Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

19 June 2003

NATO

• Emphasizing its modernization drive, NATO aims to have a 5,000-strong vanguard of its new rapid response forces ready by October, the allied military commander said on Wednesday. “It’s important for people to see what it looks like,” U.S. Marine Gen. James L. Jones told a news conference. “We will stand it up and use it as an example,” he added. Gen. Jones, a strong supporter of NATO taking a more expeditionary approach to dealing with global security threats, said the force should be able to tackle a full range of missions “from peacekeeping to crisis intervention.” Speaking at NATO’s military HQ in southern Belgium, Gen. Jones sidestepped questions over a U.S. warning that the alliance may have to pull its headquarters out Belgium if the government does not change war crimes laws that have targeted senior American civilian and military officials. “This is a bilateral issue between the United States and Belgium,” he said. “It would not be appropriate for me to get involved.” Gen. Jones said he did not feel threatened by the law. NATO also decided on Wednesday that representatives from the seven nations due to join the alliance next year will now routinely attend policy setting meetings. NATO officials announced that the alliance’s Secretary General Lord Robertson will attend the European Union summit in northern Greece on Saturday in a sign of closer cooperation between the two organizations. (AP 181552 Jun 03)
  
  
• Lithuanian Defence Minister Linas Linkevicius said on Wednesday that the small ex-Soviet Baltic state would do all it could to get a NATO military base located on its territory in coming years. “We have expressed that desire at many levels and are already seeking it,” Linkevicius told reporters after a meeting with visiting U.S. General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Gen. Myers praised Lithuania’s ongoing military reforms, but said NATO had not made any decisions yet on military bases in the new member states. “It won’t come automatically and not for several years at least,” said Linkevicius, adding that U.S. experts had visited potential sites. (Reuters 181405 GMT Jun 03)

AFGHANISTAN

• NATO, which takes over the international peacekeeping mission in Kabul, is considering a plan to send small groups of soldiers across Afghanistan to support reconstruction teams. Aid agencies, UN officials and the Afghan government have appealed for the international force to spread across the country to restore security. The aim is to have 16 such Provincial Reconstruction Teams spread out around the country, said British Gen. Sir Jack Deverell, commander of NATO’s northern headquarters which is planning the Afghan mission. “NATO will have a significant force ... able to do the important work that’s required in Afghanistan,” said U.S. Marine Gen. James Jones, NATO’s top military commander. (AP 190235 Jun 03)
  
  
• Afghanistan is at risk of reverting to control by warlords and the United States of suffering a defeat in the “war on terrorism” unless Washington strengthens the Kabul government, a non-governmental report said on Wednesday. It recommended the Bush administration bolster President Karzai and quickly build more international support for economic, diplomatic and security reconstruction. The report was co-sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations and the Asia Society in New York with a task force of 60 people in the diplomatic, business and humanitarian fields. They analyzed Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion. One of the lead authors, Frank Wisner, a former U.S. ambassador to India, said U.S. credibility was on the line and if Washington “did not get it right in Afghanistan it will be a lot harder to convince others to work with us to get it right in Iraq.” The authors said the Bush administration policy of excluding U.S. troops from peacekeeping responsibilities outside Kabul “fails to address the growing security challenge that the Karzai government faces.” They said Washington should be prepared to help fight regional leaders and warlords. (Reuters 182051 GMT Jun 03)

UNIVERSAL COMPETENCE LAW

• Belgium sought on Wednesday to ease tensions with the United States caused by a controversial war crimes law by proposing greater immunity to visiting foreign officials who could otherwise face arrest. Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said he could consider giving officials greater immunity when they came to visit NATO or one of the European institutions in Brussels. Minister Michel said his proposal could be the best solution. “If immunity is...strengthened, then there is no longer a problem,” he told the local VRT radio network. (Reuters 181823 GMT Jun 03)

IRAQ

• Top Pentagon officials said on Wednesday they expect U.S. allies in the Iraq war to send 20,000 troops in August and September to help in peacekeeping duties, replacing the 12,000 non-U.S. troops currently serving in Iraq. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz also told the House Armed Services Committee that the White House may seek another emergency spending bill to pay for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, in addition to the more than $60 billion it received in April. Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz and Gen. Peter Pace, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said they expected other countries to contribute more troops and resources in the effort to stabilize and rebuild Iraq. Gen. Pace said the Pentagon has “commitments from coalition forces for another 20,000 troops right now, and the projection is that between middle of August and middle of September they will arrive.” He said “there’s another 10,000 or so troops being discussed by various nations,” but without commitments yet. (Reuters 182208 GMT Jun 03)

IRAN

• A bitter row raged between Tehran and Washington on Wednesday over Iran’s nuclear ambitions as hundreds protested in Iran for an eighth day and four exiles set themselves ablaze in anger at a roundup of Iranian exiles in France. President Bush said on Wednesday that the world must make clear to Iran that “we will not tolerate” its government building a nuclear weapon and once again underlined U.S. backing for pro-democracy protests in Iran. A report by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency that was debated in Vienna on Wednesday said Tehran had “failed to report certain nuclear material and activities,” but was making amends. The IAEA report said Iran repeatedly breached anti-nuclear treaties over the last 12 years by failing to declare the import, processing and storage of nuclear material. (Reuters 182210 GMT Jun 03)

EU

• European Union leaders will get a first peep this week at a proposed security strategy aimed at making an enlarged 25-nation EU a bigger player in world affairs and a more equal partner for the United States. The 10-page document drafted by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana was commissioned to help avert a repeat of the bloc’s damaging split over the Iraq crisis by taking a coherent approach to security threats and foreign policy challenges. But first indications after Solana gave EU foreign ministers an oral presentation on Monday are that its definition of Europe’s common interests and policy instruments may be so broad and general as to be of limited practical application. The document notes that when its expands into eastern Europe next year, the EU will have twice the population of the United States and about a quarter of world economic output, giving it no choice but to be a major international political player. (Reuters 181758 GMT Jun 03)