nato. other countries have a desire to be a part of nato. serbia did not show any desire to be part of nato. is nato afraid that serbia would be too close to moscow. maybe there will be a military base south of serbia. in bosnia, they are divided. serbian control says they will be friends with nato. your comments please. >> serbia has an evolving relationship with nato. we have a partnership planned side and negotiating with serbia. serbia has light indicated it wants to become a member of nato. this is a decision individual countries will have to reach themselves. there was an important election. there was another one in serbia. we will see the second round next week. the forces that want to continue the process of european integration in serbia remains strong. that is good for serbia and good for europe. how and when and whether that integration will have a nato angle is something for serbia to decide. we are open to it. serbia has a mission to nato. they have an ambassador at nato whose job is to have an interaction with nato. we will find whatever partnership activity and partnership re

arms expenditure huge increase and expansion of nato and from the lisbon treaty a huge requirement on all nato member states to spend a great deal on nato supplied arms yet at the same time the majority of nato countries there are involved in afghanistan have small numbers and always drawing it's going to be britain and the usa that's left there till the end i'm sorry during buys not through the military expenditure in europe since one thousand nine hundred or nine it went down dramatically up to twenty five percent your british. got about eight percent you know this is not unlikely her expenditure. go ahead i'm sure you know we have a great story ahead john before we go to the regular guy did the united states accounts for about seventy five percent of nato nato is a military budget and they do united states for me and my taxpayers are the ones that are subsidizing european defense so again this is this is why european defense has been able to go down but the american empire the american national security state which is not good for us or anybody else has been going sky high on if this is this week i don't know whether or not it will n

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 the key requirements with respect to defense property, registration, that will enable them to have a new relationship with nato in the weeks and months ahead, demonstrating that nato and the ability to become a member of nato remains one of those things that helps political consensus form in a country, to make the kind of difficult political decisions that sometimes are necessary in order to move forward. so we are hopeful that bosnia will continue down that path and enable it to move closer to nato membership as it makes the reforms that are necessary. >> i can't hear you. can you spe

to nato nato officials refuse to even accept it and they're calling for the disbandment of nato nato was a relic of the past is no longer needed it's causing more division than unity among nations because i first moved beyond military solutions we were away from an empire . and the we'll be bringing you more coverage of that nato gathering and how it's echoing on the streets of chicago throughout the course of the summit. seeking sip from it to. use to be leaving a legacy of atrocities. makes it easier. to stay or not to stay that is the question facing greece's political instability catapult it towards an exit from the euro zone however the leaders of some of the world's most powerful economies who gathered for talks in the u.s. publicly declaring it should stay put that behind the smiles and handshakes and of the soul concern and a desire to see greece go and he said now he has more. camp david was invaded by the europeans over the weekend or at least it seemed that way with almost all of the g eight talk touching the euro zone zone there were new faces of focus was on a not so new

nato. the president will leave saturday evening and go to chicago to host 62 nations and several international organizations for the nato summit. this is only a third time since nato's founding in 1949 that the united states will host a nato summit. it's onlial first time hosted in a city other than washington. the other two times the 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 s

nato and the fact veterans for peace which is a u.s. veterans group try to deliver a letter you say to nato nato officials refuse to even accept it and they're calling for the disbandment of nato nato was a relic of the past is no longer needed it's causing more division than unity among nations and it's time first move beyond military solutions way from an empire and start to become a community of nations when after its campaign in afghanistan what would the role of nato be what would its future be would that perhaps be the end of nato that's what you'd like to say well i think you know you saw afghanistan and you saw a libya and i think that's the real deal hopes a play in the future i hope that that ends you know we don't need to be seeing militaristically vision between countries we need instead we see countries working together to solve the incredible common problems that we're facing from climate change and poverty an equal distribution of wealth these are all issues that the faces we work together to solve them rather than we were spending resources on wars and military divisions nevertheless nato says it is planning to pull out of af

nato and it in fact veterans for peace which is a u.s. veterans group try to deliver a letter you say to nato nato officials refusing to accept it and they're calling for the disbandment of nato nato was a relic of the past is no longer needed it's causing more division than unity among nations and it's time first move beyond military solutions way from an empire. and off he will be bringing you more coverage of the nato gathering and how it's occurring on the streets of chicago through the course of the summit. to. seek an exit from the decay. and it used to be leaving a legacy of atrocities. need to do some. see. russia has been crowned ice hockey champions of the world tonight so the team beat slovakia sixty to take his title tom barton now reports. russia has won the two thousand and twelve world poppy championships they dominated the game against rivals slovakia there wasn't really a wobbly moments in the match and as soon as they raised that the streets went wild people here are absolutely ecstatic about the results here malcolm was named the match prime minister amir has graduated the team's success it also means this wind throughout

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 doing its part, trying to develop capabilities in order to take part in such operations. the eu as an in

nato would use such private companies, i very much doubt. maybe the other members of the panel could respond from the nato point of view. i don't see nato itself doing it, but i can definitely at least see the member states of both nato and the european union do that because it's actually happening, um, already whether you're looking at the example of iraq or afghanistan or other conflicts. i mean, private security companies are in many conflict areas. so the answer to your question regarding the organization itself -- although i'm not an expert on nato per se -- i very much doubt it, but i'm sure that we'll see some of those private entities in conflict areas when nato is also present. >> thank you. thanks very much. um, i'd just say one great web site on the privatization of security sector is topsecretamerica, a big research program that was undertaken over the last three years, and it's pretty comprehensive, and this is yet another discussion we need to have out in the open about who's supposed to do what and whose responsibility it is to provide security. so thank you for that. thank you, everybody. i think we're running other time

nato and the fact veterans for peace which is a u.s. veterans group try to deliver a letter u.s.a. to nato nato officials refused to accept it and they're calling for the disbandment of nato nato was a relic of the past is no longer needed it's causing more division than unity among nations as i first movie on military solutions he way from empire. you're watching around the top of today's and the week's top stories here now taste i had for you in the program the world's economy wobbles on its axis leaders and economists own catastrophe greece these the euro zone as prevalent as your stereotype actions by which the greek people. and around the top nuclear official defends the discovery in iran of uranium enriched wiring levels sixteen situation between technical glitch that. tanks and heavy machine guns have been used to pound the western syrian town of houla where un observers say more than ninety people have been killed by government forces syrian officials say the attack was aimed at stopping terrorists targeting police in the region this week un report accused both the regime and the rebels

to respond to these throats nato created an emerging security challenges division or escd within the nato international staff in august 2012. this was nato's structural response to cost cutting threats and was the fruit of several years of discussions. it brought -- brings together various existing fields of expertise into one single division. nato's integrated approach was echoed in the 2010 strategic concept. here we have a military organization that could adjust its structure to take into account other factors. traditional military tools would be ineffective against a coordinated cyber and biological attack. according to nato language, the new division focuses on terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, cyber defense and energy security. the bulk that we mentioned in the list i've covered. the division provides quote, strategic analysis capability to monitor and anticipate international developments that could affect ale lied security. in summary it dares to new approach as the it was coined. so that is the approach that nato took to respond to escst. i'm not assessing the degree of success. it's too early to reach a

nato missile defense project. nato has been adamant that it would like to work with russia on this but has been equally adamant that russia does not have a veto on whether nato defends itself from ballistic missiles. this is central to the whole nato core belief of directive defense. so i don't see this as negotiable. but on the other hand the alliance and u.s. have tried to work with russia and be transparent and get them to the point where they will not have any objections to it. >> bob? >> the first george bush had a concept of grand strategy for european security. europe, whole and peace and free. we've done seven of the eight parts. how do you engage russia. that's why allies want us to stay in europe, because only america can work with the russian future. you have to do more than missile defense and it has to be other things. whether it is control or afghanistan where they are really helping, counter drug, counter terrorism and get on a new page with the russians. putin is not going to chicago, not even for the group eight summit. we are going to have to step up if were going to make nato, nato russia and the reset in the future. >> guys, that is all o

nato answered the u.n.'s call to protect the libyan people, it was able to take on the mission. had nato not been there or had nato been too weak an institution to take on such an operation, the coalition would have had to carry on alone. keeping nato strong both politically and militarily is critical to enshoe nato is ready when needed. this has been true for the last 20 years when the turbulence of the international system has demanded that nature respond nearly continuously to crises throughout the globe. today, for example, nato forces are in afghanistan, in the balance kins, encountering pirates. on have just concluded operations in libya. challenges to the united states and their allies can come from ballistic missile proliferation, cyber attack, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction as well as from just the instability that we can see what's happening as turmoil takes place as nations wrestle to set up their forms of government. we must be ready to meet emerging threats. we could prefer to meet these challenges together with allies and not alone. so the strategic context for the s summit is what i have jus

nato summit. occupy chicago denies demands that nato. nato demonstrators plan a show of strength on the streets in the hope of grabbing that. does attending but the whole. i'm excited that sort of thousands of protesters in the middle east are calling new arab union plans it comes after saudi arabia said it wants to form an alliance with bahrain paving the way for any used integration independent political analyst glazebrook explains why he things did bahraini government just so keen on good plan. bahrain's government is enthusiastic for the very reason that the bahraini people are an enthusiastic because it's going to legitimize and systematize the saudi involvement in crushing the bahraini revolution drowning the bahraini revolution in in blood seventy percent of the population are sheer and increasingly actually systematically excluded from any positions of influence power effectively disenfranchised always have been in this regime and you know we have to ask why what's in it for saudi arabia and answering that is crucial to remember saudi

nato summit protesters will hold a public debate today challenging the need for nato it will take place at the pritzker military library on michigan avenue at 6:00 protest organizer andy thayer and an anti nato social media expert will take one side former ambassador nicholas burns and a nato spokesperson will take the other attendance is limited to 100 people the latest wgn tv chicago tribune poll asks if people support this weekend's nato summit the poll surveyed people in the city and surrounding counties have found that 59 percent people support chicago hosting the summit 23 percent were opposed when asked if they got the expected protests would be peaceful more than half said yes 32% in the protests will not however people that the protesters have a right to protest about two-thirds say that there should be demonstrating you could read more in today's chicago tribune not all of the nato talking about protests and security some chicago public school students are showcasing their talents in a video that they put together for the summit in the rutledge has that story this is the video from the mellon entry school winner more than 50 videos were submitted from cbs school students this one i

now, the problem is, that nato is still -- nato should and still is valid, and it will be valid for the future to come. for us in southeastern europe, nato is the only credible security organization in the euro atlantic region. and nato's fundamental question, and in this case, i speak for myself, that nato has decided what it wants to do with its future. and it will go along. so i wouldn't believe i would actually say that in the u.s., but would i have to dismiss any of those, you know, opinions that say that basically what is natu nato capable for, what do we need nato so on and so forth. the cold war is over. yeah. okay, nato knows the cold war is over, and proceeded to the next step. and that next step is cold emerging challenges, securing threats and is so forth. the 2001 terrorist acts in the u.s. were nothing about cold war. they were all about new modern age symmetrical warfare. and i think nato is concentrating more on that. the problem is that in order to have a collective organization of 28 member states, working together is the issue of capabilities, interpretability, not only of forces, but also of civilian international stu

nato. nato as an alliance has partnerships with countries in the middle east and the scope, but it has been acknowledged by two parts from nato and partners. these partnerships are very modest. although we have nice paragraphs about the need to improve the partnerships in this tragedy concept, so far the scope is very modest. and this is for several reasons. first, the fact that the big competition for nato comes from its own members which have privileged relations, bilateral relations with some of the countries in the middle east, which are relying more on their bilateral relations than on nato relations. but another element to consider is that the content of the partnership has always been on what we call soft security issues. defense planning, but not key issues for partners which are always trying to discuss security guarantees. and although i'm not 100% a believer that we should talk about security guarantees, in the end if we have this contingency, a nuclear armed iran, nato is going to have a dilemma. whether we talk about extended or, security guarantees with partners, all these partners will look for other ways, for

nato summit. occupy chicago tonight and demand that nato disband nato demonstrators plan a show of strength on the streets in the hope of grabbing the attention of not just those attending put out of the entire world. meanwhile demonstrations are on the other side of the atlantic meaning that germany's banking capital frankfurt now in a state of lockdown standing in battle lines are since early morning thousands of police officers and bulletproof vests of entrenched themselves around the city are there to guard against fresh protests by the country's block and banking movement. is in frankfurt. these protesters have taken to the streets of frankfurt to voice their displeasure at what they see as unfair all sturdy measures that are being imposed on the eurozone at the moment now right now amongst these people as they march towards the headquarters of the european central bank it has really been a center full protest against the current debt crisis in the austerity measures that have been imposed across europe but today on saturday is the largest of the demonstrations as you can see this group behin

empire is client state so because we want to see nato and the fact veterans for peace which is a us veterans group try to deliver a letter you say to nato nato officials refused to accept it and they're calling for the disbandment of nato leader was a relic of the past is no longer needed it's causing more division and unity among nations as diverse maybe our military solutions the way from an empire. and now she will be bringing in more coverage of the nato gathering and how i carry on the streets of chicago throughout the course of the summit. syphilitic get. used to believing a legacy of atrocities. in eighty six. russia has denied being crowned ice hockey championship champions of the world that team beat slovakia sixty to take this year's title is tom bottom of a pool. russia has won the two thousand and twelve world poppy championships they dominated the game against rivals slovakia there wasn't really a wobbly moments in the match and as soon as they raised that the streets went wild people here are absolutely ecstatic about the results here malcolm was named man of the match and prime minister amir bet it has congratulated the team o

nato a kinder gentler nato. i'm in favor absolutely of the abolition of nato which is the world's only military bloc and in my estimatehis because we see the hypocrisy. >> the onlookers including jesse jackson and others sat still as social responsibility and national security took center stage. never a shout or a sigh from the audience. they participated by paying attention to others. the last debate of its kind perhaps before the war debate hits the streets. nato is going to provide representatives to tackle the issues, but that plan fell through. it was in the end a long discussion in a short amount of time. what didn't get addressed during the debate will be dealt with this weekend en mass in the city. >> i keep hearing the statistic that 18 veterans a day are committing suicide. something is dreadfully dreadfully wrong. >> when these kinds of venues don't affect policy as a general rule, there does need to be people in the street making their presence known. >> tonight's debate was a far cry from the discussions you'll be hearing in the streets of chicago over the weekend. the main difference here in this nato de

client state so far because we want to see nato when they were in fact veterans for peace which is a u.s. veterans group try to deliver a letter you say to nato nato officials refuse to be accepted and they're calling for the discriminant nato leader was a relic of the past is no longer needed it's causing more division than unity among nations it's time first move beyond military solutions the way from an empire. while you're watching the round up of today's and the week's top stories here on r.t. so i had fear in the program well it's economy wobbles and this is a columnist one of testifying if greece leaves the usa as print anti austerity factions make their pitch to the greek people. and tear around stop nuclear official defense of discovery in iran reigning in which to bring levels sustain the situation came about due to a technical glitch details on that same. tanks and heavy machine guns have been used to pound the western syrian town of un observers say more than ninety people have been killed by government forces so in officials blame the attacks on terrorist groups this week a un report accused both the regime and the rebels of gross hum

nato nato chicago summit as artie's tessera sillier reports the alliance support for ongoing involvement in the embattled nation has never been lower afghanistan the tuber two thousand and one and nato led international military offensive and response to the september eleventh attacks in the u.s. largely backed by international partners more than a decade ago now after tens of thousands of casualties and hundreds of billions of dollars later this will not be quick norreys. one thing that's not keeping pace is support over seventy percent of the u.k. population more troops are the figure is rising in the u.s. sixty three percent last week want to see an end to the war and this is what it's come down to nations breaking ranks with nato by deciding to pull out troops earlier than planned france the fourth largest contributor of troops to the war saw a rise in ante natal rhetoric in its presidential campaign season with most french in favor of early withdrawal and australia's latest nation to make a surprise announcement raising the question of whether more will follow suit a potential sticking point at nato summit in chicago no not at all concerned. should we stay or should we go that

was nato not there, or was nato to leak of an institution to take on an operation? the coalition would've had to carry on alone. keeping natostrong, both politically and militarily, is critical to ensure nato is ready when it is needed. this has been true for the past 20 years when the turbulence of the international system has demanded that nato respond nearly continuously to crises throughout the globe. today, for example, nato forces are in afghanistan, the balkans, pirates in somalia, and have just concluded operations in libya. looking out into the future, challenges to the united states and our allies can come from ballistic missile proliferation, cyberattacks, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, as well as from just the instability that we can see happening is turmoil takes place in nations as they wrestle wrestled to set up their forms of government. we must be ready to meet emerging threats. we would prefer to meet these challenges together with allies, and not alone. so the strategic contest for the summit is what i just described. and for our work at nato everyday, this is what we have in mind. how can we kee

nato. because nato continues to be the world's strongest military alliance. and so the question is to what end. i was asked to work on a new strategic concept for nato as heads of a group of experts, and what we saw was that nato could the way you talk about is out of area, meaning there is a responsibility for issues that are not just member states. so that is what i think europe needs to do is to see that what happens in libya or what happens in afghanistan is important to them and they are partners and that they shouldn't -- and we are an atlantic as well as a pacific power. for us to have renewed interest in asia, i mean it is renewed, this is not something brand-new, i think it appropriate. and i think the europeans need to understand that they also have a stake in what is happening in china and in the south china sea. and generally in terms of asia because to go back to the original word, we are interrelated. >> why is iran so hard? why is defusing a potential nuclear power there been so difficult across several administrations? >> because i think it's very hard to communicate with the iranians. one of the issues -- i was in the carter adminis

as a nato officials wrapping up chicago nato summit anti nato protesters on the march again prompting the city bound for the campaign headquarters president obama. they gathered in small groups sometimes fewer than 20 people and the day grew until over 1000 demonstrators gathered corner of congress and clark headquarters immigration and customs enforcement protest in the united states immigration policy along with other issues to they've railed against capitalism passing the financial district the march controlled every step of the way. >> this has been so future i do not think anybody is not listening as much as the media outlets under reporting the world is watching >> back with live look camera on the ground police and lighting michigan avenue amazing sight as they square off with protesters live look protesters continuing to march through the streets they may be moving to montrose harbor for a gathering we are not sure they know how long of a march that might be keeping you posted moving through the streets of the city tonight live congress and michigan avenue >> many of the prote

nato. they have briefed nato on the humanitarian situation in serbia -- in syria. they've briefed nato and g8 on what's going on in the region, but they haven't asked for formal nato consultations, and i don't think that's on the agenda. let me just say as a general rule the united states -- and we reiterated this in chicago -- is absolutely committed to article v, and and it needs to mean something. and if a country's sovereign integrity is threatened, we have an obligation under the north atlantic treaty to treat that as an attack on ourselves. so we take it very seriously, and i think that's what turkish leaders have suggested when they have even referred to article v, is simply to underscore that their sovereignty and territorial integrity is sacred, and were it be to, were it to be attacked in any way, that would be a very grave matter. >> thanks, phil. we're going to take just two more questions. dave hill here in the middle. wait for the mic. >> thank you. steven hill. question on china. china occupies this rather unique niche in being, one, a world power, but also a developing

nato summit, obama said alliance troops would leave as planned by the end of 2014. >> not all nato members are happy with that schedule. the new french government is vowing to pull troops earlier. >> keep nato capable. >> nato and the partner nations formally agreed afghan forces would take control from mid- 2013. nato troops will remain in a supporting role until all foreign combat troops are withdrawn in 2014. president obama called the agreement to milestone in bringing the 11-year-old war to a close. nato members failed to get france on board. the new french president, francois hollande, principal out of french combat troops by the end of this year. -- plans to pull troops. >> i told president obama and the other bidders this issue was non-negotiable. this is a matter of french sovereignty. >> that is not what the german chancellor angela merkel wanted to hear. she wants the nato-led coalition to stick together. the new french president did signal support for the european missile defense shield. hollande said his concerns had been addressed but called for dialogue with russia. the u.s. says it is to protect against attacks from iran but russia wants guarantees that this system is not be

nato producers, nato produces an annual statistics of expenditures late to lines. as we take peek here of defense spending in 199a 5 and follow through. collectively european nato is spending about the same as it did in 19 t95 at the peak of th cold war. in 1995 only 14 members of nato. now there are 26. so in terms of individual member states spending it has gone down, and gone down significantly, but overall, collectively, european nato is still spending the same. given we moved from the peak of the cold war into a security environment not necessarily involving threats. to me that seems quite reasonable. if you look at the u.s. defense spending for the peak of the cold war to where it is today. it's gone up something like 75%, that kind of confirms what was said early perp again, there is a context for saying that the capabilities gap is in part kind of a supply push on the part of the u.s. now, whether, you know -- i guess i'll throw back to the panel, because one of the questions was about, you know, how much is enough? and so i just want us to kind of set that and give it a little context. >> may i just say something that is really important. the withdrawa

nato summit. some people write off nato as a relic of the past. i believe it is vital to our future security. the threat nato countries face largely come from beyond our borders. fafled states, terrorism, nuclear proliferation. it makes sense for nato to be prepared, link up with partners around the world, act out of area, and spend less on weapons like battle tanks and more on the technology needed for tomorrow's conflicts. all of these things were agreed at the summit. that's not to say nato shouldn't take steps to defend nato and europe. it was particularly good to have a special session with the partners who work with nato around the world, and in particular, the 50 country that is make up the nato led alliance in afghanistan. attacks by the insurgents are down. transition to afghan control is on track. over the next few weeks, we will reach the point where 75% of the population will be living in areas where afghan forces are in the lead for security. the vital next steps are to deliver the final stages of transition. to continue the buildup of afghan security forces and assure they are funded for the fu

nato and why the international organization is still necessary and later and over the counterl,b8b8b0axbxb0apb nato was created more than 60 years ago to preserve the stability and prosperity of western europe. but since nato's mission has changed. joining us by phone to talk more about the role nato in the current global world is stephen flanagan... a defense and international security expert with the center for strategic and international studies... a bipartisan nonprofit organization. good afternoon it is nice to be with you ... >>in your role you deal alot with those homeland security and global security challenges lots of people are worried about this weekend ... do you have any advice for the police or the people of chicago? >>i think that there has been an enormous amount of planning going into this effort and the recognition that it would be a major national security event ... and that triggers prudent preparations i have not seen any signs that there is any concern about major disruptions being planned or any direct security threats but in today's date and age you can never be sure washington went through this in 1999 without any incident i remain optimistic. chicago will come through this unscathed

had nato not been there or had nato been too weak an institution to take on such an operation, the coalition would have had to carry on alone. keeping natostrong both politically and militarily is critical to insure nato is ready when it is needed. this has been true for the past 20 years when the turbulence of the international system has demanded that nato respond nearly continuously to crises throughout the globe. today, for example, nato forces are in afghanistan, in the balkans, carrying pirates in the waters off somalia and have just concluded operations in libya. looking out into the future, challenges to the united states and our allies can come from ballistic missile proliferation, cyber attack, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction as well as from just the instability that we can see happening as turmoil takes place as nations wrestle to set up their forms of government. we must be ready to meet emerging threats. we would prefer to meet these challenges together with allies and not alone. so the strategic context for the summit is what i've just described, and for our work at nato every day, this is what we have in mind: how c

where the nato allies agreed -- to, for the first time to deploy a -- a nato territorial missile defense system that would provide protection for nato european territories, populations and forces against a growing ballistic missile threat from outside of europe. that decision was not directed at russia. nor were the systems that were going to be deployed, capable of undermining strategic stability with russia or indeed undermine the nuclear deterrent of russia. we have been saying this for three years. we, we are, more than happy to put it in writing because we have already done so. would be happy to do it in the future. the second thing we did in lisbon was to invite russia to cooperate with us on the deployment of missile defenses. we had to have two separate systems. that could be -- used as separate systems that could cooperate and combine and be a better defense for nato and russia against this growing ballistic missile threat. we have been in discussions for 18 months with the russians. they continue. thapt are fra they are not moving forward. russian demand. guarantees be legally binding. not only -- the guarantee that it is

nato was our bulwark against soviet communism. that nato was the principal vehicle through which germany was unified in october of 1990. that nato was the organization that stopped the bloody wars in bosnia in 1995 and in kosovo in 1999. and has kept the peace in both places since then. nato did all of that, but nato's not yet ready to retire as our former secretary of state, colin powell, used to say. if nato's yesterday's story, why are so many countries knocking on the door to get in? the fact is, we know this through some of the bitter history of the last decade, after 9/11, the bloody and difficult interventions in afghanistan and iraq, the fact is we live in a highly integrated globalized world. it sounds trite to say this, but if we didn't have nato in 2012, we would want to create an organization that looks exactly like it. because the united states has learned we cannot be unilateralists in the world. that doesn't work. and we certainly cannot be isolationists, not in a globalized 21st century. not when terrorism and its juxtaposition of wmd and al qaedas, terrorists groups like that, global climate change, and drug and

nato, and we had the chance to explain what nato stands for. >> the question regarding the presence of canada in afghanistan. let me stress that my statement was not addressed to canada. it is a general statement from me, that i would appreciate if nato allies and partners would continue to contribute to the nato-led training mission that will start in 2015. and that also answers the second part of your question. i hope that canada would be in the position to contribute after 2014, already today. training activities in afghanistan. we appreciate that contribution. having said that, it is a national decision. >> i think the clear message from this summit will be that we stay committed to our operations. that we will continue to transfer and hand over responsibility to the afghans. we have laid out already -- when we met in 2010. this process has, as you all know, already started today. about half of the afghan population lives in places the afghans have lead responsibility. this process will be completed by the end of 2014. we will continue that transition process according to the plans we have laid out already. >> thank you very much. that is all the time we have for now. there will be a press conference. >> good morning, everybody.