Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

10 September 2003

NATO

• According to AFP, Defense Minister Alliot-Marie said Tuesday that France is asking for a “significant place” in ACT. At a dinner of NATO members’ chiefs of staff in southern France, she reportedly insisted that France’s political engagement in the adaptation of the Alliance to new infrastructures “should be reflected in particular in obtaining a significant place within ACT.” She also gave an assurance that Paris “will contribute substantially” to the NRF, but came out against a reduction in the role of political leaders within the Alliance, stressing: “I don’t think that an accelerated military decision-making process which by-passes political leaderships would significantly improve efficacy.”

ESDP

• Britain has given its strongest signal yet that it intends to defend the relationship between the EU and NATO in the forthcoming negotiation over a new EU constitution, writes the Financial Times. The newspaper adds that as the government published a white paper Tuesday spelling out its negotiating position for the intergovernmental conference on the future EU constitution, Britain’s approach to the future of ESDP emerged as the issue which may cause most friction with some European partners. According to the newspaper, the document bluntly stated that Britain would not support all the proposals on ESDP set out in the Convention text. “We believe that a flexible, inclusive approach and effective links to NATO are essential to the success of ESDP. We will not agree anything which is contradictory to, or would replace, the security guarantee established through NATO,” the white paper reportedly stressed. It also noted that there were detailed arrangements for flexibility in ESDP, so any provision in the new constitution “must not undermine these.” The Times remarks that the British attitude runs directly contrary to moves by France Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg to establish a European defense planning capability outside Brussels.

IRAQ

• According to Reuters, Chancellor Schroeder told the German Parliament Wednesday that training Iraqi police and soldiers would do more to improve security in Iraq than bringing in extra troops and Germany is willing to support such training. According to the dispatch, he said Germany was ready to help train Iraqi police and to open its military academies to Iraqis but stressed that he had no plans to send German soldiers to Iraq. Germany was already stretched with troops in the Balkans and Afghanistan and helping with the U.S. hunt for Islamist militants launched after the Sept. 11 attacks, he reportedly noted. In an interview with Berliner Zeitung, Christoph Bertram, director of the Institute for International and Security Affairs, predicts that the Federal Republic will eventually play a military role in Iraq, under a UN or NATO effort. “I cannot imagine the Federal Republic standing aside if, for example, there is a NATO mission in Iraq under a UN mandate, as was the case in Bosnia. Invariably, there will be German officers in the staffs, and in all probability, German soldiers will have to be deployed,” Bertram speculates. While acknowledging that such a situation was still a long way off, he continues: “If the developments in Iraq get worse, … then we will very quickly reach the point when the United States will try to transfer to the UN what it is partially doing now. A NATO supreme commander, who happens to be American, could see to it that the unity of command is maintained…. Germans are proud of their profound commitment to the UN and NATO remains a very important organization for them and their security. If you put two and two together, then it is politically unconceivable that the Federal Republic would not take part in a joint UN-NATO project. I think the people would understand that.”
  
  
• In what it sees as a sign that the U.S. decision to seek a broader UN mandate in Iraq might be starting to pay off, the International Herald Tribune reports the acting Iraqi president said Tuesday he would welcome up to 10,000 Turkish peacekeeping troops in Iraq, under certain conditions. The newspaper says Ahmad Chalabi, the member of the Governing Council’s nine-member presidency who is serving as president for the month of September, will travel to Turkey within days to discuss Kurdish concerns about a possible Turkish troop deployment in Iraq. The newspaper quotes a Chalabi spokesman saying he favors sending an eventual Turkish force to western Iraq, far from its northern border with Turkey, and to limit the force to “no more than 10,000.” The newspaper observes that a major Turkish troop contribution would represent a breakthrough of sorts for the Bush administration.