Peace, security and stability in Kosovo are key to the future. We must ensure its people can live without fear, whether of external aggression or repression, or internal lawlessness. Our armed forces will continue to play a key role in helping to shape the new Kosovo, both by ensuring that there is no further risk from Serb forces, and through helping to enforce law and order in Kosovo. We will ensure that our forces are at the right strength and have the right equipment for whatever new challenges are thrown up. But equally, we will ensure that troops stay in Kosovo only as long as necessary.
Police are also vital in Kosovo.
The OSCE is running a school to train local policemen, and the United Kingdom provides 40 instructors. Sixty officers from the Royal Ulster Constabulary have been in Kosovo since late 1999, and these were joined in May 2000 by about sixty officers from the Ministry of Defence Police. However, an improved security situation is not sufficient. We need also to rebuild civil society in Kosovo. Kosovo has to recover not only from the depredations of the Milosevic years, but also from fifty years of communism.