LATVIA: NATO leaders commit to Afghanistan for long haul

NATO pledged on Wednesday (November 28) to stay in Afghanistan for the long haul to restore peace and stability there, after a summit where nations offered some concessions to improve the mobility of troops battling Taliban insurgents. At the summit in the Latvian capital Riga, alliance leaders also reversed policy on Serbia and Bosnia by offering them a first step towards NATO membership, despite concerns over war criminals still at large, and said other Balkan nations could expect entry invitations in 2008. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose troops are bearing the brunt of the violence in southern Afghanistan alongside Canadian and Dutch soldiers, said that alliance leaders accepted that NATO's credibility was on the line. "There is I think, a complete acceptance round the table that NATO's credibility is indeed on the line, in respect of this mission. And that if NATO stands for anything it is the defence of values of liberty and democracy, those values are being defended now in Afghanistan. And if we don't make sure this mission succeeds it will have a devastating impact on our own security," he said. NATO leaders called for improvements in the often haphazard coordination with other international players in Afghanistan such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the European Union, and backed a French idea for an Afghan "contact group". NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer will explore the idea of a steering group like the committee of nations that has coordinated diplomacy in the Balkans for more than a decade. "Heads of state and government have asked me to think about and forward proposals of the possibility of a contact group for Afghanistan. And that is of course, a contact group which is not only relevant for NATO but which stretches wider because, as there are, as I said, many more international organisations active in Afghanistan," de Hoop Scheffer said during the post-summit news conference. In a statement the 26 leaders of the military alliance declared that they were committed to an enduring role to support the Afghan authorities in cooperation with other international actors. They added that contributing to peace and stability in Afghanistan was NATO's key priority. "So the bottomline I think, after our discussion is that five years after the fall of the Taliban Afghanistan is making real progress, to build a society that is democratic under Afghan ownership. The Afghan people and the Afghan government have the responsibility and that is no longer a threat to the world," de Hoop Scheffer said. While Afghanistan dominated the summit, leaders launched partnership ties with Serbia and Bosnia after the United States, Britain and the Netherlands dropped a demand that they first show full cooperation with the Hague war crimes court. Together with Montenegro they were invited to join NATO's "Partnership for Peace" programme, with the proviso they try to capture top war crimes indictees from the 1992-95 Bosnian war, including Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic. "We have offered Partnership for Peace to Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. Why do we consider this so important? Because this will help to bring the full region more fully into the Euro-Atlantic family. We have the nations with Membership Action Plan, we now have the others in NATO's Partnership for Peace. And that's another step, I think, and another important political step the alliance has taken," de Scheffer said. Asked how the alliance could issue the invitation to Serbia only days after its officials were still making downbeat assessments of Belgrade's cooperation, de Hoop Scheffer denied the alliance had gone soft, saying it will keep up the pressure with close monitoring of upcoming elections in Bosnia and Serbia. French president Jacques Chirac was heartened that his proposal for a contact group in Afghanistan was being looked into. "You have to understand that we need a tight cooperation between those responsible for security and those responsible for redevelopment. That is the reason why, I repeat, that I proposed the creation of a contact group like we had in Kosovo, which would allow us to enjoy a better harmony between development and security," he said, in reference to Afghanistan. "I saw last night that around the table, there was no doubt that this task would not be resolved only militarily. In regard to the the future political direction we have taken a big step," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in reference to the contact group. On the Partnership for Peace offerings, Merkel said, "What is positive is that the Balkan states, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia will also receive a positive message. Of course an effort on their side is necessary towards the International Tribunal. However, there was great consensus that we cannot withhold some form of positive message for them." Romano Prodi reaffirmed Italy's committment. "This is the reason why Italy has made a military commitment in Afghanistan and, naturally, its military involvement is at the service of a political objective which is a free and independent Afghanistan and the stability of the region," Prodi said. NATO as expected confirmed intentions to issue invitations to some candidate countries to join at its next summit in 2008, a signal aimed at current aspirants Croatia, seen as best prepared, Macedonia and Albania. As part of the alliance's efforts to revamp itself from Cold War monolith to a more fleet-of-foot global security provider, NATO leaders also declared a long-awaited 25,000-strong rapid reaction force fully operational. The declaration, originally due in October, followed last-minute troop and equipment offers from Turkey, the United States, France, Spain and Germany, a military source said.

ITN Source | November 28, 2006

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