Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

27 November 2003

NATO

• NATO plans to launch a battalion next week to defend member states against weapons of mass destruction and turn attacks from potential catastrophes into manageable crisis. “This is...a significant step on the way of transformation. This is the new NATO,” said an alliance official briefing reporters on Monday’s launch of the Multinational Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defence Battalion. The initial force, made up of several hundred specialists from thirteen nations, will be led by the Czech Republic. (Reuters 261810 GMT Nov 03)
  
  
• Hungary said on Wednesday it may provide air defence for Slovenia once its small western neighbour joins the NATO military alliance next year. Slovenia’s air force has around four dozen aircraft, mainly light helicopters and training and transport planes, but no fighter jets. “The idea has come up at bilateral meetings though there’s been no formal request yet from Slovenia,” said Peter Matyuc, communications director at Hungary’s defence ministry. (Reuters 261402 GMT Nov 03)

BALKANS

• George Robertson, speaking on the first visit of a NATO secretary general to Belgrade, conceded that Mladic could be elsewhere but said there were certainly people in Serbia who knew where he was and that he expected the authorities to find him. “It is likely that he is still being protected or hidden somewhere in Serbia, he may well be somewhere else but there is still that likelihood, and we expect the Serbian authorities... to make sure that he faces that trial,” he said. Adding that the international community would never stop looking for him until he is brought to face a fair trial in The Hague. The arrest of the Bosnian Serb wartime commander is one of the conditions Belgrade has to meet to join NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme. Speaking after his meeting with Lord Robertson, President Marovic said he did not believe Mladic was in the country, stressing Belgrade was committed to bringing all indicted war criminals to justice. (Reuters 262155 GMT Nov 03)

AFGHANISTAN

• Lord Robertson will press alliance nations next week to fill “embarrassing” gaps in resources available to the 5,700-strong peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, diplomats said on Wednesday in Brussels. They said the so-far fruitless search for allies willing to provide helicopters and intelligence officers in Kabul was starting to undermine the credibility of NATO’s ambition to expand its mission beyond the capital. Officials said Lord Robertson would press defence ministers of the 19 nations meeting in Brussels on December 1-2 to add about 10 helicopters to the three available for ISAF. A senior NATO official said the alliance’s military authorities would submit proposals for further expansion before Christmas and an operational plan should be ready early in 2004. (Reuters 261720 GMT Nov 03)

IRAQ

• Despite a request from interim Iraqi leaders, the United States is having second thoughts about introducing any UN resolution on Iraq before March, diplomats said on Wednesday. The United States and Britain had considered but not yet drafted a Security Council resolution to welcome a U.S.-Iraqi timetable that ends with a new ratified constitution and an elected federal government by the end of 2005. But diplomats said the Bush administration was in no mood to negotiate a new measure that would face demands by France, Russia and Germany for a text beyond a simple endorsement. Britain, the envoys said, had not been as categorical in rejecting a resolution this year. In the meantime, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is organizing a meeting on Monday of an advisory council of 17 nations on the future of Iraq, his spokesman Fred Eckhard said. (Reuters 262204 GMT Nov 03)
  
• A rocket or mortar round has struck the Italian embassy in Baghdad causing structural damage but no injuries, Italian news agency ANSA reported late on Wednesday. Last week U.S. military said they found several rockets stashed in a street close to the Italian embassy in Baghdad. (Reuters 262250 GMT Nov 03)

RUSSIA

• Russian Foreign Minister Ivanov told his Polish counterpart in Warsaw that if the United States decides to move military bases into Poland, any plan should take Russian concerns into consideration. Speaking after a day of talks with Polish Foreign Minister Cimoszewicz, Igor Ivanov told a news conference he believes any talks on relocating bases from western Europe into Poland “would take Russia’s security into consideration.” Russia has expressed concern that establishing bases in former Warsaw Pact countries violates agreements signed when NATO expanded into Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. The accords rule out permanent stationing of U.S. troops in Poland but allow for limited deployment. (AP 261619 Nov 03)
  
• A senior Russian military official voiced strong concern about U.S. plans to develop low-yield nuclear weapons, saying that Moscow might be forced to review its own nuclear doctrine. Col.-Gen. Baluyevsky, the first deputy chief of staff of the Russian General Staff, told reporters that the Pentagon’s plans to develop such weapons would be destabilizing. “We are witnessing that nuclear weapons, which have served as a political deterrent, are being transformed into a battlefield instrument,” he said. He wouldn’t say whether Russia would work to develop similar weapons, but said that it would hold onto its stockpiles of tactical nuclear weapons. Yuri Baluyevsky said Russia was concerned about the United States maintaining its tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. “We are asking why,” he said. “We understood that it was necessary as a deterrent in the past when the Warsaw Pact existed and we had huge armies stationed in Eastern Germany. But now there is no Warsaw Pact and Russia pursues a different policy.” Col.-Gen. Baluyevsky also emphasized that Russia remains committed to cooperation with NATO. He said Russia and the alliance were planning a joint military exercise next year, which he said was intended to convince NATO that Russia’s nuclear weapons were well-protected. (AP 261336 Nov 03)