Military

SHAPE News Morning Update

29 June 2004

NATO-SUMMIT

• Romanian President Ion Iliescu has hailed NATO’s first summit since it expanded to include former Eastern bloc countries as the “concrete expression of the end of the Cold War.” In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, President Iliescu also said that his country had no plans to increase the number of troops it had in Iraq, but was considering reviewing the composition of troops to send more specialized personnel. (AP 290223 Jun 04)
  
  
• NATO leaders on Monday welcomed Russia’s offer to contribute to the alliance’s anti-terrorist naval patrols in the Mediterranean Sea. Russia has proposed sending three ships from the Black Sea fleet to participate in anti-terrorism exercises that NATO is conducting in the Mediterranean, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Istanbul. “Russian support of NATO forces in Operation Active Endeavor would be a good example of cooperation in the fight against terrorism,” NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference. (AP 281810 Jun 04)

AFGHANISTAN

• NATO leaders look set to disappoint Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday by offering far fewer extra troops than he wants and only for the relatively stable north during September elections. U.S. President Bush and fellow NATO heads vowed on Monday to boost the alliance’s role in Afghanistan by taking command of four military-civilian reconstruction teams in the north and sending a quick reaction force of about 600 to Kabul. “We made a commitment to help (in Afghanistan), we will meet it. We will play our part and...the allies will deliver that message to President Karzai,” NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a news conference in Istanbul. Numbers on the ground will increase by no more than 2,200 from the present 6,500, with 1,200-2,000 more on standby outside Afghanistan. (Reuters 282206 GMT Jun 04)
  
  
• Washington pressed on Monday for NATO to deploy a new elite force to troubled Afghanistan for September’s election, offering a possible solution to the alliance’s struggle to expand its peacekeeping operation. A senior U.S. defence official told reporters the 26-nation alliance had made no formal decision on whether to dispatch elements of its NATO Response Force (NRF) to Afghanistan, but it had been discussed by defence ministers in Istanbul. U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, arguing for the NRF’s deployment to Afghanistan, said its missions could run from war to humanitarian support. He told reporters the new force should be used or it could “atrophy” as allies became frustrated devoting personnel and arms to a unit that never left home bases. (Reuters 281706 GMT Jun 04)

RUSSIA

• Russia called on Monday for new confidence-building measures with NATO following the alliance’s expansion into former Soviet territory in the Baltic. But the two former Cold War adversaries made no progress in their row over a 1999 treaty limiting conventional forces (CFE) in Europe. “We need reciprocal confidence-building measures ... to prevent dangerous incidents,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference after a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council, held on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Istanbul. “We are very well aware that NATO no longer poses a threat to Russia and vice-versa. We have normal, partner-like relations with NATO, but the fact is that there is military activity taking place just beyond the borders of the Russian Federation.” He said the Baltic region was “among the most stable on earth” and there was no objective security justification for such activities, describing them as a Cold War “hangover.” Mr. Lavrov said NATO foreign ministers had responded “with some interest” to his proposal for confidence-building measures and said he expected follow-up discussions. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the CFE was “a very important building block” in continental security and said the alliance expected Russia to ratify the treaty by the end of the year. “There is not only a political but a legal link between ratification and the Istanbul commitments (on removing Russian forces from Moldova and Georgia),” he added. (Reuters 281851 GMT Jun 04)
  
  
• President Putin announced plans on Monday for the Russian military to hold exercises in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. The exercises will be held at Russia’s air base in Kyrgyzstan and will involve Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan and be held under the auspices of the Collective Security Treaty between former Soviet republics, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov was quoted as saying. “The purpose of the military exercise is to check the preparedness of the transport air force and of the permanent alert units, which are to be moved to an unfamiliar theater of operation,” he was quoted as saying. He said preparations would begin soon for the exercise, but he did not say when it would be held. The exercises will be code-named Rubezh-2004 and will focus on combating terrorism. (AP 281751 Jun 04)

EU

• EU leaders will nominate a tandem of Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso as the next European Commission president and Javier Solana of Spain as Europe’s future first foreign minister at a brief special summit on Tuesday. The Portuguese leader told a presidential-style news conference at a NATO summit in Istanbul, that he would announce his decision on Tuesday after consulting national leaders. EU leaders will also reappoint Mr. Solana as their foreign and security policy high representative and formally identify him as “foreign minister-designate,” an EU source said. (Reuters 281608 GMT Jun 04)
  
  
• French President Jacques Chirac told U.S. President Bush to mind his own business on Monday after President Bush urged the European Union to fix a date for Turkey to start EU entry talks. But Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said the bloc, recently expanded to 25 nations, looked set to start full negotiations with Turkey early next year as Ankara hopes. “If President Bush really said that the way I read it, well, not only did he go too far but he went into a domain which is not his own,” President Chirac told reporters at the summit. “It is like me trying to tell the United States how it should manage its relations with Mexico,” he added. (Reuters 281843 GMT Jun 04)

BALKANS

• Bosnians on Monday welcomed NATO’s decision to hand peacekeeping efforts over to the EU as a sign that life in the Balkan country is returning to normal. NATO will hand over its 7,500-strong mission to the EU, which will be the union’s most ambitious military operation to date. A small NATO presence will remain in the country to help with defence reforms, fight terrorism and keep up the hunt for war crimes suspects. “NATO’s long-term political commitment to Bosnia and Herzegovina remains unchanged and the establishment of a NATO headquarters will constitute NATO’s residual military presence in the country,” the alliance said in a communiqué. Bosnia’s top international official, Paddy Ashdown, also welcomed NATO’s decision. (AP 281429 Jun 04)