Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

20 Juillet 2003

NATO

• Romanian military bases gave American forces a big boost in the war with Iraq, but Washington has not decided whether to base U.S. forces here permanently, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said on Monday. Although the United States hasn’t decided whether to maintain a long-term presence of troops in the formerly communist country, “Romanian bases were so useful during Operation Iraqi Freedom ... and the fact that we have such great support from the Romanian government are factors in our thinking,” Wolfowitz added. During his one-day visit to Romania, Paul Wolfowitz met with political and military leaders and discussed press freedoms with leading journalists. Asked about cooperation between NATO and European Union rapid-reaction forces, he said they should act in a complementary way. (AP 191417 May 03)
  
  
• The Pentagon has approved the US $14.92 billion development and demonstration phase of the Future Combat Systems program, a project led by Boeing Co. to modernize the U.S. Army, the Army said on Monday. The FCS is expected to become a lethal family of manned and unmanned air and ground weapons interlinked and tied to forces from other U.S. military services over a sophisticated command network. It aims for an initial operating capability by 2010. The Army said FCS over time will replace its current fleet of heavy war machines such as the M-1A Abrams tank and Bradley Fighting Vehicle with a new generation of attack vehicles supported by unmanned air and ground weaponry. The idea is to replace heavy tanks with a lighter, more mobile force able to fight on arrival in a battle, not waiting for equipment. (Reuters 192147 GMT May 03)

IRAQ

• Seeking to build support for a quick lifting of UN sanctions on Iraq, the United States on Monday offered some concessions to Security Council critics, including an enhanced UN role in establishing a new Iraqi government. But the new U.S. draft would retain broad U.S. and British control over Iraq’s oil and the right to run the country until an internationally recognized government was in place. The draft, which U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said he wanted to bring to a vote by the end of the week, would phase out the oil-for-food humanitarian program over six months rather than four, to address concerns ordinary Iraqis might suffer if the program were eliminated too quickly. The new text also would open the door to a possible return of UN arms inspectors, though not in the immediate future. (Reuters 200156 GMT May 03)
  
  
• U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is looking for France to help heal a sharp rift with the United States over the war with Iraq when he flies to Paris on Wednesday to meet Group of Eight foreign ministers. The State Department announced Powell would meet officials from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia on Thursday and Friday for talks expected to focus on Iraq. “We’re looking for actions and a lot will depend on how they (the French) engage these final days on the Security Council resolution,” said one U.S. official who did not wish to be identified and hinted at a worry that France might abstain. “We don’t want any obstructionism. We want them to vote for the resolution,” he added. (Reuters 192144 GMT May 03)

EU

• European Union defense ministers declared their 60,000-strong rapid-reaction force ready on Monday for a “full range” of peacekeeping operations, but conceded that hardware shortfalls could make it hard to send and protect the troops. In a sign of the EU’s growing involvement in military matters, the bloc said it was considering a UN request for it to send troops to north-eastern Congo. “The security council has another place where it can go to draw forces, which is the European Union,” Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign and security policy representative, told a news conference. Solana said it was too early to say when an EU force could be ready to deploy, or how large it would be. (AP 191740 May 03)