Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

05 November 2003

NATO

• Finland’s prime minister said there was no rush to decide on NATO membership, seeking to dampen talk from top politicians in the Nordic country that a decision should be made in the coming months. Non-aligned Finland is conducting a defence policy review, with results due in the spring of next year at the earliest. Some commentators argue it is now time for Finland to take a stance as times have changed and its Baltic neighbours Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are set to join NATO. Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said the review was a chance to overhaul Finland’s defence policy, but would not be the last. (Reuters 041730 GMT Nov 03)

IRAQ

• Turkey won’t send peacekeeping troops to Iraq without a significant change in the situation there, a Turkish official said Tuesday in what was a major setback to U.S. efforts to attract military help in Iraq. Turkey’s ambassador to the United States, Osman Faruk Logoglu, said his country will not send troops to Iraq without an explicit invitation from the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council. No additional countries have contributed forces in Iraq since the UN Security Council approved a new resolution last month. (AP 050001 Nov 03)

BALKANS

• Talks on Kosovo’s final status could start in mid-2005 if the breakaway Serbian province under UN administration meets rule-of-law, democracy and other standards by then, a senior U.S. official said on Tuesday. “The proposition is that if Kosovars can meet these standards there will be a review of where they stand in mid-2005,” U.S. Deputy Undersecretary for Political Affairs Grossman told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Speaking ahead of a visit to the Western Balkans, Marc Grossman said if the standards were not met then, the six-nation Contact Group supervising Balkan diplomacy would set a new date. (Reuters 041538 GMT Nov 03)

AFGHANISTAN

• Norway will send 200 soldiers from its elite Telemark Battalion to Afghanistan to help with security efforts in response to a request from NATO, the defense minister said Tuesday in Oslo. “As a result of NATO’s decision to take over leadership of ISAF starting in August, we wanted to have a high priority on participation in that operation,” Defense Minister Kristin Krohn Devold said. “We realize that it is a demanding and risky mission, and put special weight on security for the force we are sending.” (AP 041519 Nov 03)

OTHER NEWS

• Latvia has started using a new military radar capable of monitoring air traffic deep into Russian airspace, a capability that Moscow earlier expressed deep concerns about, officials in the Baltic republic said on Tuesday. The three-dimensional, Lockheed Martin TPS-117 is part of an existing pan-Baltic network that will be integrated into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s radar system when Latvia and neighbouring Estonia and Lithuania join the alliance next year. “As long as there is tension in relations between the two countries, the radar will serve as an additional security guarantee to these relations,” Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga said in Riga. A spokesman at the Russian embassy in Riga, said there was no official reaction from Moscow since the radar started operating. He declined further comment. (AP 041451 Nov 03)