Ladies and Gentlemen, Allow me to end my brief remarks with a few words on the media. Since we took action in Kosovo, our media policy has been faced with many challenges and also, inevitably, with some criticism. It has been said that in war, truth is the first casualty. We are committed to openness since we are an alliance of open societies. We have admitted mistakes where they occurred and we have expressed our sincere regrets whenever human life was lost as a consequence.
Objectivity means trying to give all sides a hearing.
It does not mean treating all sides as equal. Ladies and Gentlemen, Today, the Atlantic community stands as a unique community of shared values and interests. Its first 50 years, Act One, were characterised by the Cold War, and then by the struggle to wind it down peacefully. This has largely been achieved. The Washington Summit raised the curtain to the Second Act of our transatlantic community, a mature transatlantic partnership that reaches out across the old faultlines of confrontation.