Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

09 September 2003

EU

• Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government will formally declare its position on the proposed European constitution on Tuesday, having previously served notice that it will not give up its veto on defense and foreign policy. Officials said Monday that the government was happy with most of the draft treaty. On foreign policy, Britain has welcomed a common EU approach, but insists the constitution must not prevent member states from acting independently. Britain also insists that further defense integration in the EU must not duplicate or cut across provisions that NATO already has in place. (AP 081847 Sep 03)

IRAQ

• UN Secretary-General Annan called a foreign ministers meeting of the five big powers on the Security Council to work out a compromise. The session is to take place on Saturday in Geneva among U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and foreign ministers Igor Ivanov of Russia, Jack Straw of Britain, Dominique de Villepin of France and Tang Jiaxuan of China. Kofi Annan indicated he would be willing to consider a UN “political facilitation process.” (Reuters 082316 GMT Sep 03)
  
  
• Iraq’s U.S.-appointed Governing Council scored a major diplomatic coup when Arab League foreign ministers agreed that a council delegate could represent Baghdad at their talks in Cairo this week. The move could set an important precedent in determining whether the council will be allowed to fill Iraq’s seat at future league meetings, and in other bodies such as the United Nations and OPEC. (Reuters 082313 GMT Sep 03)
  
  
• Britain said on Monday it was sending around 1,200 extra troops to Iraq to tackle escalating violence and promised to deploy around the same number again to help restore the country’s crippled infrastructure. “I anticipate that roughly the same sorts of numbers that I announced today will be needed again,” Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said on BBC television, confirming that he was talking about “a further thousand or so.” The British reinforcements will be drawn from the Second Battalion Light Infantry -- already partly deployed in Iraq -- and First Battalion Royal Green Jackets. They will stay until November and could be replaced “if the requirement remained,” he added. (Reuters 082150 GMT Sep 03)

BALKANS

• Albania is participating in two separate military exercises with Britain and the United States to help the Balkan country move toward NATO standards, the Defense Ministry said Monday in Tirana. British special forces began training Albanian infantry and army police in an exercise that began Wednesday and will end Sept. 23. (AP 081521 Sep 03)

OTHER NEWS

• Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Monday that the global security system had been shaken to its core by divisions on fundamental issues, especially over Iraq, and called for major changes at the United Nations. In an annual report to the General Assembly, Annan said UN members should look for “radical reform” in the way the United Nations and other institutions work to cope with war, terrorism, poverty and human rights. (Reuters 082028 GMT Sep 03)
  
  
• Increased U.S. spending in Iraq and Afghanistan could delay efforts to modernize the U.S. military and put some new high-tech weapons systems on hold, at least temporarily, defense analysts said on Monday. Given budget pressures, big defense companies will likely see more orders for munitions, spare parts and communications services than any dramatic growth in new weapons sales. Big-ticket programs like missile defenses and the F-22 Raptor, the next-generation fighter, could face increasing scrutiny and cuts. Another program that could face some cutbacks is the Joint Strike Fighter, or F-35, simply given its mammoth size as the largest-ever weapons contract. (Reuters 082011 GMT Sep 03)