BRUSSELS - NATO defense ministers agreed Thursday to overhaul the military alliance, reducing command centers and creating more agile forces to shift the focus to the fight against terrorism and other unpredictable threats. The changes will ``profoundly reshape'' the 54-year-old alliance and enhance its capabilities, said NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson, who has advocated the overhaul of an organization formed as a bulwark against the Soviet Union. ``This is a new NATO, a NATO transformed,'' Robertson said. Separately, Spain agreed to help Poland run a peacekeeping zone in central Iraq, contributing some 1,100 troops to a multinational force, Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said.
Good. Spanish are good allies and have a good army.
Soldiers from three Latin American nations will also join the force, as well as troops from Ukraine and other European nations, Szmajdzinski said.
But no Ukrainian air transport, please!
| And no Uruguayan peacekeepers... |
Both Spain and Poland supported the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein. The operation is considered a major test for Poland, which only joined NATO in 1999 and has struggled to modernize its armed forces. NATO also has agreed to assume peacekeeping duties in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in August.
| The Poles are stepping right up on the international stage... |
The alliance's worldwide operational command will remain at its European headquarters in southern Belgium under U.S. Marine Gen. James L. Jones, the former commandant of the Marine Corps. Its Atlantic command, at Norfolk, Va., will become a ``transformation headquarters'' overseeing the military modernization led by U.S. Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani, who also heads the U.S. Joint Forces Command. The number of NATO regional and sub-regional command posts will be cut from 20 to 11 to change a grid of commands dating back to the Cold War. The allies also agreed that first elements of an elite rapid response force should be up and running by October.
As opposed to the EU "rapid" reaction force, this one will actually work, since it will be organized by us and the UK.
Robertson and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld urged the allies to make more progress in other areas where they have been slow to improve such as developing surveillance planes, secure communications and protection from biochemical and nuclear attacks. The intention is to give teeth to a NATO doctrine developed after the Sept. 11 terror attacks under which the alliance agreed to act against threats to the security of the 19 allies. ``There are no more traditional wars. We have to ... develop a concept to fight terrorism,'' German Defense Minister Peter Struck said. Several members of the alliance also planned to sign accords Thursday agreeing to lease cargo ships and transport planes to increase their ability to participate in NATO missions.
No more ferry boats for the French!
Robertson said he would push the Europeans to make more progress in other areas where they have been slow to improve capabilities, notably ground surveillance planes, secure communications and protection from biochemical and nuclear attacks. ``There will be a pretty blunt message for the Europeans to do more,'' he said in an interview with The Associated Press before the meeting. ``You have to be more brutal if you want to get results.''
Ouch! |