Review of European Security Issues
04 August 2006
NATO in Afghanistan; Kosovo status talks; radioactive materials removed from Chechnya; Cypriot peace talks; energy in Central Asia and Caucasus; U.S. troops leaving fuel site in Turkey
Following are some recent U.S. government policy pronouncements, hearings and reports on security issues in Europe and Eurasia, as well as some noteworthy announcements by international organizations and nongovernmental organizations.
For additional coverage of the topics listed below and related issues, see Europe and Eurasia.
NATO TAKES OVER CRITICAL SOUTHERN PROVINCES OF AFGHANISTAN
Seven NATO soldiers were killed – four from Canada and three from Britain – in the first four days after the trans-Atlantic alliance began operating in four critical provinces of southern Afghanistan, including former Taliban stronghold Kandahar.
“NATO will stand up to the insurgents and terrorists whose only goal is to wreck the future of Afghanistan,” NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said August 4. (See NATO press statement.)
On July 31, U.S. General James Jones, NATO’s supreme allied commander Europe, signed a formal order putting the alliance in charge of provincial reconstruction teams (PRTs) in Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan and Zabul provinces, bringing a total of 13 PRTs under NATO control. The expansion formally was approved July 28 by NATO’s North Atlantic Council in Brussels, Belgium. (See related article.)
With Jones’ activation order, the number of troops under NATO command increased from 10,500 to approximately 18,000. However, most of those troops already have been serving in Afghanistan as part of the U.S.-led multinational coalition, which removed the Taliban regime from power in late 2001.
In mid-July, Victoria Nuland, U.S. ambassador to NATO, said the mission to Afghanistan will be NATO’s top priority as the international community helps Afghanistan’s government rebuild its war-torn country. (See related article.)
For more information, see South and Central Asia and NATO's Afghanistan Web site.
SERB, KOSOVAR LEADERS MEET; SERBIA OPPOSES INDEPENDENCE
For the first time since the 1999 NATO war, Serbian and Kosovar Albanian leaders met July 24 in Vienna, Austria, to discuss the future of Kosovo as U.N. and international mediators hope to settle the province’s legal status by the end of 2006.
“It was an historic occasion,” Ambassador Frank G. Wisner, U.S. special representative to the Kosovo status talks, said July 27. “The Albanian side was frank, respectful and restrained,” Wisner said. The Serbian leaders also “conducted these talks in a dignified manner,” he added. (See related article.)
The meeting included Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu, Serbian President Boris Tadic, Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku and Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica. Each delegation delivered speeches stating its position. (See related article.)
News reports described the July 24 meeting as tense, with Kosovar Albanians demanding full independence and Serbia willing to grant anything but independence.
Kostunica, in an interview with local media published July 31, said Serbia will not accept an independent Kosovo, even if its bid to join the European Union suffers as a result. “Serbia will reject a solution that takes Kosovo away from Serbia and, very importantly, will continue to consider Kosovo as part of its territory,” Kostunica told the Belgrade daily newspaper Danas.
The U.N.-sponsored peace talks are aimed at deciding whether Kosovo will become an independent country or retain its status as an autonomous province of Serbia. Kosovo has been administered by the United Nations since 1999, when U.S. and NATO-led military forces expelled Yugoslav Serb troops and police following human-rights abuses against the predominantly ethnic Albanian population. Kosovo is home to historic sites and shrines central to Serbia’s culture. (See related article.)
Negotiating teams from Serbia and Albania were scheduled to meet again August 7 in Vienna, but a U.N. spokesman confirmed in press reports August 2 that Serbia has asked for a one-week postponement.
“It is evident that positions of the parties remain far apart,” Martti Ahtisaari of Finland, the U.N. special envoy to Kosovo’s status process, said July 24 in Vienna. “Belgrade would agree to almost anything but independence, whereas Pristina would accept nothing but full independence.” Belgrade is the capital of Serbia, and Pristina is the seat of government for Kosovo.
For more information, see Southeast Europe and NATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR).
U.S. HELPS REMOVE RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS FROM CHECHNYA
A U.S. agency announced August 3 that enough radioactive material to make five “dirty bombs” has been removed from a vulnerable location in Chechnya.
According to a statement by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, more than 5,500 Ci (curies) of radioactive cobalt-60 and cesium-137 have been removed from Chechnya and safely transported to a location elsewhere in Russia. The operation was performed as part of the NNSA’s Global Threat Reduction Initiative, which finds and aids the recovery and disposition of high-risk nuclear and radiological material worldwide.
U.S. Ambassador Linton Brooks, administrator of the NNSA and under secretary of energy for nuclear security, said securing such materials so they do not fall into terrorists’ hands “is critical to international security. … Through joint cooperation with Russia, dangerous material has been removed from an area known for violence.” (See related article.)
The radioactive cobalt and cesium located at a petrochemical production site in Chechnya were packed in two special containers, loaded on a truck and delivered to a secure facility near Moscow, according to the NNSA. There it will be analyzed and temporarily stored until sent for permanent disposal to the Radon Moscow Scientific Production Association.
This was another joint mission between NNSA and the Russian Federation, the statement said. As part of the Global Threat Reduction Initiative, material that potentially could have been used to build more than 200 “dirty bombs” has been removed from 23 sites during the past three years. For further information on U.S. nuclear nonproliferation policy, see Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. Additional information about NNSA’s Office of Global Threat Reduction and a fact sheet (PDF, 3 pages) on the Global Threat Reduction Initiative are available on the agency’s Web site.
GREEK, TURKISH CYPRIOT LEADERS PLAN TO MEET AGAIN IN AUGUST
Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat planned to meet August 8 at the Green Line that divides the island, according to local news reports, citing a statement by Talat’s office. Papadopoulos and Talat met in early July and agreed to move forward with limited talks.
A recent visit to the region by U.N. Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari has “created an opening” for progress towards resolution of the 32-year conflict, a U.S. official said July 18, adding that the parties must move to take advantage of that opening quickly. (See related article.)
Matthew Bryza, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said he was “not naively optimistic but certainly not coldly pessimistic either” following a July visit to Cyprus.
“I sense on both sides of the Green Line, and in all aspects of society, in the business community, and among NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and government officials that while there is a real desire to move forward, there is also still a real difference on the core issues,” he said during a press briefing in Nicosia, Cyprus.
“I also sense a real, serious recognition that this opening that Under Secretary-General Gambari helped broker [with Papadopoulos and Talat] is real but is also perishable and needs to be worked out immediately,” Bryza added.
Visiting Greece in April, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the de facto division of Cyprus “is something that has gone on far too long.” (See related article.)
In 2004, a plan by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to reunify the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities was rejected by Greek Cypriots. Turkish Cypriot voters approved the plan. Later that year, the Republic of Cyprus joined the European Union without having control over Turkish Cypriot communities in the areas Turkish troops have controlled since Turkey’s 1974 invasion of Cyprus.
CENTRAL ASIAN ENERGY, SECURITY, DEMOCRACY LINKED, U.S. SAYS
The United States is committed to helping the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus develop strong, democratic institutions and create “win-win” solutions in developing energy resources, top U.S. officials told members of a House International Relations subcommittee in a July 25 hearing. (See article.)
With Russia to the north, Iran and Afghanistan to the south, and China to the east, the countries of the South Caucasus and Central Asia find that their energy export strategies and security needs are intertwined, said Steven Mann, the U.S. State Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary for South and Central Asian affairs. (See related article.)
Also testifying was Lana Ekimoff, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Russian and Eurasian Affairs, who said that by 2010, countries in the region expect to export up to 4 million barrels of oil and 680 million cubic meters of natural gas per day. The availability of Caspian oil and gas, modest compared to the 45 million barrels per day produced by Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members, helps to diversify global energy supply, which ultimately contributes to global energy security, she said
“Our goal,” said Ekimoff, “is to promote regional partnerships among the producing and transit countries. It is important that the countries take responsibility for encouraging the development of new commercially viable export routes and find ways they can work together and with commercial entities in order to create a win-win situation for all involved.”
For more information, see Caucasus and South and Central Asia.
U.S. LEAVING JET FUEL PORT SITE NEAR INCIRLIK AIR BASE, TURKEY
The U.S. military plans to cease operations at the Yumurtalik Sea Terminal, an aviation fuel-handling site on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast near Incirlik Air Base and the endpoint of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. (See related article.)
“Due to U.S. European Command force-structure realignment and transformation, the Yumurtalik Sea Terminal’s jet-fuel receipt point facility has been identified as excess to U.S. Air Forces Europe’s needs,” the Defense Department announced July 5. The facilities will be returned to the host nation.
Yumurtalik is a port on Iskenderun Bay that has been the terminus of an oil pipeline from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk and is the terminus of the new BTC pipeline bringing oil from the Caspian Sea. For decades, the Yumurtalik Sea Terminal has been the site where the U.S. Air Force has offloaded jet fuel from ships for use at nearby Incirlik Air Base.
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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