Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

10 October 2003

NRF

• German media focus on reports that in the wake of the Dynamic Response ’07 exercise, Defense Minister Struck is urging Parliament to streamline Germany’s decision-making process for sending troops abroad. According to Die Welt, Struck is proposing that decisions on deployments of Bundeswehr units as part of the NRF should no longer be taken by the whole German Parliament but by a smaller body. The daily quotes Struck saying in a radio interview that a “more specific body” than the Bundestag should decide on a participation in operations of the NRF. This parliamentary body could consist of foreign policy and defense experts and decide within a day, he reportedly said. Noting that Germany wants to provide more than 5,000 service personnel to the NFR, the daily recalls that the force is to be able to deploy to any crisis locations in the world within a few days. It stresses, however, that Struck’s suggestions have triggered off protests from among the coalition of the Social Democratic Party and the Greens. A related Deutsche Welle program quoted Struck saying the scenario of Dynamic Response ‘07 underscored how necessary it was for Germany to update the country’s procedures for deploying the military abroad. Currently, parliamentary approval is required to send German soldiers abroad but many now consider the process unwieldy at a time when Berlin is shaking off its Cold War constraints about taking part in military operations, the broadcast remarked and added: “NATO hopes to have a flexible 20,000-troop force ready to deploy anywhere in the world within days by 2006…. Aware of the new direction of German foreign policy, the conservative opposition has signaled its support for streamlining parliamentary approval. Struck’s suggestion has run into resistance from within Chancellor Schroeder’s center-left coalition of Social Democrats and Greens. But the chancellor is likely to push for the measure anyway, since Germany’s reliability within NATO could be questioned without it.”

  The Dynamic Response ’07 crisis management study seminar continues to generate interest. The exercise appears to have shifted the focus to next week’s inauguration of the NRF.

  With media highlighting that Dynamic Response ‘07 enabled participants to explore how the NRF could be used in future crises, the Financial Times stresses that the seminar highlighted the need for quick deployment. Seminar participants said the scenario spurred one of the most animated NATO debates in years--over how to get the tradition and bureaucracy-bound Alliance to move quickly in emergencies. Officials said the exercise pointed out some hurdles for quick global deployment-- such as the need for several large NATO countries to get parliamentary approval before sending forces abroad, notes the newspaper.

  NATO defense ministers have tested the use of the NRF, reports Brussels’ Le Soir, adding that an embryo of the force, which will notably include six Belgian F-16 fighter aircraft, will be officially presented next week.

  Stressing that Dynamic Response ’07 would demonstrate the parts which the NRF could play in a crisis, Warsaw’s Polish Radio 1, Oct. 8, announced that the first units of this force would be activated next week.

  Bucharest’s Rompres, Oct. 9, quoted Romanian Army Chief of Staff Gen. Popescu saying in a news conference that Romania was still assessing its contribution to the NRF. But, the broadcast added, “Gen. Popescu said it will involve very well-trained troops such as special units, mountain troops; nuclear, bacteriological and chemical decontamination squads, and others.”

ISAF

• According to Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, reports Moscow’s Itar-TASS, Russia is ready to grant all NATO members transit of service personnel and military cargoes to Afghanistan via its territory. Earlier, Die Welt reported that Russia had made arrangement on the transit of troops with Germany, the first NATO state to do so. The agreement on the movement of the German ISAF contingent through Russia to Afghanistan was signed by President Putin and Chancellor Schroeder at a meeting in Yekaterinburg, Russia, Thursday, added the newspaper.

A commentary in the Christian Science Monitor argues that both the United States and NATO must quash the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan.

Claiming that the “increasingly confident Taliban” are trying to stage a comeback, the newspaper opines: “It’s welcome news that NATO now in charge of (ISAF), has finally recommended deploying peacekeepers outside Kabul. Assuming the UN Security Council approves, plans call for stationing NATO troops in several provincial capitals, starting with 250-plus German soldiers in Kunduz. They’ll relieve a U.S. (PRT). That’s a good start, but to do the job, NATO needs at least 10,000 more troops in addition to the 5,500 already in the country. Those troops must be authorized and equipped for more than mere guard duty. Like the separate 10,000-soldier U.S.-led force, they must be able to move rapidly against Taliban, Al Qaeda, or militia formations, something not currently envisaged. Furthermore, if NATO is to help police the elections now scheduled for summer 2004, it must speed up deployments.”