Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

11 December 2003

NATO

• The United States, which last week urged NATO to consider more prominent roles in post-war Iraq and Afghanistan, has proposed a meeting of allied defence ministers on February 6, an alliance official said on Wednesday in Brussels. He said U.S. Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld had suggested a day of talks in Munich just before the February 7-8 annual Conference on Security Policy in the Bavarian capital. “It’s under consideration in the alliance at the moment,” said the official, who asked not to be named. He said it would provide an opportunity for ministers to discuss the agenda for next June’s NATO summit in Istanbul with the alliance’s new secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Diplomats say that by the time of the Istanbul summit there will be a vigorous debate on whether the 19-nation alliance should take a more prominent role in Iraq. (Reuters 101711 GMT Dec 03)

U.S. TROOP BASING

• A top U.S. diplomat told Russia on Wednesday that any redeployment of troops to Eastern Europe was intended to tackle new security threats and in no way directed against Moscow. U.S. Under Secretary of State Marc Grossman said after talks with Foreign Ministry officials in Moscow that Russia had a part to play in the post-Cold War defence configuration. “I tried to emphasise...that the Cold War is over and that the positions of American forces around the world sometimes reflect the Cold War and not the threats that we face today,” he told reporters. “We face new threats and we have some new opportunities and we consider Russia to be a partner in meeting those threats.” But Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov expressed concern about any proposals to move bases nearer to Russia. “Any plans to bring NATO’s military infrastructure closer to our borders provokes totally understandable anxiety,” the Interfax news agency quoted Ivanov as saying. (Reuters 101807 GMT Dec 03)

ESDP

• Austria and Sweden are ready to accept a revised proposal for a common EU defence policy, government officials in both countries said. Austria’s Chancellor Schuessel said that he would agree to a watered-down version of the NATO-style mutual defence clause which Italy proposed on Tuesday in hopes of ending an impasse over the draft constitution. Swedish Foreign Minister Freivalds also said her country would accept the compromise, which she said respects Sweden’s neutrality. (AP 101853 Dec 03)

BALKANS

• The UN unveiled a road map on Wednesday setting out the conditions Kosovo must meet by mid-2005 for talks to begin on the Balkan province’s final status. Kosovo ethnic Albanian representatives welcomed the nine-page “Standards for Kosovo” document but Serb leaders rejected it. They said it did not do enough to help Serbs who fled amid ethnic Albanian violence after the bombing return to Kosovo. “There is now a date for a decision, but there is nothing inevitable about that decision. That decision depends on what is said and done here in Kosovo,” said Harri Holkeri, the head of UNMIK. (Reuters 101733 GMT Dec 03)

AFGHANISTAN

• The U.S. is planning to increase the level of non-military aid it is supplying to Afghanistan, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in an interview published on Thursday. He told the Financial Times that President Bush’s administration would ask for a much higher civilian aid contribution for Afghanistan next year. (Reuters 110256 GMT Dec 03)

IRAQ

• The United States plans to set up an Iraqi intelligence service to spy on groups and individuals inside Iraq that are targeting U.S. troops and civilians, The Washington Post reported on Thursday. Citing unidentified U.S. officials, the newspaper said the CIA plans to set up the new service with help from Jordan. Two members of an Iraqi exile group are at CIA headquarters in Virginia this week to work out details of the new program, the newspaper said. Iraqi Interior Minister Nouri Badran, a secular Shiite Muslim, has been selected to head the service initially, the paper said. (Reuters 110516 GMT Dec 03)
  
  
• Plans to deploy the first battalion of Iraq’s new army are in doubt because a third of the soldiers trained by the U.S.-led occupation authority have quit, U.S. defence officials said Wednesday in Washington. Touted as a key to Iraq’s future, the 700-man battalion lost some 250 men over recent weeks as they were preparing to begin operations this month. It was uncertain exactly why a third abandoned their new jobs, though some had complained that the starting salary was too low, officials said. The Chicago Tribune, which first reported the resignations, quoted officials in Baghdad as saying soldiers were angry after comparing their pay with the salaries of other forces. (AP 102034 Dec 03)