Military

SHAPE News Summary & Analysis

2 June 2004

NATO

• Reuters reports a senior NATO diplomat said in Brussels Wednesday President Putin has spurned an invitation to attend the NATO summit in Turkey later this month. “We are told that he’s not intending to come. Foreign Minister Lavrov will be coming,” the diplomat reportedly said. A NATO spokesman is quoted saying, however, that the discussions were still going on with Moscow on the issue and had not been officially notified whether Putin would attend. “The disclosure was another blow to an event for which ambitions have already been scaled down with the decision not to invite Arab states and no prospect of an agreement to a direct NATO military role in Iraq,” the dispatch comments.

  In the buildup to the NATO summit, Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat, June 1, predicted that at Istanbul, attempts would be made to make considerable changes to the European security layout and suggested that the EU and NATO would benefit from increased cooperation.
  “ Those who monitor developments in security policy are already talking about a post-NATO summit era,” the article said and added: The final details of the EU Constitution are unresolved as of yet, but the fundamental outlines of the NATO meeting have already been set. They have been discussed at several forums.” Stressing that “the key word about NATO is transformation,” the article continued: “There is less talk nowadays about defense than there is about security, and the goal is to transform in the face of the new security threats…. The change in NATO can be detected in several ways. Alongside the traditional mission of mutual defense arrangement, there now is the extension or projection of security beyond NATO territory…. A second, fundamental change is the increase in collaboration between NATO and the EU…. The methods that effect transformation are extensive cooperation, joint operations along the patterns set in Kosovo and Afghanistan.” NATO members are unanimous about NATO remaining at the core of their security policies. At the same time, they concede that cooperation and collaboration with the EU are top priority issues, because NATO needs a political and economic dimension for preventing the arising of certain kinds of conflict, the article further said, adding: “The future will bring with it a partial division of labor, which will unite (NATO and the EU), such as the strength of NATO for protecting the borders and in military planning, and the experience and capability of the EU for police work, stabilization of countries and a wide array of crisis management forms. The crucial idea is that all efforts should be toward utilizing the same resources and the management of conflicts by joint effort, as well as taking care of the aftermath. For example, all forms of cooperation will be needed in Bosnia, for which the EU is about to take full responsibility soon.”
  

IRAQ

• According to AP, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Armitage said in Brussels Wednesday Washington was confident it could sway Germany and France to back the latest draft UN resolution on post-occupation Iraq. He said Secretary of State Powell had held “intense discussions” with French Foreign Minister Barnier and his German counterpart Fischer to accommodate their views in the draft. The dispatch adds that Armitage debriefed NATO ambassadors on the new draft resolution the United States and Britain circulated on Tuesday. He also held early morning talks with the EU’s foreign and security policy representative. The dispatch quotes Armitage saying the new draft, giving the interim government control over the Iraqi army and police, reflects the views of most of the UN Security Council nations. According to the dispatch, he said that while the United States would like to see NATO take a role in Iraq, it was now still too early to discuss this, adding that getting a new UN resolution was Washington’s priority. “Our views for the role of NATO have not changed. We would be very desirous of it, but our activities right now are all focused on complete success of the UN Security Council resolutions and at an appropriate time we will re-engage discussions with our NATO friends about the role they may or may not play,” Armitage reportedly said. Another AP dispatch reports a senior German official said in Berlin Wednesday a revised UN resolution on Iraq circulated by the United States and Britain goes “in the right direction” by saying when international troops’ mandate would expire. “The development should make us optimistic,” Karsten Voigt, the Foreign Ministry’s top official for relations with Washington, said in an interview. The revised resolution is a sign that “the Americans are moving,” he added.