phase of the process. Capitals will examine the report carefully, as I will. We will discuss it in the North Atlantic Council. It will be an important input for the initial draft of the Strategic Concept itself, a paper which I personally will draft this summer, after some more consultation.

Then, in mid-October, Foreign and Defence Ministers will meet here in Brussels for a discussion on the basis of the first draft. As you know the Strategic Concept will be approved at the Lisbon Summit on 19-20 Nov.

What we can already see now is that this Strategic Concept will be of critical importance in shaping NATO’s future.

Excerpts from press briefing by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.  (photo: NATO)

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