Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

7 May 2003

IRAQ

• According to Reuters, Defense Minister Struck told an interview with German daily Leipziger Volkzeitung Wednesday that NATO would discuss next week a Polish proposal that its soldiers team up with German and Danish troops to keep the peace in part of post-war Iraq. “Next week, the NATO Council will discuss everything proposed—and without prejudice,” Struck indicated. He reportedly added he had not been consulted in advance about Warsaw’s suggestion that the Polish element of a multinational stabilization force in Iraq could be based on an existing joint Polish-German-Danish corps, but said the proposal should be examined “very carefully.” According to the dispatch, he stressed that for German involvement in any force, it would have to be linked to the UN or NATO. A related AP dispatch implies that Poland has been lobbying Washington to allow Germany to play a role in post-war Iraq, trying to use its favor with the United States to help mend a rift with Europe’s anti-war nations. Defense Minister Szmajdzinski, who returned from Washington Tuesday, proposed to Defense Secretary Rumsfeld that Germany and Denmark contribute troops to any Polish-led peacekeeping force in Iraq, drawing on a German-Danish-Polish corps. At the same time, Foreign Minister Cimoszewicz was pushing for UN authorization for the force, a move that could help Germany join, notes the dispatch.

Focus on post-war Iraq appears to be shifting to a possible NATO involvement in a stabilization force for the country.
Claiming that the “German government agrees to a NATO commitment in Iraq,” Duesseldorf’s Handelsblatt, May 6, wrote that during Defense Minister Struck’s visit to Washington, it was reported from high-ranking government circles that Berlin would not have a problem with a NATO involvement in Iraq if the United States and Britain wanted this. In the German government’s opinion, NATO could be used without a UN mandate, said the newspaper, adding, however, that Germany itself would only participate if such a UN mandate existed.
Lisbon’s Publico reports that the government is currently examining the possibility of sending policemen to Iraq and the subsequent dispatch of Portuguese troops as part of a NATO mission, “as is the case in Afghanistan.”
In an interview with French daily Ouest-France, Foreign Minister de Villepin said meanwhile that France is willing to examine a NATO involvement in Iraq. He said: “In order to establish stability and democracy durably in Iraq and the region, it is necessary to use a force that rallies together the international community and that sets itself within the framework of a Security Council mandate. This is what most states want now, including some of those that envisage participating in this force. France is willing favorably to examine NATO involvement, which should be set within the UN framework, as was the case in the Balkans. The arrangement that was adopted, and that has proved itself, could involve countries of the region.”
AFP reports the Hungarian government voted Tuesday to open the country’s territory and airspace to a new stablization force for Iraq but delayed by one month a decision on whether Hungary would take part. The vote reportedly won overwhelming backing from all four parties in Parliament.

U.S. TROOP BASING

• The review of the U.S. defense posture around the globe was an undertaking begun during the Clinton administration, but with NATO’s enlargement approaching rapidly and growing controversies over U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia and South Korea, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld ordered his combatant commanders in Europe, the Pacific and Central Command to rethink the U.S. “footprint” everywhere, reports the Financial Times. Rumsfeld has repeatedly said he believes the U.S. has too many troops in Germany and Gen. Jones has said he plans to recommend moving forces farther east, the newspaper notes, quoting Rumsfeld saying at the weekend: “It made a lot of sense to have a number of capabilities in Germany when you were worried about the Soviet Union coming across the north German plain. It does not make a lot of sense to have capabilities that you can’t use or you have to go through circuitous routes.” Former SACEUR Gen. Ralston is said to have made a similar recommendation, arguing that basing troops in Bulgaria and Romania would give the U.S. easier access to the Caucasus and Gulf regions, the newspaper adds. It recalls that Gen. Jones has suggested setting up “lily pads,” or lightly manned forward bases.

OTHER NEWS

• The Times reports that the EuroProp European aero-engine consortium Tuesday became the surprise winner of a $2 billion deal to power Airbus’s new A400M military transport aircraft. The newspaper notes that EuroProp is a joint venture between Britain’s Rolls-Royce, France’s state-owned Snecma Moteurs, Germany’s MTU Aero Engines and Spain’s industria de Turbo Propulsores.