Secret UN-NATO Cooperation Declaration Signed By Ban
Ki-Moon Without Consent from Member States
ccun.org, TFF, December 6, 2008
TFF has obtained a
copy, reproduced below, of a UN-NATO document held secret to the general
public.
It is a Cooperation Declaration signed by the top leaders of
the United Nations and NATO.
Here follows the statement
of the TFF Board, formulated as 9 questions, for everyone -
including the media - to discuss and take action upon:
"The
United Nations considers it secret and, thus, hasnıt published it on its
homepage; NATO is pleased to give you a copy upon request; NATO
governments know about it; Western mainstream media have hardly
mentioned it - - - The Joint Declaration on UN/NATO Secretariat
Cooperation that was signed by the Secretary-Generals of the UN and NATO
in September this year.
To say the least, this Declaration should
have raised a few eyebrows. As a matter of fact,
it ought to be impossible for SG Ban Ki-Moon to sign such
document with any military alliance, let alone to do so without the
consent of the member states of the United Nations.
We judge it to be high time to stimulate a public debate on UN-NATO
co-operation. Frankly, it should have begun when, in January 2007, Ban
Ki-Moon visited NATO and stated that: ³I am very much assured and
encouraged by what NATO has been contributing to peace and security
around the world [Š].We have the same goals, we are committed to work
very closely together in the future².
(Source:
http://www.nato.int/docu/update/2007/01-january/e0124a.html)
The UN Charter's preamble states that war shall be abolished. More
specifically, Article 1 states that peace shall be brought about by
peaceful means. It is to be feared that a UN Secretary-General who
believes that the UN and NATO "have the same goals" will be unable to
perform his role as defender of that Charter.
Here is the text of the Declaration for you to see what the UN does
not want you to see. After it we - the Board of the Transnational
Foundation - raise nine questions of substance that reflect our deep
concerns about the ways of the UN at this moment in history when, more
than ever, the goal of general and complete disarmament and nuclear
abolition, should have the highest priority.
[ BEGIN DECLARATION
]
Annex to DSG (2008)0714 (INV)
Joint Declaration on UN/NATO
Secretariat Cooperation
The Secretary-General of the United
Nations and the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, welcoming over a decade of cooperation between the United
Nations and NATO in support of the work of the United Nations in
maintaining international peace and security, and desiring, in the
spirit of the 2005 World Summit Outcome, to provide a framework for
expanded consultation and cooperation between their respective
Secretariats, have agreed to the following:
1. We, the
Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Secretary-General of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, reaffirm our commitment to the
maintenance of international peace and security.
2. Our shared
experiences have demonstrated the value of effective and efficient
coordination between our Organizations. We have developed operational
cooperation, for example, in peacekeeping in the Balkans and
Afghanistan, where UN-authorized NATO-led operations work alongside UN
peace operations. We have also worked together and collectively with
other partners in support of regional and sub-regional organizations. In
addition, NATO provided assets and personnel to Pakistan in support of
UN disaster relief operations in 2005. Our cooperation is guided by the
UN Charter, internationally recognized humanitarian principles and
guidelines, and consultation with national authorities.
3.
Further cooperation will significantly contribute to addressing the
threats and challenges to which the international community is called
upon to respond. We therefore underscore the importance of establishing
a framework for consultation and dialogue and cooperation, including, as
appropriate, through regular exchanges and dialogue at senior and
working levels on political and operational issues. We also reaffirm our
willingness to provide, within our respective mandates and capabilities,
assistance to regional and sub-regional organizations, as requested and
as appropriate.
4. Understanding that this framework should be
flexible and evolving over time, we agree to further develop the
cooperation between our organizations on issues of common interest, in,
but not limited to, communication and information-sharing, including on
issues pertaining to the protection of civilian populations;
capacity-building, training and exercises; lessons learned, planning and
support for contingencies; and operational coordination and support.
5. Our cooperation will continue to develop in a practical fashion,
taking into account each Organizations specific mandate, expertise,
procedures and capabilities, so as to contribute to improving
international coordination in response to global challenges.
Done in New York on 23 September 2008
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer BAN
Ki-Moon
Secretary General of the
Secretary-General
North Atlantic Treaty Oranization
of the United Nations
[END DECLARATION]
================================
statement of the TFF Board:
Comments and questions:
1. According to the UN Charter,
Article 100, the UN Secretary-General is the custodian of the UN's
integrity. S/he shall receive no instructions from any state or
authority but serve only the UN.
Q: Does this agreement increase the SGıs opportunities to do so and
does it strengthen the credibility of that provision in the future?
2. NATO is a nuclear-based military alliance upholding the right to
use nuclear weapons as the first response even against a conventional
attack.
Q: Is the choice of NATO compatible with Article 1 of the Charter
which states that peace shall be brought about by peaceful means? Why
have other regional organisations that do work with civilian means -
like the OSCE or the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) - not been
offered a similar cooperative status?
3. NATO's Washington
Agreement of 1999 aligns itself closely with the UN Charter. However, it
no longer refers to the overarching authority of the UN Security
Council; rather it brings into the purview of NATO the right to
intervene when faced with what NATO calls new risks such as
'environment', 'insufficient reforms', 'uncontrollable movements of
large numbers of people' and, most significantly, 'interruption of vital
resources'.
Thus, it can be doubted whether NATO still adheres to its own Article
1 which recognizes the supremacy of Article 51 of the UN Charter on
member states' right to self-defence.
This UN-NATO Declaration's list and formulations of areas in which
UN-NATO co-operation can take place are quite sweeping and general. It
should be seen in the light of the seemingly ever-expanding roles NATO
deems legitimate for itself.
Q: Given the special status NATO now acquires through this Agreement,
how likely is it that the UN SG and Security Council - where 3 of the 5
permanent seats are held by NATO members - will:
a) Be able to uphold the necessary distinctions between NATO actions
and UN actions?
b) Bring up possible future breaches of international
law by NATO? and
c) Be able, as UN members, to work credibly for
general and complete disarmament and nuclear abolition?
4: The
two UN & NATO SGs seem to sign as partners of equal standing. The
wording of the agreement is such that NATO would be free to take actions
as it wishes, even to adopt measures of aggressive warfare. Statements
at recent Munich NATO conferences seem to confirm this.
Q: NATO must
be held accountable to the UN Charter and other international law norms.
Does this Declaration make that clear? To whom will NATO be accountable?
5. NATO bombed Serbia/Kosovo in 1999 without a UN Security Council
mandate.
Q: Independent of the views one may have of that action and
given leading NATO members' deficient respect for international law and
the UN Charter, is NATO an appropriate organization to be rewarded by
the UN with such special status?
6. It is mentioned that the
NATO-UN Agreement is rooted in the actions taken during the wars in
Bosnia-Hercegovina. If anything, however, that crisis showed that
peace-keeping and peace-enforcement cannot be mixed and that UN member
states had given the UN far too few resources to succeed with their
mandate.
Q: Is this Agreement signaling that the members of the UN
and NATO consider the handling of Bosnia a model and will continue with
the same mix of roles and unbalanced resource allocations?
7.
NATO countries are, these very months, engaged in various very sensitive
issues - sensitive also among the Security Council members - such as the
Georgia Crisis, the Ballistic Missile Defence bases in Poland and the
Czech Republic, further NATO expansion (Georgia & Ukraine) and
intensifying problems in Afghanistan, where both organisations are
involved.
Q: Is the UN SG's signature an example of good timing and will he, in
the light of the above, now submit the Declaration to the Security
Council for discussion and approval?
8. The UN has 192 members.
NATO has 26 member states but stands for over 70% of the world's
military expenditures.
Q: Does the SG expect that the majority of the UN member states will
support this agreement between the secretariats of the United Nations
and a military alliance?
9. The spirit of the UN is supposed to
be dialogue, worldwide consultation and the common good of humankind.
Yet this Agreement has been kept secret and not posted on the UN
homepage.
Q: Is the Agreement itself and the way it has been
concluded between two individuals not likely to give the world the
impression that this UN HQ is now a place for deals kept in the dark
and, thus, further undermine the hopes shared by citizens around the
world for democracy and transparency?"
The Board of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research,
TFF:
Ina Curic
Jan Oberg
Vicky Samantha Rossi
Hans von Sponeck
Annette Schiffmann
Gunnar Westberg
=============
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