NATO chief calls for anti-missile system
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AP – NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen speaks with the media during his monthly press briefing …
By SLOBODAN LEKIC and ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press Writer Slobodan Lekic And Anne Gearan, Associated Press Writer – Thu Oct 14, 1:14 pm ET
BRUSSELS – NATO allies are moving toward approving an anti-missile system that would protect Europe, the alliance's secretary general said Thursday, adding that he hoped Russia would join in creating such a shield.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that, based on Thursday's meeting of the foreign and defense ministers of NATO's 28 members, he was "quite optimistic" the anti-missile shield would be formally adopted at the organization's next summit in Portugal on Nov. 19-20.
"I was very encouraged by the determination of the allies to modernize the alliance for the 21st century," Fogh Rasmussen told journalists. "We are oriented towards a consensus at the summit in Lisbon that NATO should protect the populations against a missile attack."
Fogh Rasmussen is proposing to expand an existing system of tactical battlefield missile defense to cover the territory and populations of all alliance members against attack from nations such as Iran and North Korea. He has also called on Russia to join the project.
"We should offer Russia an opportunity to cooperate with us," he said.
The United States supports the missile defense proposal. But some governments such as France have taken a dim view of the proposed shield, citing high costs and saying the system cannot replace a robust nuclear deterrent.
At an estimated cost of euro200 million ($279 million), it is much cheaper but also less capable than a dedicated anti-missile system proposed by the Bush administration, which caused a deep rift with Russia.
Russia opposed the stationing of powerful radars and anti-missile batteries near its western borders. But it has not opposed the new system, although Russian officials have said it remains to be seen whether the two networks can be integrated.
Fogh Rasmussen said NATO's new mission statement, expected to be adopted at the summit in Portugal, would focus on streamlining and reforming the organization to deal with emerging threats.
The alliance's annual $1.5 billion budget may be reduced significantly if proposals to slash the number of its agencies from 14 to just three — dealing with logistics, procurement and communications — are approved. This would mean cutting the number of people working at NATO from 13,000 to just under 9,000.
NATO's previous mission statement was adopted in 1999, soon after the Cold War ended and before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States led the alliance to take on missions such as counterinsurgency warfare in Afghanistan.
Washington now wants NATO to be equipped to deploy forces to missions outside its traditional theater of operations in Europe, such as Afghanistan or the anti-piracy naval patrols in the Indian Ocean. But many European governments remain wary and argue that the alliance should not be transformed into a global policeman at a time of austerity and spending cuts.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said NATO could no longer base its security on "strategies of the past."
"NATO began as a regional alliance, but the threats it now faces are global, and its perspective must be global as well," she said.
Clinton also called for closer cooperation with Russia, saying that sharing more information regarding military doctrines, strategies and force development would help build trust.
She said she hoped Russian President Dmitry Medvedev would accept an invitation to attend the upcoming NATO summit. "However, even if the Russians choose to decline that invitation, we must continue to build our partnership and we should find another time soon to sit down with Moscow to work on strengthening our cooperation," Clinton said.
Although Russia hasn't sent troops to join the NATO force in Afghanistan, it has provided an alternative overland supply route for allied forces, to complement the ambush-prone logistics link through Pakistan. Russia has also trained Afghan counter-narcotics agents and is in talks with NATO to provide helicopters to the nascent Afghan air force.
Although Afghanistan was not on the agenda of the ministerial meeting, it will figure prominently at the summit in November.
Fogh Rasmussen said the military alliance was helping Taliban representatives meet with the Afghan government, adding that when there are practical ways that the NATO alliance can help the process of reconciliation, it will.
He did not give details, but a senior alliance official has said NATO is giving safe passage for Taliban figures to travel to Kabul for talks.
The Afghan government has acknowledged that it has been involved in reconciliation talks with the Taliban, but discussions between the two sides have been described as mostly informal and indirect message exchanges relying on mediators.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said reconciliation efforts may not bear fruit anytime soon, but he says the effort is worth making.
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Associated Press reporters Matt Lee and Anne Christnovich in Brussels contributed to this report.
And, related, from the AP and Yahoo News:
US presses allies on missile shield
by Laurent Thomet Laurent Thomet – 1 hr 1 min ago
BRUSSELS (AFP) – The United States urged NATO allies to invest in a missile shield and avoid harmful budget cuts at a meeting of defence and foreign ministers clouded by the war in Afghanistan.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defence Secretary Robert Gates made the plea, echoed by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, amid French reservations about the anti-missile system.
"The studies have been done, the data are well-known and the affordability is clear," Gates told alliance ministers. "It is time for a decision."
The ministers gathered at NATO headquarters to discuss a new "strategic concept" that will shape the 28-nation alliance's vision for the next decade to face new threats including missiles from "rogue" states and cyber assaults.
Gates has put the price tag to link NATO members into a common anti-missile network at between 85 million and 100 million euros (120 million and 140 million dollars). Rasmussen says it would cost less than 200 million euros.
Rasmussen expressed optimism that the missile shield would be endorsed by NATO leaders at a summit in Lisbon on November 19-20, saying it was well on the way to a "consensus" following the ministerial meeting.
French Defence Minister Herve Morin, however, expressed his "reservations" about the plan, saying Paris wanted more details about how much the system would cost and how it would work.
But he hinted that France would not block the missile shield plan when NATO leaders meet in Lisbon.
France, a nuclear-armed power, was also at odds with Germany, which backs the missile shield plan but is also pushing for nuclear disarmament, diplomats said.
"We all agree that we need an anti-missile shield if we look at the threats of today and tomorrow," German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg told reporters. "We are very close to an agreement."
Clinton said the draft strategic concept recognises the need for NATO "to remain a nuclear alliance as long as nuclear weapons exist" and at the same time highlights President Barack Obama's goal of a nuclear-free world.
She also warned that plans to slash Britain's military spending could damage the military alliance.
In comments to the BBC, Clinton said in answer to a question that she was worried by defence cuts in Europe -- and specifically Britain.
"NATO has been the most successful alliance for defensive purposes in the history of the world I guess, but it has to be maintained," she said. "Each country has to be able to make its appropriate contributions."
Although Afghanistan was not officially on the agenda, ministers discussed the nine-year-old campaign which involves 150,000 international troops.
"Both Bob and I and a lot of our counterparts here in Brussels have both seen and received reports of progress that we are making on the ground," Clinton told a news conference.
Rasmussen also said the NATO-led force was willing to provide "practical assistance" to reconciliation efforts between the Afghan government and the Taliban but ruled out halting military operations against the insurgency.
NATO leaders are expected to endorse at a summit in Lisbon next month plans to begin the handover of security responsibility to Afghan forces by July 2011.
They will also sign off on the strategic concept, replacing a document written in 1999, two years before the September 11 attacks on the United States that sparked the war in Afghanistan..
The 11-page mission statement, drafted by Rasmussen, has not been made public but it is expected to touch on 21st century threats including cyber attacks, missiles from "rogue" states, terrorism and Somali piracy.
While Gates acknowledged fiscal pressures on defence budgets across the alliance, he warned against cuts that could weaken NATO and even leave it crippled.
"But as nations deal with their economic problems, we must guard against the hollowing out of alliance military capability by spending reductions that cut too far into muscle," he said.
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