thedrifter
12-02-03, 08:46 AM
December 01, 2003
Afghanistan tops NATO ministers’ agenda
By Paul Ames
Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium — NATO defense ministers opened talks Monday under pressure to provide more troops and equipment for their peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan or risk destroying the alliance’s credibility.
Alliance Secretary General Lord Robertson has warned that a failure of the Afghan mission could “shatter” NATO’s credibility and see the country again becoming a base for international terrorism.
He is demanding ministers offer more helicopters and specialist troops to the existing NATO force of 5,700 operating in Kabul. Then he wants them to muster extra forces so the alliance can make good on a pledge to expand its operation, first to the northern city of Kunduz, then to up to five other provincial cities.
Arriving for the meeting, Canada’s Defense Minister John McCallum said the alliance would carry out its mission.
“I’m confident we’re on the right track,” he told reporters. Canada and Germany currently have most troops in the NATO mission in Kabul.
The two-day meeting was also set to discuss plans to cut the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Bosnia by almost half — to 7,000 — over the course of 2004.
It also will give European allies a chance to discuss with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld a plan agreed to last weekend to boost the European Union’s ability to mount its own military operations.
Washington has been wary about plans promoted by France and Germany to give the EU its own headquarters, fearing that could undermine NATO unity. Britain, which has sought a compromise, said the new EU deal recognizes NATO’s key role in the defense of Europe and would not weaken the alliance.
In a first reaction Sunday, Rumsfeld was cautious, saying that he doubted the Europeans would take action that undermined NATO.
Luxembourg’s Defense Minister Charles Goerens said he had not heard negative comments from Rumsfeld when European ministers discussed the plan with him at dinner Sunday.
“There is no duplication, no incoherence in this initiative,” Goerens said. “It’s good for everybody, good for Europe and good for the alliance.”
While NATO is struggling to meet its commitment to the United Nations and Afghan authorities to expand its current limited mission in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld on Sunday suggested the alliance could go much further.
He said Washington would like NATO to eventually take over the entire military mission in Afghanistan. Currently, an American-dominated combat force of 10,000 operates apart from the NATO mission, fighting remnants of the Taliban regime and their al-Qaida allies.
NATO allies have shown little sign they are prepared to take such a wider mission on any time soon. Nor is the alliance ready for a bigger role in Iraq, where NATO involvement is restricted to providing logistical support to a Polish-led force operating in the center of the country.
Many NATO nations, including Britain, Spain, Italy and Poland, have sent troops to Iraq. But the alliance has limited its role, principally because of opposition from France and Germany.
In Bosnia, the ministers were expected to prepare to wind down a NATO peacekeeping mission launched in 1995.
Reducing the force from 12,500 to 7,000 reflects increasing stability in the Balkan nation and will likely be followed by NATO handing over the mission to the EU late next year.
Rumsfeld also was expected to talk with European ministers about plans to realign U.S. forces in Europe, switching away from the big, fixed bases of the Cold War era to smaller, more flexible units more suited to fighting terrorism and other new threats.
Robertson will tell European allies they too must make a greater effort to modernize their forces to make them more “usable” in the fight against terrorism, rogue states or regional crises.
With that in mind, the ministers were expected to declare operational NATO’s first nuclear, biological and chemical defense battalion, comprising several hundred specialist troops.
NATO foreign ministers will hold their own year-end meeting Thursday and Friday.
The meetings will be Robertson’s last as secretary-general. He is stepping down at the end of December after a four-year term, and will be replaced by Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2442330.php
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
Afghanistan tops NATO ministers’ agenda
By Paul Ames
Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium — NATO defense ministers opened talks Monday under pressure to provide more troops and equipment for their peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan or risk destroying the alliance’s credibility.
Alliance Secretary General Lord Robertson has warned that a failure of the Afghan mission could “shatter” NATO’s credibility and see the country again becoming a base for international terrorism.
He is demanding ministers offer more helicopters and specialist troops to the existing NATO force of 5,700 operating in Kabul. Then he wants them to muster extra forces so the alliance can make good on a pledge to expand its operation, first to the northern city of Kunduz, then to up to five other provincial cities.
Arriving for the meeting, Canada’s Defense Minister John McCallum said the alliance would carry out its mission.
“I’m confident we’re on the right track,” he told reporters. Canada and Germany currently have most troops in the NATO mission in Kabul.
The two-day meeting was also set to discuss plans to cut the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Bosnia by almost half — to 7,000 — over the course of 2004.
It also will give European allies a chance to discuss with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld a plan agreed to last weekend to boost the European Union’s ability to mount its own military operations.
Washington has been wary about plans promoted by France and Germany to give the EU its own headquarters, fearing that could undermine NATO unity. Britain, which has sought a compromise, said the new EU deal recognizes NATO’s key role in the defense of Europe and would not weaken the alliance.
In a first reaction Sunday, Rumsfeld was cautious, saying that he doubted the Europeans would take action that undermined NATO.
Luxembourg’s Defense Minister Charles Goerens said he had not heard negative comments from Rumsfeld when European ministers discussed the plan with him at dinner Sunday.
“There is no duplication, no incoherence in this initiative,” Goerens said. “It’s good for everybody, good for Europe and good for the alliance.”
While NATO is struggling to meet its commitment to the United Nations and Afghan authorities to expand its current limited mission in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld on Sunday suggested the alliance could go much further.
He said Washington would like NATO to eventually take over the entire military mission in Afghanistan. Currently, an American-dominated combat force of 10,000 operates apart from the NATO mission, fighting remnants of the Taliban regime and their al-Qaida allies.
NATO allies have shown little sign they are prepared to take such a wider mission on any time soon. Nor is the alliance ready for a bigger role in Iraq, where NATO involvement is restricted to providing logistical support to a Polish-led force operating in the center of the country.
Many NATO nations, including Britain, Spain, Italy and Poland, have sent troops to Iraq. But the alliance has limited its role, principally because of opposition from France and Germany.
In Bosnia, the ministers were expected to prepare to wind down a NATO peacekeeping mission launched in 1995.
Reducing the force from 12,500 to 7,000 reflects increasing stability in the Balkan nation and will likely be followed by NATO handing over the mission to the EU late next year.
Rumsfeld also was expected to talk with European ministers about plans to realign U.S. forces in Europe, switching away from the big, fixed bases of the Cold War era to smaller, more flexible units more suited to fighting terrorism and other new threats.
Robertson will tell European allies they too must make a greater effort to modernize their forces to make them more “usable” in the fight against terrorism, rogue states or regional crises.
With that in mind, the ministers were expected to declare operational NATO’s first nuclear, biological and chemical defense battalion, comprising several hundred specialist troops.
NATO foreign ministers will hold their own year-end meeting Thursday and Friday.
The meetings will be Robertson’s last as secretary-general. He is stepping down at the end of December after a four-year term, and will be replaced by Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2442330.php
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: