SHAPE News Morning Update

30 May 2003

NATO

• NATO Secretary-General Robertson said on Thursday the diplomatic showdown over the U.S.-led war on Iraq had jolted the alliance back on track. He said NATO’s “almost routine” decisions to take over the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan and support a Polish-led stabilisation force in Iraq -- weeks after its damaging row over the U.S.-led war -- demonstrated a turnaround in its fortunes. “The crisis over Turkey had a pretty electrifying effect,” Robertson told reporters on a visit to NATO ships patrolling the Straits of Gibraltar as part of the “war on terrorism”. He said the allies had put their row over Iraq behind them more quickly than other multinational institutions such as the United Nations and EU because “people saw the edge of the precipice” and had stepped back.(Reuters 2043 290503 GMT)
  
  
• With a stopover in Poland, U.S. President Bush is making a powerful gesture of friendship to his strongest East European ally in the war in Iraq. “Poland has a very good record in terms of peacekeeping operations,” said Timothy Garden, a professor at the Center for Defense Studies at King’s College in London. “And because it has been in NATO for four years, it has got the procedures and the knowledge how to operate with other allies.” During his brief stay, Bush is expected to get a progress report from Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski on the planned Polish-led multinational force for south-central Iraq, numbering about 7,000 troops. “This is a completely different army, especially in terms of personnel composition,” former Defense Minister Janusz Onyszkiewicz told The Associated Press.(AP 300020 May 03 GMT)
  
  
• Czech Defence Minister Tvrdik submitted his resignation on Thursday over cuts to military spending seen in the government's finance reforms. Tvrdik told a news conference he handed his resignation to Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla in the morning. His decision does not endanger the centre-left government. “This is not about getting more money for the army, it is about the trust and belief of soldiers, of citizens and of NATO,” he said. “The (armed forces) reforms, as they are conceived, are not feasible (with the public finance reforms). And it is necessary to be answerable to this,” Tvrdik said. (Reuters 1023 290503 GMT)

IRAQ

• Parliament approved a government sponsored plan Thursday to send up to 500 troops to join the U.S.-led stabilization force in Iraq. Legislators voted 160-4 in favor of the proposal. The infantry battalion will be deployed by the end of next month. According to preliminary agreements, the peacekeeping troops would likely be deployed under the command of a Polish force, which is set to be in charge of a part of central-southern Iraq.(AP 291420 May 03 GMT)

ISAF

• A German peacekeeper was killed and another injured Thursday when their vehicle hit a land mine near the Afghan capital, officials said. In Berlin, German Defense Minister Struck called it a “tragic accident,” not a deliberate attack. He said the wounded soldier's injuries were not life-threatening. The incident occurred as the soldiers were traveling on a road about 15 kilometers (10 miles) south of Kabul, said Lt. Col. Paul Kolken, a spokesman for the ISAF. (AP 291741 May 03 GMT)

OTHER NEWS

• Australia and the United States on Friday denied reports Washington had approached Canberra to base up to 15,000 Marines in Australia as part of a realignment of U.S. forces in the Asia-Pacific after September 11. The denials follow comments from Pentagon sources that Washington had sought Canberra’s approval to station between 5,000 and 15,000 troops, plus combat aircraft, in Australia to help fight the war on terror and ensure regional stability. “It hasn't been raised with me and it hasn’t been raised with the defence minister,” Howard told Melbourne radio station 3AW. “I don’t give advance gratuitous blank cheque comments about the stationing of troops in this country to anybody. If the Americans had a proposition they would need to put it in the proper fashion and we would need to consider it. But I am not saying yes or no. The thing has not come up.”(Reuters 0121 300503 GMT)