Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

02 October 2003

NATO

• Secretary General Lord Robertson has arrived on a visit to our country and on Thursday he will be meeting with President Trajkovski, Prime Minister Crvenkovski, Defense Minister Buckovski, Interior Minister Kostov, and Foreign Minister Mitreva, reported Radio Makedonija, Oct. 01. Lord Robertson will also hold talks with the leaders of some political parties, added the radio. His meetings are expected to focus primarily on the political and security situation in the country and the region, and on the progress of Macedonia’s (sic) arrangements for NATO membership, concluded the broadcast. On the NATO-integration issue, Skopje-based press agency MIA yesterday quoted Defense Ministry spokesman Gjurovski announcing: “The Defense Ministry and General Staff of the Macedonian (sic) Army (ARM), in cooperation with Macedonian (sic) President Trajkovski, started the restructuring of the existing ARM special units and forming of a special operations unit.” The spokesman reportedly added that investment in such a unit is long-term, justified and worthwhile in the framework of integration of FYROM into NATO. The ARM General Staff allegedly assessed that Special Forces’ capabilities will provide ARM with good potential for protection from internal threats and, as a NATO member, participation in various peacekeeping missions. Turkish experts, concludes the report, are working with FYROM Special Forces at the moment.
  
  
• According to Belgian daily La Province, Prince Philippe said yesterday Belgium is ready to continue to accommodate NATO Headquarters and SHAPE in Casteau, while threats of a move, made in the spring by U.S. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld are dwindling. “We are doing our best to ensure that the Atlantic Alliance and its operational military command continue to find Belgium a welcoming, effective and advantageous place to be,” the Prince reportedly declared during a visit to NATO Headquarters in Brussels. Addressing the North Atlantic Council he also reportedly added: “Belgium is also delighted to be able to facilitate the establishment of the new NATO building, which will allow the transformed organization to function with optimum efficiency.” These words, observes the newspaper, come at a time when the crisis between Belgium and the U.S. - provoked by complaints lodged against American leaders in accordance with the old “universal competence law” - is fading.

IRAQ

• David Kay, the American leading the search for Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, believes that Saddam may have been bluffing to deter a U.S.-led invasion, according to leaks from his long-awaited report, writes The Daily Telegraph. The newspaper is convinced that Mr. Kay will make this claim in his testimony to Congress today, when he reports on the six-month search for weapons of mass destruction. The paper asserts that Mr. Kay is also expected to suggest that Saddam may have misled the world by exaggerating the scale of his threat to intimidate his subjects and to discourage an invasion. Saddam is thought, the daily adds, to have shifted equipment and personnel around Iraq and made ambiguous statements about his WMD program as an elaborate bluff that in the end backfired. In a related article, The Independent argues that Mr. Kay’s report will be “inconclusive” and stress Saddam’s skill at hiding his prohibited weapons. But, the paper also speculates, it may also raise the possibility that he had them scrapped shortly after, or even before, the 1991 Gulf War. At most, the article adds, the report will say that Saddam had the capability, in terms of precursor chemicals and “dual use” facilities, to restart production quickly once UN sanctions had been lifted.

ESDP

• The EU defence ministers’ meeting in Rome, Friday, is seen by an AFP dispatch as an effort to avoid a clash over controversial plans to set up an EU military headquarters separate from NATO, while continuing to boost security cooperation within the bloc. Their two-day talks open a day before a historic summit in the Italian capital launching the drive to finalize the EU's first-ever constitution, including plans for greater military integration, writes the agency. Among the other issues on the agenda Friday, continues the dispatch, are a "preliminary discussion" on the impact of a military strategy paper to be presented by High Representative for EU Foreign and Security Policy Solana to heads of state and government at an EU summit in December. In addition, ministers will weigh the development of a defense procurement agency, set to be launched in 2004. The possible assumption by the EU of the peacekeeping activities in Bosnia from NATO could also figure in discussions although, comments the agency, several diplomats noted that the plans are still very premature. French Defense Minister Alliot-Marie is expected to unveil a proposal for a European special police force, for which she won the backing of Germany and future EU member Poland at a meeting last weekend in the northeastern German town of Heiligendamm, concludes the report.

ISAF

• An AFP dispatch, Oct. 01, quoted diplomats stating that NATO has the will but not yet the means to take on a bigger security role in Afghanistan and expand its first deployment outside Europe. Securing the backing of the United Nations to extend ISAF's mandate is not the only challenge confronting NATO, notes the report. Getting the tools to do the job is probably a bigger headache for the military alliance. U.S. Ambassador to NATO Burns reportedly said: "We're still looking for additional technology, additional human power, men and women, to go out and staff that Kabul mission…. So one of the points that a number of countries have been making is that before we go out and begin to expand the mission outside Kabul, we have to fulfill the mission inside Kabul." Troops could be dredged up for Afghanistan if needed, said another NATO diplomat, adding: "The problem is that we lack critical capacity," pointing to the need for heavy-lift transport planes and helicopter gun-ships.