NATO PA ENDS ANNUAL SESSION DOMINATED
BY RUSSIA/AFGHANISTAN
NATO parliamentarians have ended their annual session in Reykjavik, Iceland with calls for renewed efforts to strengthen NATO´s role in Afghanistan and build a closer and more fruitful working relationship with Russia.
At the plenary session, Parliamentarians from 26 NATO member states adopted two key resolutions on the above topics (http://www.nato-pa.int/Default.asp?SHORTCUT=1270). The session also expressed its support for the efforts of the three Adriatic states, Albania, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, to join the Alliance, and adopted a wide range of other resolutions from supporting efforts to control climate change to steeping up efforts to combat terrorism.
The final session yesterday (Tuesday) followed several days of meetings of the Assembly’s five committees and was addressed by Iceland’s Prime Minister, Mr Geir Haarde, who said the “Alliance remains politically and military indispensable” albeit within a broader concept of security.
“Who could have predicted military operations in Afghanistan, humanitarian relief in Pakistan or logistic support in Sudan and who knows what tomorrow may bring?” he declared. “A new and broader role for NATO is not incompatible with the organisation’s core function of collective defence.”
Mr Haarde also said there was no “inherent contradiction between a strong NATO and a viable European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), but urged NATO member states not to disregard new strategic concerns in the North Atlantic and Artic area resulting from climate warming, due to the current focus on Afghanistan and Iraq
“It is clear that claims to seabed areas and rapidly improving technology will bring the utilisation and transportation of energy sources from the far North into sharp focus,” he said. Global warming has opened up the north-west passage for the first time in history. NATO member Canada has expressed concerns over Russian territorial ambitions in the area.
The Parliamentarians also paid tribute to out-going Secretary General Simon Lunn who steps down at the end of the year after more than 10 years at the helm of the Parliamentary AssemblyÂ’s Brussels-based secretariat. Mr Lunn is succeeded by David Hobbs, the current deputy secretary general.
In a valedictory address, Mr Lunn thanked Parliamentarians for their support which had seen the NATO PA expand its membership into former Communist Europe following the end of the Cold War. “We have seen enormous changes and it has been a privilege to work for you during this time,” he said to warm applause.
The final session was also addresses by NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
(http://www.nato.int/docu/update/2007/10-october/e1009b.html)
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* Turkey recognises the Republic of Macedonia with its constitutional name
9 October 2007, Reykjavik
NEW STRATEGIC CONCEPT COULD
BE POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS - EXPERT SAYS
A new NATO
strategic concept, or mission statement, is not needed to define the
organization´s mission, particularly while it is engaged in Afghanistan,
according to NATO expert Robert Art, Professor at US´ Brandeis
University.In an address to the NATO PA’s Political Committee in Reykjavik on Sunday, Professor Art said generating a new strategic concept while the situation in Afghanistan was not “going well is like creating a disjunction between words and reality”.
Before speaking of a new strategic concept, NATO must make sure not to lose its war or “all bets about a viable alliance, much less a new strategic concept for it, are off”.
He added that the case for a new strategic concept at this time looks weaker than the case opposing it. The Alliance Â’s Â’99 strategic concept and the June 2006 Defence Ministerial meeting already provide NATO with a strategic outlook that may not be new but is adequate to the current situation and defines well NATOÂ’s mission.
In Afghanistan, risk is not being shared, because of the national caveats which are corrosive to the Alliance. The alliance “must not become a tool kit for unequal parties,” said Professor Art.
He also stressed that members should keep in mind - when considering whether NATO needs a new strategic concept - the development of the European Union´s ESDP, which would complicate NATO-EU relations further. While the duplication of functions is an issue that can be worked out between the EU and NATO, what concerns him most is the development of an EU bloc within NATO.
Professor Art concluded that if NATO decides to go ahead with the elaboration of a Strategic concept it should make sure that the exercise will reinvigorate the Alliance and not create further divisions.