Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

03 December 2003

NATO

• NATO defence ministers sought to strengthen partnerships against terrorism and regional instability in talks with Ukraine and former Soviet republics from Central Asia and the Caucasus. “Ukraine today exports stability, including by maintaining its forces in the Balkans and contributing to the post-conflict stabilization of Iraq,” said Lord Robertson. Georgia also was among 46 nations attending the second-day of defence talks at NATO headquarters. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Monday that Georgian authorities had to crack down on fighters who cross into neighbouring Chechnya. (AP 021726 Dec 03)
  
  
• Georgia said on Tuesday it did not expect to join NATO before the end of the decade because it would take at least that long to repair the country’s crippled economy and carry out military reforms. Defence Minister David Tevzadze said Tbilisi would nevertheless pursue its partnership with the U.S.-dominated alliance and maintain its contribution of troops to NATO’s peacekeeping operation in Kosovo. He also said Georgia will increase their troops in Iraq to 200 next month. (Reuters 021759 GMT Dec 03)

EU

• A 55-nation European security conference ended in acrimony with Russia isolated for keeping troops in Georgia and Moldova, two ex-Soviet republics where it has supported separatists. Russia alone blocked a conference statement that would have urged Moscow to meet troop pullout pledges it gave at an OSCE summit four years ago, said the conference chairman, Dutch Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. He summed up the result by saying that “most ministers” had supported Georgia’s territorial integrity and called for a multinational peace force in Moldova. But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Chizhov said Moscow did not feel bound by the chairman’s statement. He later told reporters that Russia still had the “political will” to complete the troop withdrawals, but he gave no time frame. (AP 021624 Dec 03)
  
  
• European Commission President Prodi was quoted on Wednesday as saying he expected countries in an enlarged European Union to integrate policies at different speeds, citing defence as an example. In an interview with the Handelsblatt newspaper due to be published on Wednesday, Prodi also said he was under “no illusion” that states would give up their vetoes in sensitive policy areas, such as foreign policy. “The Commission would naturally prefer if all countries participated in the building of Europe at the same speed. But we can’t sacrifice the European project forever for the sake of the slowest amongst us,” Prodi was quoted as saying. “I expect big changes in the security and defence policies of the Union,” Prodi added. (Reuters 021932 GMT Dec 03)
  
  
• The European Union’s trade commissioner said on Tuesday that the bloc would be prepared to review its ban on arms sales to China. “The European Union would be ready to re-examine this question,” Pascal Lamy told a news conference in Brussels. A Commission spokeswoman for external affairs said Lamy’s comment did not indicate a review by the 15-nation bloc was under way. (Reuters 021921 GMT Dec 03)
  
  
• Neither neutral Sweden nor NATO members Poland and the Czech Republic want to see a European Union defence arm replace the trans-Atlantic military alliance, leaders of the three countries said on Tuesday. Czech President Vaclav Klaus and prime ministers Goeran Persson of Sweden and Leszek Miller of Poland, urged caution in plans to bolster the EU’s defence capacity. “The security we gained from NATO membership was something very important for millions of Czech citizens,” Klaus said during an official visit to Sweden “We don’t think that it’s necessary to weaken NATO by introducing parallel European defence or military structures.” (AP 021538 Dec 03)

IRAQ

• Nearly all of the NATO countries with troops in Iraq have pledged to remain there in 2004 to help stabilize and rebuild the country, U.S. Defence Secretary Rumsfeld said on Tuesday in Brussels. In an interview with American reporters after two days of talks with NATO allies, Donald Rumsfeld said he was encouraged by allied support for the U.S. effort in Iraq in the face of attacks by insurgents. (AP 021938 Dec 03)

AFGHANISTAN

• Afghanistan’s two main northern warlords handed over dozens of tanks and heavy guns, putting aside their personal enmity and placing a measure of trust in the U.S.-backed government of President Karzai. The handover by Abdul Rashid Dostum and Atta Mohammed, whose armies have been attacking each other for two years, is a small triumph for the fledgling government’s attempts to gain control over the provinces. The British peacekeepers conceded that most weapons impounded were from Mohammed’s faction, but said the next phase would take in more of Dostum’s guns. (AP 021618 Dec 03)

AFRICA

• Growing pro-government mobs armed with everything from assault rifles to rocks demanded a return to all-out war against Ivory Coast’s rebels – and threatened attacks on the 16,000 French civilians here if French peacekeepers refuse to clear the way. Pro-government youth leaders urged supporters to return Wednesday to demonstrate outside the main French army base in Abidjan for the third straight day. In Paris, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said France would “absolutely not” bow to militant demands in its former colony. After looking on for two days, Ivory Coast security forces intervened in the afternoon to break up the riot at the French base. (AP 030046 Dec 03)