the eu and nato are partners. 21 eu member states are also nato members, so generally speaking, apart for some political tensions that i won't go into, everybody is aware of them, both organizations work well together at least at the operational level. i know that small defense and building sharing are the topics this afternoon. tackling escs efficiently requires technology innovations. this is where industry comes into play. as the defense budget is fragmented and the financial crisis is taking a toll on eu research and technology investments. the capability is threatened. the council has the need to strengthen the technology which has led to the launch of the pathology and sharing initiatives meant to bridge the gaps by coordinating defense budgets. this is also in the spirit of nato's smart defense initiative, namely doing more with less. so the financial crisis could provide the impetus needed to move ahead with issues involving national sovereignty, one major hurdle for the eu. the ball may have started rolling. since the eu's recent commitment has led the u.s. to mention a possi

we have in enhancing eu nato cooperation. eu -- more and more civilian crisis management issues will be the task of the transatlantic community. and the european union has these capabilities. i just hope we get some of the internal obstacles that we have in nato and the internal obstacles we have within the eu politicly to get this out of the way, so that the eu/nato cooperation can move ahead. in conclusion, i'd like to just say that i do believe that a ren renewed nato, a reinventeded nato, can still be the institution of choice of the transatlantic relationship for the 21st century. >> i just thank you very much for that. i see i'm going to regret using the snow white metaphor. >> it's always great. >> john. >> thanks. well, first, let me lay my cards out on the table and say i don't see this as gloomy news whatsoever. i've been pushing for cuts in military spending here in the united states and throughout europe for a decade or more. so i see it all as great news. i just want to be clear about that. because i see the prob

and the previous panel, one of the presenters talked about why the eu in comparison to nato wasn't particularly effective. well, look at the budgets. i mean, geez. you know, if the eu or the osce had as much money available as nato, perhaps they could be a little bit more effective with some of the things they were talking about. anti-piracy, et cetera. squeezing out waste and redundancy, i'd love to see someone like mitt romney in his capacity at bain capital take an ax to the waste and redundancien in nato. we see it in the private sector. we see it in, you know, when people like mitt romney go to corporations. why don't we see it at nato? i think this kind of financial environment is perfect for such a -- an ax wielder of that nature to go at nato in terms of waste and redundancy. it could potentially reduce russian anxiety, if we are spending less in terms of nato overall. that might be a good way of sitting down at the take with the russians and saying, hey, you don't have to worry about us so much as we're purchase sewering missi seweri sewering pursuing nuclear but taking a serious posit

the eu and nato are crucial partners. ere has been strong cooperation. 21 eu member states are also nato members. there is political tension that i will not go into. both organizations work together on the operational level. the operation at the horn of africa is an example. i know that burden sharing are the topics of the next session. there is one area that can be used to develop the strategy. tackling esc's requires technological and innovation. the defense budget is fragmented. the financial crisis is taking a toll on research and technology investments. the future capabilities are threatened. the council has underlined the need to strengthen technology. meant to bridge the capability gaps by coordinating defense budget. the smart defense initiative, doing more with less. the financial crisis could provide impetus needed. one major hurdle for the eu. the ball may have started rolling up with the commitment to concrete projects. there is a possible merging of projects in the framework -- a promising step. in conclusion,

the previous panel one of the presenters talking about the eu in comparison of to nato was affecterred. look at the budget. i mean, jeez, if the eu or osce available as nato it could be more effective. antipirate sei at the center. i'd like love to see mitt romney at the capacity at bain capitol take a ax to the waste in nato. we see in the private sector. we see it in, you know, people like romney to corporations why adopt we see it at nato. i think this kind of financial environment is perfect for such an ax wielder that are of that nature to go at nato in terms of waste and redundancy. it could reduce russian anxieties if we are spending less overall that might be a good way to sit down and seau don't have to worry but obviously we are taking a very serious position on reducing spending within nato. finally, there are two aspects that mitigate, or mill fate against this happy news from my point of view, happy news. not necessarily for everybody here. one is we have a tendency to export our problems. we export or obese problem by selling corn super all over the world. we sell our arm

i need, i'm afraid, to challenge the characterization of cooperation which took place between nato and the eu. as of august 2008 there were nato allies that insisted that nato not stand up to nato koupt poi rah see. the reason this took place through september to october, it became obvious that the eu was incapable of mounting a counterpiracy operation in a timely fashion. in fact, it was not able to do so until december of that year. all of a sudden the prohibition of nato doing counterpiracy became a demand that nato do counter piracy. we go forward to december 2008, at atlanta finally stands up and there's a prohibition again? >> in one sentence, what's the question? >> the question is how do we prevent these kind of economically irresponsible duplication of capabilities and operations in the future? >> thank you for your question. it's a fascinating question. i think if i had an answer to the question, i'd solve a lot of problems within the european union. regarding the counterpiracy operations, it is very clear that the eu could not do it alone. what i was trying to say is that the uu is

nato. on a parallel path the eu has been slow on expansion because of the economic problems of europe. so i guess i would like to get the administration's view as to how we continue to keep the momentum moving towards democratic reform and ultimate membership in nato and countries that we have been very actively enga engaged. four plus others. >> i agree that historically enlargement has been good for europe, stability, and has been the right policy. administrations of different stripes have been supportive of it. we agree with that. i think we have been staying and this phase you heard, we have been saying, okay, it's not an enlargement summit but it should be backing away. there is not a country ready to be included in the alliance with the consensus behind it. we want to be clear this doesn't mean we're not focused on enlargement or as supportive as ever of the open door policy. one of the ways we're going to signal that is secretary clinton will participate in a meeting of nato foreign ministers with the four countries to acknowledge them, note that the door remains open, talk to t

nato specialist, former visiting scholar at the center for transatlantic relations, visiting fellow at the george washington business school and eu center of excellence in washington, d.c. he has a book coming out on nato security future in greece. i think just from the resumes, you can see they've each got a lot to offer on this particular topic. i'll be asking them to speak for 10 to 12 minutes and i'll be playing the role of the wicked witch if they look like they're going over time. julie, let's start with you. >> thank you very much. thank you for the invitation. it's god to see more friends and faces, particularly those from basic. so we all know that the defense budgets of allies inside the nato alliance have been an ongoing challenge for the alliance, and not just in terms of what allies spend, i think it's also been a question of how allies spend the budgets that they have in hand. and this has become increasingly worse over the last couple of engineers for a couple of reasons, most notably the financial crisis which all of the 28 members of the alliance are grappling with and turning to their defense budgets for some po

eu has been an important partner. there are issues at a level of principles that have not yet been resolved between nato and the eu. what we're trying to do at a practical level is encourage the growth of cooperation to ensure operational effectiveness in a wide number of areas, and over time, reached agreement on some of those principles that need to be resolved. >> yes, to questions here in the front row. -- two questions. >> good to see you again. i am encouraged by what i am hearing in terms of partnership, that based on rasmussen's comments, that threat and that from outside europe and these are things they do not have to deal with, and this will be addressed in chicago. when they concerned about is what i am hearing from european colleagues, the desire for nato to retrench. afghanistan is too tough. cyber is too complex. how will the united states combat that view, moving toward a real global partnership? >> thank you, marc. about whether nato should be about territorial defense for an expeditionary alliance. this is an argument that has not been central to our dialogue with our allied colleagues because it h

as we are now both nato members, turkey and eu, there should be an opportunity to decrease greek spending on national defense and encouraging it to be a good nato member at the same time. >> at the g-8 summit, did any other leaders make the argument that dealing with the deficit and forcing growth alternatives? did they argue that you need to support growth through monetary policy, supporting the banks, getting the trade going? was there anybody who made the argument that you need to borrow your way out of debt? >> my friend makes an important point. there was no one's suggesting that dealing with deficit and getting growth are alternatives. the hour complementary. you need both. that is the view of everybody around the g-8 table. >> -- over 50% and the economy is set to detract by 6%. he has preached austerity in this country and around the world bank that is exactly what has been done in greece. and around the world. that is exactly what has been done in greece. can he start supporting the needs of ordinary people who worked very hard and do not deserve this misery? >> in this country,

nato. we have asked the undersecretary to give us some remarks not only in an eu capacity, but also on the rience in the defense ministry as well as the foreign ministry. great roles in policy planning. we are delighted to welcome him back to washington. he served at the estonian embassy in washington from 2005- 2008. thank you so much for being with us. last, but certainly not least, we are absolutely delighted to have ivailo kalfin, a member of the european parliament and vice chair of the committee on budgets. if that is equivalent to our appropriations committee, you have enormous power. we are glad you are with us and head the bulgarian social delegation in the european parliament. perhaps one of the most interesting jobs of many in the european parliament. you are the recon tour for the digital agenda flagship and on critical information infrastructure protection and cyber security protection. one of the leading, if not the leading, leader on these issues in the european parliament. prior to service in parliament, he was the deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of bul

gregg: ham eu hamid karzai gives his thanks at the nato summit.brows when he said this. >> mr. president i'm bringing to you and to the people of the united states the gratitude of the afghan people for the support that your taxpayers' money has provided for cancer over the past decade, and for the difference that it has made to the well-being of the afghan people. gregg: your taxpayers' money may not be the most tactful way to put it with this budget in washington. joining us now, general jack keane, a four-star general and vice chief of staff in the army. fox news military analyst. general, it's always good to talk to you. it struck me as inappropriate that he made no mention of the sacrifices of the american soldiers, more than 3,000 precious american lives lost, and yet he's talking about taxpayers and takes pairs' money. how did you take this? >> well the same way all of our viewers would take it. somewhat inappropriate to be sure. karzai can't keep his foot out of his mouth and it's been like this for years. the truth is the administration c

eu/u.s. trade. >> mr. hugh bailey. >> at a time when the defendant's budgets is constrained across the alliance, is it not important for nato itself in the same way as nato's member states to demonstrate that every pound they spend is well spent? and will the uk therefore support proposals being considered by the nato secretariat to insure that the external audit is independent of nato? and that they're available for polltarians in this government and others to scrutinize in the same way we scrutinize our own defense expenditures? >> my friend has great knowledge of these things i think makes a series of sensible suggestions. and i think we should look carefully at them. let me commend secretary general rasmussen for what he has done in terms of reforming the huge number of command posts and headquarterses posted on nato. i suspect there is more to be done on that as well. >> currently 3% of the european market in services. can the prime minister confirm just how important completing the services market is for british services? >> well, i think the point i make to my honorable friend is completing the single markets in digi

nato. as i said, this is a decision individual countries will have to reach themselves. for now, serbia has focused primarily on moving towards the eu, and it gained candidacy status a few months ago, which was important. there was an important election. there were many important elections on sunday. there was another one in serbia, which -- and we will see the second round next week. but the forces that want to continue the process of euro/atlantic integration in serbia remain strong, which is good for serbia and it's good for europe. how and when and whether that integration will have a nato angle, there's something for serbia to decide. we are open to it. the serbs, in fact, have a mission to nato. they have an ambassador at nato whose sole job is to have an interaction with nato, and we will find whatever partnership activity, partnership relationship belgrade wants, we are willing to support it. with respect to bosnia-herzegovina, one of the interesting thing is it remains one of the few areas there is large agreement across the entire country. and bosnia has made significant steps in recent weeks and months on meeting some of

nato missile shield later in this half-hour. >> the u.n. nuclear watchdog has been holding talks with top officials in iran. the iaea chief wants access to nuclear facilities. >> iran is facing an eu oil embargo in july over the years there enrichment program is being used to develop nuclear weapons. they are due to resume talks on wednesday. >> the new french president has hit the ground running with a wave of fresh policy initiatives including an effort to introduce euro bonds. >> his proposal for a common eurozone debt instrument has put him at odds with german chancellor angela merkel. she opposes them saying they would do nothing to help europe deal with its crisis. >> the new french finance minister has trouble finding his seat at the press conference monday during his first official visit, but he lost no time in making his position clear -- support for eurobonds. >> we will discuss all possibilities in the summit. discussions will be frank and open. otherwise, there is no point in meeting. leaders will discuss all options, even the controversial ones. >> at last week's g-8 summit, president hollande is support for eurobonds clear. germany rejected the idea. the german finan

united states has hosted nato summits were in 1978 and 1999 which, of course, was the 50th anniversary during president clinton's term. as i've said, 61 countries as well as the eu, the united nations and the world bank will be in attendance. they'll be a different grouping, if you will, of countries during the course of the day. as i said, the president will fly to chicago on saturday evening. the first meeting that he'll have on sunday will be with president karzai of afghanistan. obviously, an important meeting because a central focus of the summit will be on afghanistan and afghanistan's future. so the first meeting of the day appropriately is going to be with president karzai of afghanistan. the president will then move into various, a series of nato immediatings. initial meeting with just the nato allies at 28. that evening, on sunday evening, the nato allies will meet at soldier field for a working dinner and that will be leaders plus one adviser. on monday morning, the summit will continue at mccormick place with discussions on afghanistan and this will be a broader meeting. this will be the nato countries plus the 22 non-nato afghan troop, or non-nato t

a few words about nato, and there are people who know more about the eu -- so as done and a lot to deal with cyber defense and has raised cyber security on its agenda. we now have that policy, so we have made a lot of progress. much more needs to be done, and i hope the summit in chicago will not only offer we have made progress, but will move the alliance further. will be ambitious and moves us further. nato -- there are critical for nato's operations. coming from the minister of defense, i am key for the defense matters. assuming cyber is becoming a domain in international relations and bourque fighting, that would be the same as nato analyze and -- declaring an alliance. this is not white taxpayers fund us. nato is here to protect not just the military, but to protect our society, people come up territories. it cyber is becoming a new domain, it needs to do more. there are a number of issues that are important. cooperation with the european union, international governments. we need to have discussions and see whether nato can contribute to our overall security. i will conclude by say

nato. europe imports 80% of its oil and russia has used the model of canada and supplies the oil that the eueeds and then russia would not out arab oil influence. host: here's a comment on facebook -- here is more from the baltimore sun piece yesterday looking at hamid karzai's visit to the nato summit and putting it into historical context of what's been happening in afghanistan and what's happening now. it says -- what do you think? they succeed? inorge's on the democrats' miami, florida. welcome to the conversation. good morning caller:. i remember a line from "the "the godfather" it says to keep your enemifriends' clothes and your enemies closer. we will not get the soviet union in nato because of past troubles. we don't want china to get in there because of lithium and opium. can get close, but not close as friends. just close enough to keep an eye on what they are doing and maybe c-span.org. host: steve tweets -- looking more at karzai's will relationship with the west, it says -- the article points out that he is bringing back sort of that spirit to nato yesterday and today. paul is o

being sent is that we're slowing down the formal expansion of nato for many reasons and many legitimate reasons. on a parallel path, the eu has been -- e.u. has been very slow on expansion because of the economic problems of europe. so i guess i would like to get the administration's view as to how we continue to keep the momentum moving towards democratic reform and ultimate membership in nato in countries that we have been very actively engaged, the four i mentioned plus others? >> thank you, senator. first point is absolutely agree that historically nato enlargement has been good for nato, good for europe and good for those countries. as you said, it has contributed to democracy in europe and stability and has been absolutely the right policy, and administrations of different stripes have all been strongly supportive of it. we completely agree with that. i think we have been saying, you know, in this phrase that you heard with rasmussen, not an enlargement summit, we have been saying, okay, it's not an enlargement summit, but it's also not a summit that should be backing away from enlargement. so there is not a country

nato. europe imports 80% of its oil and russia has used the model of canada and supplies the oil that the eu needs and then russia would not out arab oil influence. host: here's a comment on facebook -- here is more from the baltimore sun piece yesterday looking at hamid karzai's visit to the nato summit and putting it into historical context of what's been happening in afghanistan and what's happening now. it says -- what do you think? they succeed? george's on the democrats' in miami, florida. welcome to the conversation. good morning caller:. i remember a line from "the godfather" it says to keep your friends' clothes and your enemies closer. we will not get the soviet union in nato because of past troubles. we don't want china to get in there because of lithium and opium. can get close, but not close as friends. just close enough to keep an eye on what they are doing and maybe c-span.org. host: steve tweets -- looking more at karzai's relationship with the west, it says -- the article points out that he is bringing back sort of that spirit to nato yesterday and today. paul is on our demo

eu, but the transatlantic conference is different. we wanted this report to reflect a strong willingness of the united states tuesday turkey play that leadership role. a final point is that we need natoot to be global in terms of membership but global in terms of its political orientation and capacity to act. some of our best allies in afghanistan are australia and new zealand and united arab emirates and jordan, some native has been constructing the partnership program that would bring nature to a more global orientation, and that is where native needs to go with the specific partnerships. australia, japan, south korea, u.a.e., and others will not become members of nato, but they can play with us and exercise and train with us, and they should be encouraged to do so. we should not think of ourselves just as an organization that exists in just in north america and western europe. we have to have the ability to act globally, and that is in our report, as well. in terms of how we put this together, i do want to thank our review board, distinguished u.s., european, and canadian officials, who agree to disagree with some of the prescriptions and are not responsible for this in anyway. da