Military

NATO

¨         According to The Daily Telegraph, Nov. 9, Lord Robertson launched a scathing attack on Friday, in a Brussels seminar, on NATO's European members, dismissing the £95 billion (150 billion euros) they spend each year on defense as "a waste of money" because of their inability to deploy swiftly during a crisis. The Guardian also reported Lord Robertson's concern about the yawning transatlantic gap in military spending, quoting him saying: "There are two million troops in uniform in Europe, half a million more than the Americans, but only a fraction are deployable". He went on: "That is a waste of money." In the same vein, the Belgian de Standaard reported him stating that there are enough military capabilities in Europe to create a rapid reaction force and a NATO response force but the main goal is to spend better defense money in order to achieve what is really needed. On the same day, according to the Dutch de Volkskrant, Defense Minister Korthals repeated that the Dutch forces will undergo severe cuts of personnel and material. The newspaper reported that up to 3400 military personnel would have to leave their service.

¨         The Times, Nov. 11, writes that NATO's new structure is intended primarily to meet U.S. concerns about the alliance's flexibility in the light also of the next foreseeable enlargement. In a plan to be set out at the summit in Prague, the two most important NATO military posts, SACEUR and SACLANT, will be merged into one called Strategic Commander Operations with the abolition of the post of Atlantic commander. The set up in Virginia will remain but the top job will deal with planning, education and military doctrine. Eight operational HQ are to be formed, able to manage a crisis or mastermind a campaign. Lord Robertson told the newspaper he got each of the NATO ministers to commit his government to buying or leasing immediately to improve NATO's overall military capabilities.

NATO-SUMMIT

¨         According to the Reuters news agency, NATO was in a dilemma on Tuesday over the possibility that the presidents of Ukraine and Belarus will try to attend the Prague summit next week despite warnings that they are not welcome. Belarus President Lukashenko is not wanted because of his autocratic rule and opposition to NATO enlargement, and Ukrainian President Kuchma because of unresolved questions about the suspected sale of an aircraft detection system to Iraq.

EU-ACCESSION

¨         Cyprus has been given one month, writes The Guardian, to secure peace after Kofi Annan presented his proposal for a solution. The UN Secretary General's intervention comes just weeks before a summit in Copenhagen will decide on the island's entry to the European Union. The proposal offers three basic choices: a sovereign state based on the model of Belgium where the posts of president and prime minister revolve; a state based on the Swiss model with six Greek Cypriot and three Turkish Cypriot ministers; or a state in which power is shared by an executive president and a vice-president who each have a right of veto.

EU-TURKEY

¨         Mr Erdogan, the winner of Turkey's elections, slapped down Valery Giscard d'Estaing's assertion that admitting predominantly-Muslim Turkey would mark the end of the European Union, The Times reported. Mr Erdogan decried the idea that the EU was a sort of "Christian club" and suggested Giscard d'Estaing's attitude would only hurt the already fragile dialogue between the Christian and Muslim worlds. Turkey will press for a date to start accession talks at next month's EU summit.

EU-KALININGRAD

¨         The Guardian reports the deal struck by President Putin and the European Union on the Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad on Monday. It removes a serious obstacle to the biggest ever enlargement of the EU in 2004, the newspaper writes. The agreement, which ensures access for the Baltic enclave's 1.5 million strong Russian population to Russia proper once the EU is enlarged to the east, came at the end of a summit overshadowed by concerns over Chechnya. The Washington Post on this topic quotes the Danish prime Minister: "The solution reflects the balance between the interests of the European Union, the candidate countries and the Russian Federation."

IRAQ

¨         The Iraqi parliament voted unanimously on Tuesday to reject a UN resolution to disarm Baghdad, but left the final decision to Saddam, reports a Reuters news agency dispatch. Iraq has until Friday to accept the terms of the UN resolution, demanding Baghdad allow UN arms experts unhindered access to any site suspected of producing chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, or face "serious consequences".

¨         The Prague summit will deliver a "strong political message" on the UN resolution, Lord Robertson said, according to AFP. He was further quoted: "it is more than possible that a discussion will take place on what individual countries.or organizations collectively might do in the case of  a failure of the resolution." Enlargement, the dispatch adds, has long been the summit's headline goal. But in the circumstances Iraq will now likely cloud the summit.

¨         The Times reports that Britain is preparing to order the deployment of up to 15,000 troops to Kuwait to take part in an American-led coalition against Iraq if Saddam fails to comply with the new resolution. The British Forces, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce reportedly said, will need up to two months to prepare and deploy to the Gulf. Plans foresee sending an armoured reinforced force.

¨         Iraq has ordered large quantities of a drug that can be used to counter the effects of nerve gas, mainly from suppliers in Turkey, The New York Times writes. Iraq allegedly ordered a million doses of atropine and 7-inch auto-injectors and also placed orders for another antidote for chemical weapons.

WAR ON TERRORISM

¨         According to AFP, Lord Robertson expressed support on Monday for Russia's military clampdown on Chechen terrorist while also urging progress for a political solution. "Russia has a right to deal with breaches of law and order on its own sovereign territory," he was quoted saying. But "NATO and the individual nations of NATO.have always said that a long-term solution to problems such as the problem of Chechnya need a political as well as military solution," he reportedly said further.

AFGHANISTAN

¨         According to AFP , Canadian Defense Minister McCallum said he supported a call by Germany for NATO to take command of the multinational security force next year. He was speaking after talks with his German counterpart, Peter Struck, who said on a visit to Washington late last week that Lord Robertson and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld also supported the idea.