Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

18 September 2003

ISAF

• NATO allies were expected to agree a key step Thursday toward expanding their mission in Afghanistan, reports AP. According to the dispatch, the agreement expected at NATO headquarters would order the Alliance’s military experts to draw up plans for a wider peacekeeping operation for the UN-mandated ISAF, which is currently limited to the Afghan capital Kabul. The dispatch quotes unidentified NATO officials saying the draft orders would ask the military to prepare for a broad range of options that focused on how the Alliance could help bring order to other Afghan cities and help reconstruction efforts. It claims that if the allies agree to issue the orders, NATO’s military planners are due to report back Sept. 26 with an assessment of the security risks in Afghanistan and detailed plans for a wider ISAF role. Any decision to expand the mission would also need approval from the UN Security Council, the dispatch notes, adding, however, that diplomats in Brussels said that should be a formality if NATO nations agreed on the plan. NATO officials reportedly said it was too early to say how many extra troops would be involved in the plans, insisting that would only become clear after the Alliance’s military headquarters presents its options. However, they stressed it would not mean NATO taking on the combat operations of Enduring Freedom.

ESDP

• According to La Libre Belgique, Belgian Prime Minister Verhofstadt’s plan for the establishment in Tervuren of an EU military headquarters independent of NATO is meeting opposition not only from the United States and Britain but also from the French military. The newspaper claims that while Paris supports the project, the military “are applying the brakes.” The British and U.S. opposition is well known, but we are less aware of the French General Staff’s nervousness about the plan, says the newspaper. The French army’s brass fears losing influence and ceding to Europe an important element of national sovereignty, the Belgian daily asserts, adding: “It was interesting to hear French General Bruno Neveux (who commanded the Artemis force in the Democratic Republic of Congo) presenting in Brussels Wednesday the operational conclusions of the mission. Artemis was presented as “the first EU autonomous operation,” the newspaper notes, observing, however, that the headquarters for the 2,200 soldiers and diplomats who took part in the mission was in Paris, with France playing the role of lead nation. The newspaper adds that regarding the plan for an EU military headquarters independent of NATO, Gen. Neveux said “prudently” that “discussions are under way but it is clearly a political decision.” But, adds the newspaper, Gen. Neveux stressed that the concept of a lead-nation “worked perfectly in (Congo) because it offers the structure which makes the launching of such an operation possible.” Concluding, the newspaper asks: “What project will the Europeans adopt? Verhofstadt’s, which is the most European and which is supported by the French presidency? Or the ‘lead-nation’ concept, which would only be the application in the EU of the multinational defense concept?”

French media highlight that the plan to create an EU military headquarters independent of NATO will also be on the agenda of a summit between Chancellor Schroeder, President Chirac and Prime Minister Blair in Berlin Saturday, which is expected to focus on Iraq.
“The plan to create a European operational general staff, which Britain opposes, will be on the table of the Berlin meeting. The meeting could establish if a compromise on a key issue for the future of European defense is possible,” writes Le Figaro.
Beyond Iraq, says Le Monde, the French and the Germans on one side and the British on the other are seeking to reconcile their views on European defense policy, which is going to be one of the key subjects of the future Intergovernmental Conference. France and Germany, supported by Belgium and Luxembourg, decided in April to lay the foundations of a European headquarters independent of NATO, which the British do not want, as they consider it a weakening of NATO. Paris does, however, reckon it possible to find a “ link” between the two positions.

OTHER NEWS

• According to AFP, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Tuesday it favored sending a peacekeeping force to Moldova and the withdrawal of Russian troops stationed in the troubled former Soviet republic. The dispatch observes that earlier this month, media reported that the EU was discussing whether to send a peacekeeping force to Moldova and that the United States wanted NATO to lead any future force.