Seanad debates
Wednesday, 25 June 2003
Military Neutrality: Motion.
We need to take what is positive in this country's tradition and build on it. There is no absolute neutrality. However, it does not follow that if we are not perfectly neutral, we are not neutral at all – that is a fallacy. Neutrality is not necessarily the same in any two countries. Swiss neutrality is not the same as Finnish neutrality which, in turn, differs from Swedish neutrality, either historically or in present day terms. There are different forms. One could become too legalistic about this. We should be proud of our neutral tradition, bring it into the debate on European common security and foreign policy and help in shaping values in that regard. We should not decide, at this point, that we have to abandon that tradition and just get into bed, uncritically, with other countries which have very different traditions.
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