Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

8 April 2004

NATO

• Moscow’s Interfax reports Russian Defense Minister Ivanov and NATO Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer signed letters of exchange in Moscow Thursday to set up a Russian liaison group at SHAPE. The dispatch quotes First Deputy Chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff Col. Gen. Baluyevsky saying “four Russian servicemen would work with SHAPE.”
  
  
• On his first official visit to Moscow as NATO chief, Secretary General de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday his main task was to persuade Russians that the Alliance is no threat, reports AP. The dispatch quotes Mr. de Hoop Scheffer saying, in an interview with Ekho Moskvy radio: “I consider it my job, my responsibility, to convince (Russians) that NATO has no ulterior motives. NATO wants to cooperate. NATO needs Russia and Russia needs NATO.” According to the dispatch, he said his message to President Putin would be “Let’s be partners,” and that he wanted to discuss NATO-Russia cooperation on fighting international terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction with the Russian president. The dispatch observes that a blitz poll of 5,413 radio listeners underlined the uphill battle Mr. de Hoop Scheffer faced in persuading Russians that NATO is their friend. Seventy-one percent of them reportedly said they considered the Alliance an aggressive bloc in relations to Russia. Noting that Russia has expressed particular uneasiness over NATO plans to have four F-16 planes stationed in Lithuania to conduct air reconnaissance in the framework of the Alliance’s air defense shield, the dispatch further quotes Mr. de Hoop Scheffer saying: “NATO’s new members do not plan to widen their military infrastructure from the present level or deploy new troops on their territory in a way that would contradict Russian interests.” As for the planes, he reportedly told the radio interview that he hoped to discuss an arrangement for Russia and NATO to handle accidental incursions of each other’s airspace with Defense Minister Ivanov.

ESDP

• Helsinki’s Hufvudstadsbladed, April 7, reported that Finland and Sweden want to examine the possibility of making a rapid response force available to the EU. “Where Sweden is concerned, it is natural first to seek contact with Finland. We are supposed to sit down together and look at this concept,” the article quoted Swedish Defense Minister Bjorklund saying. The daily noted that the EU is supposed to have access to seven battle groups of 1,500 men who are supposed to be operational within 15 days. “According to the proposal, a battle group should consist of soldiers and equipment from a member country….. Finland is also thinking about cooperating with the Baltic states. Prior to June, the EU is supposed to come up with a detailed proposal for how the forces should operate. The goal is for everything to be ready in 2007,” the newspaper added.

IRAQ

• According to the Washington Post, State Department officials said Wednesday the United States had asked more than a dozen countries to join a new international military force to protect the UN in Iraq. Washington has reportedly approached France, as well as India, Pakistan and other nations. A State Department official familiar with the proposed force reportedly said the list includes “a good global mix.” The newspaper notes that the new force is considered essential to the fragile political transition because the Bush administration is relying on the UN to return to Iraq to help organize elections after the occupation ends on June 30. It adds that the administration, aware that it is unlikely to secure more troops from the 33 countries already in Iraq, is defining the new mandate as exclusively for UN protection and distinct from the current coalition’s military goal of stabilizing postwar Iraq. However, the newspaper continues, the new force would technically come under the broader coalition umbrella and coordinate on security, especially if there are attacks or unrest after June 30. According to the article, the State Department hopes to get responses in the next two weeks, since it can take several weeks to months to identify forces, prepare them and deploy. The goal is to have a significant part of the force in place before the June 30 handover of sovereignty to Iraq, U.S. officials reportedly stressed.