Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

3 June 2004

NATO

• Russian President Putin will skip a NATO summit with U.S. President Bush in Turkey this month, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday. “It was never agreed that he would go. This was discussed but he never accepted so you cannot speak of a cancellation,” Mr. Lavrov said after confirming that President Putin would not be at the summit. (Reuters 021802 GMT Jun 04)
  
• NATO plans to approve a package of measures to combat terrorism this month as part of a drive to transform the Cold War alliance into a force able to tackle 21st century threats, officials said on Wednesday in Brussels. The plan, which includes steps to make aircraft less vulnerable to shoulder-launched rockets and to protect shipping from attack, will be put to allied defence ministers meeting on the eve of a June 28-29 summit in Istanbul. (Reuters 021646 GMT Jun 04)

AFGHANISTAN

• It will take four more years to train a new Afghan army and perhaps a decade to deal with the country’s worsening drug trafficking problem, Bush administration officials estimated Wednesday in Washington, as lawmakers criticized other nations for not helping more with peacekeeping and reconstruction work there. Members of the House International Relations Committee told administration officials that they worried insufficient resources were being spent in the country and that warlords and their heavily armed militias would continue to undermine the central government and disrupt elections planned in September. Several committee members criticized NATO for not sending promised troops to Afghanistan. “Much of Europe and many of our NATO allies are shirking their responsibility globally, and Afghanistan is an outstanding example of this,” said Rep. Tom Lantos, the committee’s ranking Democrat. Other lawmakers also said they believe the United States should be doing more, noting that Afghanistan only gets a fraction of money and troops compared to the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on Iraq. “My own sense is that we could probably use 100,000 troops, or 138,000 troops in Afghanistan rather than Iraq,” said Rep. William Delahunt. Despite problems, officials said much has been accomplished in Afghanistan. (AP 022014 Jun 04)

BALKANS

• In a major shift of his policy, the Serbian prime minister said in comments published Wednesday that “serious cooperation” with the UN war crimes tribunal is necessary for the country’s future integration into European institutions. Vojislav Kostunica told the independent Vreme weekly that such shift could be expected after June presidential elections in Serbia. (AP 021642 Jun 04)

OTHER NEWS

• Japan’s Defence Agency wants the government to reduce the military’s planes and tanks while boosting the country’s readiness for a terror attack and preparing forces for more international peacekeeping missions, a news report said Thursday in Tokyo. The agency is expected to present its recommendations to Prime Minister Koizumi’s Cabinet in a white paper in July, the Yomiuri newspaper said, citing unidentified agency sources. Cutting back on tanks, jet fighters and naval warships would be an “inevitable” part of the changes, the paper added. (AP 030134 Jun 04)
  
• The Saudi government, in an effort to prevent charitable donations from bankrolling terrorism, is creating a commission to filter contributions raised inside the kingdom to support causes abroad. Adel Al-Jubeir, foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, said certain Saudi groups in the kingdom, such as Al-Haramain, that seek to support causes abroad or committees to support the Palestinians or the Afghans or the Bosnians would be folded into the commission. (AP 021952 Jun 04)