The Lisbon Treaty, he said, had simplified the Union’s international representation, and the creation of an External Action Service would help to enhance the strategic direction, coherence and effectiveness of its foreign policy.  He looked forward to working with United Nations members and the United Nations Secretariat to ensure that the new structures worked efficiently within the world Organization.

CLAUDIO BISOGNIERO, Deputy Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), said there was an increasing awareness that institutions could no longer work in isolation from each other and that the key to meeting today’s security challenges lay in building new ties.  NATO was actively promoting such closer ties, as bringing military and civilian means closer together was absolutely vital to preventing, addressing and resolving crises and conflict, such as in Afghanistan. 

NATO was leading the United Nations-mandated ISAF operation.  There were 16 troop contributing nations who were not NATO members, which made ISAF a true joint commitment by the international community.  There was, however, no purely military solution to the problems in Afghanistan.  The key would be an increased interaction between military efforts, civilian interventions and improved governance.  That would require the alliance’s increased cooperation with the United Nations, the World Bank, the European Union and other international actors, as well as with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the private sector.  That could only be achieved if all actors actively coordinated, and the main coordinating role lay with the United Nations.  NATO had made some encouraging progress in contributing to such international coordination. 

More had to be done, however, he said.  International actors engaged in peace operations still did not train or plan together and did not join up in the field.  Ending such fragmentation would require a profound “cultural change” among regional organizations.  Innovative steps should be considered to implement a comprehensive approach.  One could imagine a pool of liaison officers from various institutions at United Nations Headquarters, or staff exchanges.  In the past, a lack of strategic dialogue had often prevented the examination of common challenges and the formulation of common responses, leaving that to the working level to sort out.  That was why the United Nations retreat and today’s discussion were welcome initiatives, to pursue the strategic dialogue that so far had been missing.

VICTOR RICO FRONTAURA, Secretary for Political Affairs of the Organization of American States (OAS), noted that his organization was already