Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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92. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he can confirm Ireland's signature of a letter reported in the Austrian press (details supplied); if he will publish the text of this letter; if the details reported reflect the official policy of the Government; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24028/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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In the context of our partnership with NATO via Partnership for Peace, Ireland works closely with a number of other militarily neutral and non-aligned countries in Western Europe that are not members of the organisation. The countries involved are Switzerland, Ireland, Austria and Malta.

All four countries have concluded Individually Tailored Partnership Programmes (ITPP) with NATO, which set out the parameters, and areas of focus, which each country has identified with NATO as of mutual interest for their partnership.

As part of regular engagements and meetings between Ireland, Malta, Austria and Switzerland, and NATO, the four countries prepared a non-paper and accompanying letter last December to frame discussions. These set out the nature of the partnership between the four countries concerned, and noted that each country, while neutral, shares common interests in terms of European and international security.

The paper focused in particular on areas where all four countries are making significant contributions to international peace and security, notably as contributing partners to peacekeeping missions, including NATO’s largest ongoing mission in Kosovo (KFOR), in dialogue and consultation, and to the innovation and emerging disruptive technologies agenda.

From Ireland’s perspective, this work is consistent with the Government’s desire to strengthen our cooperation with international partners, including NATO, in addressing the security challenges facing Europe at the present time. As the Government has made clear on many occasions, Ireland has no plans to join NATO.