2RHPZ
06-21-2004, 04:50 PM
NATO Expects Watered-Down Summit in Istanbul
By NICHOLAS FIORENZA, BRUSSELS
NATO officials and diplomats are lowering their expectations for the June 28-29 Istanbul summit of alliance leaders, as the list of items planned for action has gotten considerably shorter.
There have been delays in expanding the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, the alliance’s Middle East initiative is being watered down, and Bosnia and Serbia and Montenegro will not be invited to join NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. Discussions of a possible NATO role in Iraq and on improving the deployability and sustainability of members’ militaries will only just begin. And Russian President Vladimir Putin has declined an invitation to attend the summit.
NATO officials hope to be in a position in Istanbul to announce creation of five new provincial reconstruction teams that will operate north of Kabul. Previously, officials had aimed to have the additional teams rebuilding Afghanis-tan before the summit began.
The teams now are to be ready shortly after the summit. Many are already in place under U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom and will only have to switch command. But in a June 2 interview, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer would not specify the number of new teams.
The alliance’s Greater Middle East initiative was to be launched at Istanbul, but NATO ambassadors failed to reach an agreement on inviting the foreign ministers of the seven Mediterranean Dialogue countries — Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and Israel — to the summit.
Arab countries are reluctant to attend the same meeting with Israel, according to a NATO source, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said that he did not believe the alliance has a role to play in reforms in Egypt.
De Hoop Scheffer denied that Egypt had refused a visit by his deputy, Alessandro Minuto Rizzo, who toured the six other Dialogue countries May 10-16.
In a June 8 speech here organized by the Centre for European Reform, de Hoop Scheffer said the Mediterranean Dialogue will be turned into a partnership, with more practical cooperation, joint training and possibly joint operations against terrorism, like Operation Active Endeavour, NATO’s naval surveillance and monitoring operation in the Mediterranean and Strait of Gibraltar.
Separately, NATO leaders plan to launch the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative with individual Gulf Cooperation Council members. De Hoop Scheffer said relations with these countries must be a two-way street. He clarified, however, that no new structures would be created and that there would not be a PfP for the Middle East. PfP is the alliance’s military cooperation program with the former Warsaw Pact, neutral countries and ex-Yugoslav republics.
As for Bosnia, and Serbia and Montenegro, NATO officials said it is unlikely they will be invited in Istanbul to join PfP, citing a lack of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
De Hoop Scheffer told Defense News, however, “There is political life after Istanbul.”
Matching Military Means
In the June 8 speech, de Hoop Scheffer said he would propose ideas to NATO leaders “on matching our means and our ambitions.
“Should the NATO allies collectively own and operate certain key assets, as we do now with our AWACS [Airborne Warning and Control System] aircraft?” he said. “Can we take a longer horizon for our force planning and tie it more closely to our operations, so that we are better prepared for unforeseen emergencies? Should we have separate funds in our national budgets, so that the cost of providing forces for new missions does not compete with other defense priorities?”
Talking to Defense News, the NATO leader questioned the future of the concept “costs lie where they fall,” under which each NATO member country pays its own way in alliance operations. He said there will be a discussion in Istanbul on usability targets, with the medium- to long-term goal of alliance member militaries becoming 40 percent deployable with 8 percent sustainability.
A diplomatic source pointed out that 40 percent deployability penalizes smaller NATO members.
Including Russia
With Putin bowing out of the Istanbul meeting, the NATO-Russia Council will meet at the foreign ministers’ level during the summit.
Attempts to make the council more than just a talking shop have met with mixed success. Russia needs to be involved in actual joint operations with NATO, alliance officials said. This has not been the case since Russia withdrew peacekeepers from the Balkans last year. NATO officials said Russia could be invited to participate in Operation Active Endeavour.
Nicholas Whyte, Europe program director for the International Crisis Group here, said Russia may return to the Balkans. Joint NATO-Russian air policing was rejected because of objections from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
By NICHOLAS FIORENZA, BRUSSELS
NATO officials and diplomats are lowering their expectations for the June 28-29 Istanbul summit of alliance leaders, as the list of items planned for action has gotten considerably shorter.
There have been delays in expanding the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, the alliance’s Middle East initiative is being watered down, and Bosnia and Serbia and Montenegro will not be invited to join NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. Discussions of a possible NATO role in Iraq and on improving the deployability and sustainability of members’ militaries will only just begin. And Russian President Vladimir Putin has declined an invitation to attend the summit.
NATO officials hope to be in a position in Istanbul to announce creation of five new provincial reconstruction teams that will operate north of Kabul. Previously, officials had aimed to have the additional teams rebuilding Afghanis-tan before the summit began.
The teams now are to be ready shortly after the summit. Many are already in place under U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom and will only have to switch command. But in a June 2 interview, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer would not specify the number of new teams.
The alliance’s Greater Middle East initiative was to be launched at Istanbul, but NATO ambassadors failed to reach an agreement on inviting the foreign ministers of the seven Mediterranean Dialogue countries — Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia and Israel — to the summit.
Arab countries are reluctant to attend the same meeting with Israel, according to a NATO source, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher said that he did not believe the alliance has a role to play in reforms in Egypt.
De Hoop Scheffer denied that Egypt had refused a visit by his deputy, Alessandro Minuto Rizzo, who toured the six other Dialogue countries May 10-16.
In a June 8 speech here organized by the Centre for European Reform, de Hoop Scheffer said the Mediterranean Dialogue will be turned into a partnership, with more practical cooperation, joint training and possibly joint operations against terrorism, like Operation Active Endeavour, NATO’s naval surveillance and monitoring operation in the Mediterranean and Strait of Gibraltar.
Separately, NATO leaders plan to launch the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative with individual Gulf Cooperation Council members. De Hoop Scheffer said relations with these countries must be a two-way street. He clarified, however, that no new structures would be created and that there would not be a PfP for the Middle East. PfP is the alliance’s military cooperation program with the former Warsaw Pact, neutral countries and ex-Yugoslav republics.
As for Bosnia, and Serbia and Montenegro, NATO officials said it is unlikely they will be invited in Istanbul to join PfP, citing a lack of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
De Hoop Scheffer told Defense News, however, “There is political life after Istanbul.”
Matching Military Means
In the June 8 speech, de Hoop Scheffer said he would propose ideas to NATO leaders “on matching our means and our ambitions.
“Should the NATO allies collectively own and operate certain key assets, as we do now with our AWACS [Airborne Warning and Control System] aircraft?” he said. “Can we take a longer horizon for our force planning and tie it more closely to our operations, so that we are better prepared for unforeseen emergencies? Should we have separate funds in our national budgets, so that the cost of providing forces for new missions does not compete with other defense priorities?”
Talking to Defense News, the NATO leader questioned the future of the concept “costs lie where they fall,” under which each NATO member country pays its own way in alliance operations. He said there will be a discussion in Istanbul on usability targets, with the medium- to long-term goal of alliance member militaries becoming 40 percent deployable with 8 percent sustainability.
A diplomatic source pointed out that 40 percent deployability penalizes smaller NATO members.
Including Russia
With Putin bowing out of the Istanbul meeting, the NATO-Russia Council will meet at the foreign ministers’ level during the summit.
Attempts to make the council more than just a talking shop have met with mixed success. Russia needs to be involved in actual joint operations with NATO, alliance officials said. This has not been the case since Russia withdrew peacekeepers from the Balkans last year. NATO officials said Russia could be invited to participate in Operation Active Endeavour.
Nicholas Whyte, Europe program director for the International Crisis Group here, said Russia may return to the Balkans. Joint NATO-Russian air policing was rejected because of objections from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.