Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

11 September 2003

NRF

• AFP reports Chairman NAMILCOM, Gen. Kujat, said Wednesday that the creation of the NRF is “well on course” and noted with satisfaction the importance of France’s contribution to it. “NATO’s future Response Force is well on course and France, like Europe, will have an important role in it,” he reportedly told a joint news conference on the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle with the Chief of the French armed forces’ General Staff, Gen. Barnegeat. According to the dispatch, Gen. Barnegeat confirmed that “France is prepared to contribute substantially to the NRF,” indicating: “Each of the armed branches will contribute a rapid response general staff. The Navy will bring in an air and naval group as well as a large part of the fleet; the Army will provide several brigades; and the Air force, most of our planes.” He reportedly explained, however, that such commitments would be conditional on France’s needs and other commitments at any specific moment. Italy’s news agency ANSA quotes an Alliance source saying in Brussels Wednesday that the first element of the NRF will be launched on Oct. 15. The source reportedly noted that this will be “a significant moment in NATO’s history.”

ESDP

• Chairman NAMILCOM Gen. Kujat said in Toulon Wednesday that NATO would be ready “to support any operation by the EU,” reports AFP. “I believe that the EU is now in a position to carry out operations under its own responsibility…. NATO is prepared to support any EU operation on the basis of previous agreements at the political and military levels. This is no longer a critical issue. We want a very close relationship and very close cooperation,” the dispatch quotes Gen. Kujat saying. Asked to comment on a plan by France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg for the creation of an EU military command center independent of NATO, the dispatch adds, Gen. Kujat replied: “On this matter, we have moved on from the stage of polemic to that of discussion.”

ISAF

• According to AP, Afghanistan Thursday welcomed a proposal by Germany and the United States that international peacekeepers for the first time be deployed in areas outside Kabul, but feared the plan might still get hung up over who would pay for it. Expanding ISAF is getting “wider support,” Interior Minister Jalali reportedly told a news conference, adding: “There’s a common cry for the expansion of ISAF to other parts of the country and I hope this will make a difference. The question is whether the resources are there and whether the countries are ready to pay for it … and who’s going to contribute the forces that will be deployed in the country.” Toronto’s The Globe and Mail, Sep. 10, quoted Foreign Minister Graham announcing that Canadian peacekeepers and other NATO troops might extend their mandate beyond Kabul to bring stability to other parts of Afghanistan. Recalling that Canada has pledged almost 2,000 troops to the NATO mission in Afghanistan, he reportedly noted that “military planners in Brussels are studying ways to extend the peacekeeping mission beyond Kabul but there is ‘not a huge appetite to send a lot more troops.’” He did grant, however, that the Canadian military effort in Kabul “is starting to take hold” and “if in six months Kabul is stable, we can say, ‘Let’s see how we can employ our resources in some other location.’”

TERRORISM

• AP reports the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States was marked Thursday with a moment of silence at EU headquarters and a renewal of vows of solidarity in the fight against terrorism. According to the dispatch, in a joint statement, the 15 governments reaffirmed their “close solidarity” with the U.S. and other countries hit by terrorism and their “great determination” to combat terrorism through the “broadest possible international cooperation.” The dispatch notes that the ceremony at EU headquarters also included words of shock and condolence over the death of Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh after she was stabbed by an unknown assailant in Stockholm. It adds that among other speakers who marked both events, NATO Secretary General Robertson said, during a visit to Denmark: “The world, on Sept. 11 again with a horrible irony, has lost a very substantial contributor to a better and safer world.”