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NOTE: Due to PIO’s participation in Exercise "Strong Resolve 2002," the SHAPE News Morning Update will not be published for the period March 1-15. Significant news items will be incorporated in the SHAPE News Summary and Analysis.

• According to AFP, Russian Defense Minister Ivanov stressed in Moscow Wednesday that Russia was ready to intensify its cooperation with NATO as an equal partner in security matters. Such cooperation should result in both sides sharing "full responsibility for reaching joint decisions," Ivanov reportedly said at the opening of talks with defense ministers from the Commonwealth of Independent States. Warsaw’s Trybuna, Feb. 25, carried an interview with Dmitriy Rogozin, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian State Duma in which he hinted that a new relationship with NATO may reduce Russian opposition to the Baltics’ NATO membership. Asked whether Moscow had changed its stance on the possible admission of the Baltic republics into NATO, Rogozin stressed: "It has changed. We believe that a mechanism of ‘20’ should be developed within NATO. Only then should the decision on accepting new members be made. This also applies for the Baltic states."

Media continue to focus on a NATO plan for a closer relationship with Russia. Commentators echo the message by Alliance officials and diplomats that the plan provides for the creation of a new NATO-Russia Council but Moscow will not be given a seat at the NAC and will not have a veto on NATO’s decisions. Several media continue to see a link between the plan and preparations for the Alliance’s enlargement.

AFP writes that "confident that Moscow will not be able to block their entry into the Alliance," the Baltic states welcomed Wednesday new proposals to improve cooperation between NATO and Russia. "These are natural proposals as there has never been any intention of leaving Russia outside of NATO. This is a positive step, as Europe cannot live without Russian political influence," the dispatch quotes Lithuanian President Adamkus saying. Another AFP dispatch notes that in Vilnius Wednesday, US NATO envoy Nicholas Burns indicated that proposals sent to Moscow last week offered to create a new NATO-Russia Council but would not give Russia a seat on the NAC. "That council (NAC) remains sovereign and the NATO-Russia Council is completely separate from it and Russia obviously will not have any say over what that Council does; it will not have a veto over what the Council does," Burns is quoted saying. According to the dispatch, he also dismissed as "fundamentally inaccurate" some recent articles in the media saying that after reform and enlargement NATO will cease being a collective defense organization and become a political organization. At the Prague summit "NATO will reconfirm as far into the future as one can possibly see that we will be a collective defense organization. We are a military organization and our principle purpose is to defend the members of the Alliance in Europe and North America," Burns reportedly stressed.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung highlights, however, that NATO is increasingly turning from a defense alliance into a political security organization. Copenhagen’s Berlingske Tidende, Feb. 25, opined that the decisive element in the proposed plan for enhanced cooperation with Russia is the political character of this cooperation and NATO’s will to accommodate Russia’s longstanding wish to be included in Europe’s security-policy architecture. In reality, the newspaper stressed, "it can be said that with this proposal, NATO is taking a decisive step away from being a narrow military alliance toward becoming a real security policy organization which has the objective of including all the member countries of the former Warsaw Pact. The prospects are this broad and the hopes of being able to bury old dividing lines and hostilities this great." The newspaper insisted, however, that one absolute precondition for this new arrangement must be that the opening toward Russia in no way weakens the relationship between Europe and the United States. "Solidarity with the U.S. is the key to preserving peace and stability in our part of the world, and this is the way it should continue to be," added the newspaper.

An editorial in the Washington Times considers that before the NATO-Russia deal is finalized, the American people deserve to know what safeguards are in place to ensure U.S. security is not being compromised and the mission of NATO is not undermined. The editorial suggests that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should hold a hearing as soon as possible so the Bush administration and NATO officials can clearly answer those and other questions.

ISAF

• The Press Office of the German Defense Ministry announces that while the German government is not striving to obtain the leading role within ISAF, Germany will comply with Britain’s wish and take over, in the next few weeks, the command at the tactical level of the multinational brigade in Kabul, i.e., the local coordination of the deployment of the second contingent (Britain/Dutch/German/ Danish/Austrian). "This role has no consequences for the strength of the German contingent. It merely consists in the establishment of a multinational staff in the German quarters under German command. It is initially planned that this leading role will be exercised until 20 June 2002. No additional tasks will be undertaken in relation with the fulfillment of the function of lead nation at the strategic-operational level of ISAF," says the communiqué. Earlier, Britain’s The Times wrote that Germany had agreed to take over running the operational headquarters of ISAF in Kabul at the end of April. The newspaper added that a German brigadier-general would command a multi-national brigade headquarters, replacing Britain’s 16 Air Assault Brigade, which is commanded by Brig. Barney White-Spunner. It noted that the agreement by the Germans resolves one of the biggest problems facing ISAF and, in particular the British, regarding the command structure for the second stage of the six-month mandate agreed by the UN.

TERRORISM

• Amid reports that U.S. troops could be sent to the former Soviet republic of Georgia to help train its military to fight guerrillas linked to Al Qaeda, AP quotes a EUCOM spokesman saying Wednesday a U.S. assessment team with about 40 members visited Georgia last fall to assess Georgian units’ capabilities and U.S. helicopters have already been sent to the region. According to the dispatch, the spokesman said "the team covered ‘a wide range of specialties’--among them member of Special Operations Command Europe and representatives of EUCOM headquarters." He declined to address future plans, but said the United States already had provided Georgia with 10 UH-lH "Huey" helicopters, six of them intended for flying and four for space parts. A U.S. service member and six contractors have been there since November to give training in how to operate the aircraft, he reportedly added. The dispatch further reports that in Tbilisi, a spokeswoman for the Georgian Defense Ministry said that "U.S. military advisers are coming to Georgia to assist in training a special task force capable of resisting terrorists." She reportedly said the force was led by Otar Shalikashvili, an assistant to the U.S. defense secretary. A related Reuters dispatch quotes unidentified officials saying a final decision had not been made but dozens of Army special forces trainers are expected to go to Georgia soon in what could become a third front for the U.S. military in the war on terrorism. The New York Times quotes a senior military official saying the aim of the training mission, which is close to being approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is to prepare Georgian troops for combating foreign fighters who have been operating in a mountainous region of the country and could have links to Al Qaeda. The official reportedly added that the Georgia plan calls for 100 to 200 Special Operations Forces, but that number could grow depending on how the operation unfolds. The article stresses that Pentagon officials insisted that any American troops in Georgia would not be allowed to take direct part in combat operations, but they could defend themselves against any attack. The Washington Post remarks that the move opens a new front in the Bush administration’s war on terrorism and is fueled by a belief shared by the United States and Georgia that Al Qaeda members and Chechen rebels have taken refuge in northern Georgia. It claims that the mission also represents a belief by the Bush administration that Arab fighters connected to Al Qaeda have joined Chechen rebel forces to battle the Russian army, an assertion long made by President Putin, but publicly doubted until now in Washington.

• CNN reported that the U.S. Treasury Department announced Tuesday it had moved to freeze the assets of 21 individuals who have ties to ETA, the Basque separatist group, considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. The network carried Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill saying the action was taken in close collaboration with the government of Spain and the EU. "The United States wholeheartedly welcomes this international cooperation. It is our hope that other governments will take the lead in identifying terrorists and their supports, so that together the civilized world can shut down their organizations and eradicate their sources of support," O’Neill commented.

 FINAL ITEM