Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

01 October 2003

ESDP

• The U.S. Tuesday restated its firm opposition to plans by a EU quartet led by France and Germany to create a military headquarters separate to NATO, wrote AFP, Sept. 30. The report observes that there are indications that Britain is coming round to proposals pioneered by France and Germany for greater EU cooperation on defense, but it is also standing fast against the creation of an independent military headquarters. Italy meanwhile, continues the news agency, is set to propose a “virtual” command structure as a means of circumventing the growing row over the plans to build a new EU HQ at Tervuren. U.S. Ambassador to NATO Burns, however, said the military Alliance remained supportive of EU defence plans under a framework cooperation accord known as "Berlin Plus", points out the dispatch. "What we cannot support and will not support is the creation of an alternative EU military headquarters, whether it's in Tervuren or some other place, in Brussels or elsewhere," he reportedly stated. "That would be, we think, duplicative, needlessly costly and that would be in essence a contradiction to the Berlin Plus agreements," Burns also said. "There's just a very few countries that are thinking about going in a separate direction. We would hope that those plans would not be materialised because it would not be productive for the future of NATO-EU relations."

NATO

• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Hryschenko and NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson held a working meeting at the NATO Headquarters Tuesday, Ukrainian news agency Unian reported, Sept. 30. According to a Foreign Ministry spokesman, they discussed preparation for a top level meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission which is to be held in Istanbul in May 2004, Lord Robertson’s visit to Ukraine scheduled for 20 October this year, and a meeting of the mentioned Commission at the level of foreign ministers. In addition, continues the dispatch, they discussed the current state of relations between Ukraine and NATO as well as the implementation of the target plan for 2003 by Ukraine and the drafting of the target plan for 2004. Mr. Hryschenko reportedly stressed that Ukraine is determined to persistently pursue the course for Euro-Atlantic integration, including accession to NATO. Lord Robertson, adds the report, positively assessed the implementation of the 2003 target plan and added that the action program and annual target plans are important stages in the development of NATO-Ukraine relations at a qualitatively new level.

ISAF

• Berliner Zeitung writes that Wednesday the NATO ambassadors of the 19 member states will discuss sending soldiers to additional cities in Afghanistan. The council of NATO ambassadors, notes the daily, has on hand detailed recommendations from the Alliance’s military leadership. According to diplomats, several options for an increased engagement are described. One of the major issues, says the paper, is the relationship between the ISAF peace mission and the continuing combat actions against Taliban and terrorists of the Al-Qaeda group. It must also be clarified whether permanently stationed units or mobile teams of soldiers are the better solution. The Federal Government, comments the newspaper, urges a rapid decision because it has resolved to send up to 450 Bundeswehr soldiers to North Afghan Konduz. At the UN Security Council Monday, adds the daily, German UN Ambassador Gunter Pleuger explained the proposals of the Federal Government that about eight security zones outside Kabul called ISAF islands, including Konduz, are to stabilize the shattered country as a first step. Later, the “islands” could be linked by mobile units. For security reasons, concludes the paper, Germany above all insists on clear separation between the peace mission and the anti-terror combat named Operation Enduring Freedom. Ambassador Pleuger’s speech was echoed by a Radio Afghanistan broadcast, Sept. 30.

IRAQ

• According to senior UN officials, reports the Washington Post, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, who last week ordered the withdrawal of most UN personnel from Iraq, would be willing to consider having the agency resume its political role there if security improves and the United States speeds up the timetable for handing over greater power to Iraqis. Secretary General Annan, senior UN officials reportedly said, is urging the United States and other key Security Council members to support a plan that would turn over power to a provisional Iraqi government, backed by a U.S.-led multinational force, within three to five months, while moving more deliberately to draft a new constitution and hold elections. The initiative, speculates the daily, reflects mounting concern by Annan that the U.S. plan to keep political control until the Iraqis have cleared several political hurdles, including elections by the end of 2004, will fuel greater resentment toward the United States and its military allies. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher is quoted saying that "the full transfer of authority depends" on the Iraqis' capacity to produce "a constitution, a ratification process, an election." The daily observes that the UN Secretary General proposal, which is modelled loosely on the Afghan transitional government, would require an intensive diplomatic effort to set up a broader provisional government that would include former members of deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, an influential Shiite cleric. Establishing a new transitional government, the UN chief is finally reported stating, could serve as a basis for a resumption of UN participation in the political process. "This provisional government would have the responsibility of drawing up a constitution and arranging elections with UN help," he concluded. An AP wire dispatch reports that Russia’s Foreign Ministry stressed on Wednesday similarities between the positions of Moscow and Washington on post-war Iraq, saying that both favor a swift restoration of Iraq’s sovereignty. The agency sees the statement as the latest indication that Russia is prepared to cooperate closely with the U.S. on a new resolution on Iraq.

BALKANS

• The top UN official in Kosovo, Harri Holkeri, said Tuesday that he will lead the province's delegation into historic talks with Serbian officials scheduled for October 14, AFP reported, Sept. 30. Speaking at a press conference Holkeri said the initial talks in Austria would be of a symbolic nature and more detailed discussions, on issues such as transport, energy, missing people and the return of displaced people, would be tackled in later meetings. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and NATO Secretary General George Robertson are expected to take part in the Vienna talks.