Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

06 February 2004

NATO

• The French Senate voted Thursday to support adding seven former communist nations to NATO, clearing the way for the Atlantic Alliance to expand eastward. France was the last of the 19 current NATO member states to ratify the membership in the alliance of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. (AP 052122 Feb 04)
  
  
• The leaders of Macedonia (sic) should continue modernizing the country’s army and defence systems, a NATO official visiting the country to evaluate its progress toward alliance standards said. Robert Simmons, a NATO deputy assistant for security cooperation and partnership, said the alliance welcomes achievements made so far by Macedonia (sic), which aspires to join the group. Macedonian (sic) President Trajkovski said after meeting with Robert Simmons that his country wants to be taken as a “serious candidate” for the next round of NATO enlargement. (AP 051732 Feb 04)

BALKANS

• A face-off is looming between Washington and European allies over NATO’s continued presence in Bosnia after the alliance hands its peacekeeping operation to the European Union in late 2004, diplomats said on Thursday in Brussels. A decision has not been taken on the future size and mandate of NATO’s headquarters in Sarajevo, but the U.S. wants the alliance to retain responsibility for tracking down indicted war criminals and stamping out threats of terrorism in Bosnia. It says there is considerable support across the 19-nation alliance for its stand, but a senior European NATO diplomat said this week that the EU “will have to have some sort of control” over operations to round up war crimes suspects. “There are first signs of tension over whose patch this is,” said one diplomat. “The most European of the Europeans want NATO’s presence to be as small as possible.” The handover to the EU will also raise the question of what the United States will do with its base in Tuzla, where troop levels are now being cut. (Reuters 051833 GMT Feb 04)

AFGHANISTAN

• NATO defence ministers meet Friday under pressure to provide more troops for Afghanistan so the alliance can expand its peacekeeping mission into the provinces ahead of the country’s June elections. Ahead of the meeting, diplomats said European allies would commit military teams to five provincial cities. “A number of allies have stepped forward ... to say they will lead these teams,” Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to NATO told reporters on Thursday at alliance headquarters in Brussels. It was not immediately clear which countries would provide the troops, but Italy and Norway were expected to lead two of the teams. (AP 060145 Feb 04)
  
• Canada is prepared to keep up to 500 troops in Afghanistan after the planned withdrawal of its 2,000-member contingent from a NATO-led peacekeeping force in August, Prime Minister Paul Martin said on Thursday in Ottawa. He told CBC television late on Wednesday that 500 Canadian troops would stay behind in Kabul but his remarks on Thursday were significantly less specific. A defence ministry spokeswoman said Ottawa was still trying to determine what the troops might do. Officials say it is possible some soldiers could take part in a provincial reconstruction team. (Reuters 051836 GMT Feb 04)