prijava
SARAJEVO, August 16 (FENA) - Commander of the Headquarters of NATO Sarajevo, Brigadier General Marti Bissell, said that the NATO Headquarters supports ongoing efforts to form a government at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and stressed that they are ready to provide advice and professional assistance for a better understanding of NATO.
This includes clarifications regarding the Membership Action Plan (MAP), the Annual National Program (ANP), the Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP), the Planning and Review Process (PARP) and the Partnership for Peace (PfP).
In an interview with FENA, Bissell, in the context of supporting the reform of BiH's defense and security structures, which includes the coordination of programs and activities between BiH and NATO, clarified several important facts about the Annual National Program and its value to BiH.
“The ANP is just another step in the BiH-NATO partnership. It is an important step, but it is neither a decision on membership nor prejudicial to membership. Much will need to be done both within the Alliance and in BiH before NATO and BiH can begin to discuss membership,” she said.
Although the ANP is an important technical document, she adds, it is not a checklist, it is not a series of questions, there are no right or wrong answers, and when adopted by the appropriate state body, it can be made available to the general public.
“NATO believes in the transparency of the process and the sovereignty of each country. There is no hidden agenda. It is BiH who decides what the ANP contains, using the basic ANP backbone. It is up to the country to determine which concrete reform goals it wants to address as part of that,” she underlined.
The ANP is a document that will be updated annually and can be modified and adapted to the country's wishes, with NATO Headquarters Sarajevo available to provide technical advice, but solely for BiH to determine what reform goals it includes in the ANP.
The backbone of the ANP is simple, the document has five chapters: politics and economics, defense and the armed forces, resources, and, security and legal aspects. It is slightly different from the chapters found in IPAP, in that the IPAP has four chapters while ANP has five, but the data contained in both documents may be the same.
“In the simplest of terms, these documents can be different versions of the same data organized in a different way, assuming that the ANP is based on IPAP and that the data is already agreed by BiH,” Bissell emphasized.
The purpose of the ANP is to become a list of reform priorities and goals, which BiH writes and compiles and according to which the reform processes are conducted and activities directed.
The ANP gives the BiH authorities and agencies a vision and plans to align activities and resources to create a more cost-effective and efficient security capability, enhance response to natural disasters, increase interoperability with NATO members and partners, including countries in the region, and enhance contribution to overall regional security.
It is also a mechanism through which NATO would support BiH in achieving its reform goals through a wide range of instruments for co-operation and activities, including counseling, expertise, training and exercises. In this way, the ANP would form the basis for cooperation between NATO and BiH.
The commander also clarified the difference between IPAP and ANP, saying that the current BiH partnership programs with NATO (PARP and IPAP) include goals targeted at the registered BiH Armed Forces units that make up about two percent of the total Armed Forces structure.
“The ANP would encompass the entire Armed Forces, enhancing their ability to work with NATO and partner forces, as well as with local civilian organizations and agencies,” she said.
She cited the example of visiting the 6th Infantry Brigade in Banja Luka last week and attending a demonstration of their water rescue training conducted for flood support purposes with the ANP facilitating NATO to incorporate such and similar goals into the reform process in ways that may not be available in IPAP.
In addition, she adds, IPAP is a program that runs over a three-year cycle, while the ANP is a document that is updated annually. For this reason, the ANP is more focused, thus allowing NATO to better respond to BiH's reform priorities and needs.
While discussions on the ANP are ongoing, the commander of the NATO HQ in Sarajevo notes that BiH is currently participating in the Individual Partnership Action Plan with NATO, launched in 2008.
IPAP is a partnership instrument that sets the country's reform priorities and goals and enables NATO to support BiH in implementing reforms such as defense and security sector reform and in the broader context of capacity building.
“The main difference is that IPAP is directed at the registered Armed Forces and the ANP is directed at the complete Armed Forces,” Bissell explained.
When asked what was the priority, the European Union or NATO, Bissell said it was a question that BiH had to decide, but stressed that it is important to keep in mind that many of the reforms that the EU would like to see are the same reforms that are encouraged by NATO or in short - one reform process is supported by another.
(FENA) L. N.
