Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

1 March 2004

NATO

• NATO is studying options to protect Slovenia’s skies. NATO will take care of the protection of the airspace of new members which do not have suitable capabilities, namely Slovenia and the Baltic states, reported Ljubljana’s STA, Feb. 27. The dispatch quoted an unnamed source saying several NATO working bodies were currently working on the issue. It added that during a visit to Slovenia mid-February, Gen. Jones said NATO was currently studying a plan that included a series of options and was based on the principle of collective defense. “Our intention is to provide suitable protection and attention to all NATO members, to ensure them collective defense, whether it is in the air, on land or at sea,” the dispatch quoted Gen. Jones saying.

RUSSIA-BALTICS-AWACS

• Russian A-50 Mainstay and SU-24 MP Fencer reconnaissance planes flew some 10 missions over the Baltic region in the past three days, reports Moscow’s Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey. The report quotes Air Force Commander Gen. Mikhaylov saying Russian reconnaissance planes are flying test missions over neutral waters of the Baltics “in response to recent flights by NATO AWACS planes in the area.”

RUSSIA-NATO COUNCIL

• Moscow’s Itar-TASS, Feb. 26, quoted Konstantin Totskiy, Russia’s permanent representative to NATO, saying Friday a discussion on the narcotics trade in Afghanistan was one of the main results of a Russia-NATO Council meeting last Thursday. According to the dispatch, Totskiy indicated that a decision had been made to charge the NATO Research and Technology Agency and the Russian State Committee for Control Over the Illegal Trafficking of Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances with conducting a comprehensive examination of drug spreading in Afghanistan. “We all agreed that the drugs flow from Afghanistan has become a global problem and concrete steps should be taken by the Russia-NATO Council as well,” Totskiy reportedly said.

BALKANS

• Vienna’s Die Presse, Feb. 27, reported that in an interview, U.S. NATO envoy Nichols Burns pinned responsibility for the failure to arrest former Bosnian Serb leaders Karadzic and Mladic on the governments in Belgrade and Sarajevo. “He does not wish to blame NATO soldiers for the many failed attempts by (SFOR) to capture them,” said the newspaper, quoting Burns saying that NATO continues to be absolutely determined to capture the two war criminals, in line with what has been promised to the ICTY. The newspaper added that asked what will happen if NATO withdraws from Bosnia as planned, Burns stressed: “We still will have one base there representing us,” whose prime task would be to track down Karadzic and Mladic. “They have to know we are looking for them—every week, every day.” The article added that the transfer of responsibility in Bosnia from NATO to an EU force is viewed by Burns as a successful model of the new cooperation between the EU security forces and NATO.
  
  
• According to AP, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia lawmakers met Monday along with foreign ambassadors, representatives of NATO, the EU and other international organizations to pay tribute to late President Trajkovski amid speculation over what caused his plane crash. The dispatch recalls that Trajkovski was en route to an international conference in Bosnia Thursday when his plane crashed in heavy fog. “(SFOR) troops conducted an initial, unsuccessful search for the wreck and the bodies and did not allow local police to take part in the effort,” the dispatch claims, noting that has prompted suggestions that the cause of the accident was an error by the air traffic controllers working at a nearby airport where Trajkovski’s plane was due to land. According to the dispatch, a NATO spokesman in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia said there was “a great deal of concern about the investigation” but cautioned against “any premature conclusions.”