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NATO Defense Ministers Agree Afghanistan Is Top Priority

09 June 2006

Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, also looks to smaller-operations capability

By David Anthony Denny
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- NATO defense ministers agreed that Afghanistan remains the alliance's main priority, while approving new guidance for members' long-term defense planning.

Meeting June 8 as the North Atlantic Council, NATO ministers agreed on a final communiqué, noting that even though progress has been made in bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan, "serious challenges" remain.

NATO is in charge of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, and is preparing to augment its troop strength from under 10,000 to about 15,000 this summer as it expands its presence into the southern part of the country.  (See related article.)

The alliance plans to give increased emphasis to supporting Afghan Security Force reform and to conducting coordinated Afghan-NATO security and stability operations, the council stipulated.  Also, even though the missions of ISAF and those of U.S. forces in Afghanistan will remain distinct, command arrangements recently agreed upon soon will be implemented to ensure close coordination, the ministers said.

The new, long-term defense guidance, among other things, recognizes the need to be able to conduct more smaller, different operations than in the past, while retaining the ability to implement large and high-intensity military operations.  The need to work with a variety of authorities, institutions and nations in certain situations also was acknowledged, as was the need to improve alliance capabilities for stabilization operations and to lend military support to reconstruction efforts.

In other actions, NATO defense ministers:

• Welcomed the formation of the new Iraqi government, and reaffirmed allied contributions to training and/or equipping Iraqi security forces.

• Reiterated support for the African Union Mission in Sudan in its efforts to ensure successful implementation of the peace agreement.

• Pledged to remain engaged in Kosovo through implementation of a future-status settlement. (See related article.)

• Expressed "serious concern" about noncompliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and called on all countries to abide by their NPT commitments.

• Reaffirmed the essential value of NATO members' nuclear forces in preserving peace and preventing coercion of any kind in war.

• Noted "significant steps" taken by Albania, Croatia and Macedonia in the NATO Membership Action Plan, while emphasizing to countries of the Western Balkans that failure to apprehend the remaining wanted fugitives indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, notably Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, "remains the key obstacle to consideration for accession" to NATO's Partnership for Peace program.

• Praised progress Ukraine had made over the past year in NATO's Intensified Dialogue process, and encouraged that government to continue to show "measurable progress and resolve" in the NATO-Ukraine Commission as it works toward participation in the NATO Membership Action Plan.

• Cited substantial reforms accomplished by Georgia in defense, economic and judicial areas, and voiced support for its continued reform agenda as it bears on its aspirations to begin NATO's Intensified Dialogue process.

The full text of the defense ministers' communiqués can be found on the NATO Web site.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)