Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

12 September 2003

NRF

• Eight hundred troops from 14 countries will take part in a NATO maritime training exercise off Scotland later this month involving a simulated crisis rescue operation, the alliance said Thursday. The exercise in the Irish Sea on Sept. 15-26 will feature 50 warships and submarines, 15 fighter planes and military helicopters. The war games, named Exercise Northern Lights 03, are part of several planned operations by the new NATO Response Force, which is expected to be fully operational next year. Military personnel from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Britain and the United States will work with partner nations Sweden and the Ukraine in the operation. (AP 111558 Sep 03)

ESDP

• Germany is still keen to set up a separate military headquarters for European Union crisis management operations despite sharp objections from Washington and London, according to a document seen by the Reuters news agency on Thursday. Although Berlin stressed the importance of maintaining strong transatlantic links, its position paper - floated ahead of a recent meeting of EU defence officials - argued that the 15-nation bloc needed its own “permanent collective capability.” “Indeed, the EU would only follow the example set by NATO which, for sound military and political reasons, has developed and maintained an integrated military structure,” it said. U.S. ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns returned to the fray in an interview published on Thursday, dubbing the plan for a separate headquarters “a big mistake” and pointing out that 21 of the 25 current and future members of the EU had rejected it. “Don’t forget that the EU and NATO already decided in March, after four years of talks, that they would start cooperating,” he told the De Volkskrant and De Morgen newspapers. “But we agreed that the EU would not develop itself as a competitor to NATO. This idea...will lead to unnecessary duplication and will lead to an antagonistic relationship between those countries and NATO,” he added. (Reuters 111734 GMT Sep 03)

IRAQ

• Ahmad Chalabi, president of the Iraqi Governing Council, said the United Nations should decide on sending peacekeepers to Iraq and declined to say whether troops from neighbouring Turkey would contribute to stability in the country. Chalabi met Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul in Ankara. Ahmad Chalabi did, however, say that his country wanted strong ties with Turkey and appeared to welcome Turkish help in rebuilding the country. “We in Iraq want to have the best possible cooperation in the economic, political and security fields with Turkey and ... we will together fight terrorism that threatens both our countries,” he added. Prime Minister Erdogan’s office issued a brief statement saying only that “the developments in neighbouring Iraq were evaluated and Turkey’s contributions were discussed.” (AP 111802 Sep 03)
  
  
• The United Nations should quickly assume more responsibility in Iraq to help speed a return of power to the Iraqi people, a senior member of the country’s interim authority said Thursday. “Greater UN involvement will give greater legitimacy to the whole situation and will be more acceptable to Iraqis,” said Adnan Pachachi after a private meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. (AP 111831 Sep 03)
  
  
• The U.S. military said on Thursday it was holding 3,800 Iranian rebel detainees in eastern Iraq and denied that the People’s Mujahideen (MEK) was still mounting cross-border raids into Iran. “Are they continuing to enter Iran? I can guarantee you that is not happening. They are contained,” Lieutenant-General Ricardo Sanchez, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, told a news conference in Baghdad. He was responding to a report in the Washington Post newspaper that the U.S. military may be turning a blind eye to renewed activity by the Iranian opposition group that is on the State Department’s list of “terrorist” groups. (Reuters 111827 GMT Sep 03)

BALKANS

• Russia joined the European Union on Thursday in urging Belgrade and Pristina to open first talks since their 1999 conflict but also agreed it was still too early to decide Kosovo’s final status. “We are strongly in favour of a direct dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina on concrete issues like safety and return of refugees,” Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov said. “The status of Kosovo should be discussed later after conditions for that are met,” he said after talks with Serbian leaders in Belgrade. European external affairs commissioner Chris Patten took a similar line during a visit to Pristina. “I know that you are all concerned about final status,” he told Kosovo’s Albanian-dominated parliament. “That is not a subject for today although it is obviously not a subject which can be delayed indefinitely.” He said talks with Belgrade “about issues that concern the everyday life of all Kosovo’s citizens” should be a priority. (Reuters 111500 GMT Sep 03)