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NATO-ENLARGEMENT

• According to AFP, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in Bucharest Tuesday a final decision on which countries will be invited to join NATO in a new wave of enlargement will not take place before October. At a news conference during a two-day meeting of 10 NATO hopefuls in the Romanian capital, Armitage reportedly stressed that "nations will probably get a sense of how close they are to accession or not, but the decision will not be made before October." He called upon the candidates to continue political reform efforts, restructure their armed forces and pursue the fight against corruption. "The U.S. looks forward to the fullest, widest possible accession" to NATO, Armitage further said, adding that "no country is excluded from consideration because of its history, its geography or the views of any outside power."

U.S. media reporting on the Bucharest meeting generally observe that the politics of NATO enlargement had changed since Sept. 11 and the new focus is now on the Black Sea region.

Citing U.S., NATO and East European diplomats, the International Herald Tribune writes that Romania and Bulgaria have unexpectedly been catapulted into serious consideration for membership in NATO because of the post Sept. 11 strategic importance of the Black Sea, which could provide a military platform for any widening of the U.S. war against terrorism. The newspaper claims that the two countries’ prospects have improved despite long-standing concerns about democratic reform, corruption and military readiness in both.

In a similar vein, the New York Times writes that in the aftermath of Sept. 11 and with the war on terrorism, the southern flank of NATO suddenly seems more important, and the domestic blemishes of candidate countries like Romania less important. "Sept. 11 had a riveting effect on NATO and applicant countries," the newspaper quotes Deputy Secretary of State Armitage saying.

Romania and Bulgaria, considered at best long shots a year ago, have won several supporters in recent months, pushing effectively a line that the terrorist attacks have made it imperative to shore up the Alliance’s southeastern flank and provide a "land bridge" to Turkey, says a related article in the Washington Times.

Stressing that qualifying for NATO membership entails more than military reform--it involves such nonmilitary subjects as corruption, treatment of minorities and organized crime--the Wall Street Journal argues that NATO’s influence in politics exceeds its military force.

Bombarded by accusations that it is irrelevant, NATO says it wants to become a nimble fighting force capable of defending against terrorist groups, weapons of mass destruction and other "asymmetric threats." But in reality, NATO’s significant job is political, not military. Its center role in the war in Kosovo can be seen as the exception in a decade-long evolution from a military alliance into a political body that keeps the peace in Europe through dialogue and negotiation, says the article. It suggests that with the probable admission of more members from Eastern Europe, "NATO may become a kind of military tool box that can be tapped by the U.S., or perhaps the EU, in case of war if it succeeds in putting together its own rapid-response force."

AFGHANISTAN-QUAKE-INTERNATIONAL AID

• Electronic media report more than 1,800 people are feared dead and thousands are homeless after a series of earthquakes struck Afghanistan’s remote northern province of Baghlan. BBC World said Afghanistan’s interim government had appealed to the UN and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) for help. The broadcast quoted an ISAF spokesman saying: "At the moment, we are on standby awaiting further information with readiness to send some rescue teams up to the area to see more ways we might be able to help." The program stressed it will be a challenge for aid agencies to speed supplies to the area which is a good day’s drive from Kabul. Reuters quotes U.S. envoy Khalilzad saying Washington would provide help "in dealing with this tragedy."

BALKANS

• Reuters reports NATO officials said Tuesday that two ethnic Albanian gunmen were killed in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia late Monday in a fierce gun battle suspected to involve rival guerrilla factions from a disbanded rebel force. The dispatch quotes a NATO official saying NATO troops from the Amber Fox mission were immediately deployed to assess the situation. "It’s an inter-Albanian dispute. But we still don’t know the reason," the official reportedly said. The dispatch adds that the fight seemed to have centered on the local headquarters of the now disbanded National Liberation army, the ethnic Albanian guerrillas that staged a six-month insurgency in 2001. A related AP dispatch quotes a NATO spokesman saying NATO soldiers were at the scene investigating along with international monitors.

• AFP writes that Serbian authorities Tuesday began a transfer of ethnic Albanian prisoners held in Serbian jails to Kosovo, meeting a key U.S. demand for extending aid to Yugoslavia. According to the dispatch, a convoy of four buses, escorted by two UN vehicles and Serbian police cars, was seen leaving a prison in Nis. A related AP dispatch said Serbian authorities planned to bus the prisoners to the provincial border and hand them over to NATO troops.

 FINAL ITEM