NATO

Nato’s top diplomat has called for an “open-minded and unprecedented dialogue” with Russia to reduce security tensions in Europe and confront common threats.

As he prepares for an effort to engage Moscow on European security, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who took over as secretary-general a month ago, said he wanted to begin an “open and frank conversation [with the Kremlin] that creates a new atmosphere”.

In an interview, the former Danish prime minister also said climate change could lead to conflict as countries battled for scarce resources, including those in the Arctic.

He admitted that differences remained between the western alliance and Russia on issues including the aftermath of last year’s conflict in Georgia and Nato’s possible enlargement to the republic and Ukraine.

But Mr Fogh Rasmussen had a “vision” of a “true strategic partnership” in which both sides collaborated on Afghanistan, terrorism and piracy.

“Russia should realise that Nato is here and that Nato is a framework for our transatlantic relationship,” he said. “But we should also take into account that Russia has legitimate security concerns.”

Source/Full Story:: FT.com
Technorati Tags: Anders Fogh Rasmussen

Russia has confirmed Nato has expelled two of its diplomats from Brussels, reportedly in retaliation for a spy scandal involving an Estonian official.

In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry described the expulsions as “outrageous” and a “crude provocation”.

Nato diplomats claimed the Russians were undercover intelligence agents.

The official, Herman Simm, was jailed for 12 years in February by an Estonian court for passing Nato defence and diplomatic secrets to Moscow.

The court where the former head of Estonia’s national security system was tried did not reveal which country he spied for, but investigators said Mr Simm passed nearly 3,000 documents to Russia.

They said he received 1.3m kroons (£74,000; $110,000) for the data. The Kremlin denied any involvement.

Nato made no comment at the time, but the case, Estonia’s biggest spy scandal since the Cold War, was seen as an embarrassment for the former Soviet state, which joined the alliance in 2004.

Source/Full Story:: BBC

A senior Taliban leader responsible for numerous roadside bombings and suicide attacks against NATO forces has been killed along with nine other insurgent fighters, NATO said Monday.

Maulawi Hassan, described as a well-known Taliban commander in southern Afghanistan, was killed in an attack Saturday on his compound near Kajaki, in Helmand Province, according to a NATO statement.

“He became known for his insurgent activities in the autumn of 2008 and was heavily involved in several illegal activities,” the statement said, noting that there had been no civilian casualties in the attack. The statement said Mr. Hassan had reported directly to Mullah Rahmatullah, the Taliban commander who directs insurgency efforts from outside Afghanistan.

The police chief of Helmand Province, Assadullah Shirzad, said the killing of Mr. Hassan and his men was “an important achievement for Afghan and NATO forces in Helmand, and a real blow to Taliban.”

Commander Paula Rowe, a spokeswoman for NATO troops in Helmand Province, said the operation dealt “another serious blow” to the Taliban insurgency in the south.

Source: International Herald Tribune

President Nicolas Sarkozy has submitted a formal request to rejoin the NATO command structure following a 43-year absence, French and NATO officials said Friday.

A letter with the request was presented Thursday to NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer during an EU summit in Brussels, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Submitting the letter was a formality, but an essential step in France’s return to the alliance — which celebrates its 60th birthday in two weeks.

The NATO official said the alliance must now decide what sort of command posts France will take up.

Upon fully returning to NATO, France expects to receive two command posts — one in Norfolk, Virginia, responsible for defining the strategic transformation of the alliance, and another in Lisbon, Portugal.

In 1966, President Charles de Gaulle abruptly pulled France out of the NATO command and evicted all allied troops and bases, including its military headquarters, from France in an effort to assert sovereignty over its own territory.

France remained a NATO member, but has stayed outside the decision-making core since de Gaulle’s pullout.

Source: The Associated Press

Source: The Guardian

It’s been more than seven years since Nato forces invaded Afghanistan.
Yet there’s no end in sight for the conflict – and vast tracts of the
country remain no-go areas for foreign troops.
….

Right now there’s a stalemate between Nato and its Afghan government allies on one side, and the Taliban and associated Pashtun militias on the other. In real terms, that means Nato is losing. After more than seven years, security is diminishing, death tolls are rising, and the popularity of the Kabul government is evaporating, while back on the home front, particularly in Europe, some troop contributors are already groping their way to the exit

Time, meanwhile, is on the Taliban’s side, and there are clear signs that they are now mustering in their winter havens, across the border in Pakistan, in readiness for a fearsome offensive this summer, when Afghanistan’s presidential elections are due. It will be a critical test of will, not only in Afghanistan, but in the US and Europe too.

The critical choices are also being made now. This weekend President Barack Obama will be making a final decision on the shape of US strategy. He has already decided to send another 17,000 troops into the fray, to add to the 30,000 already there, but he must make up his mind on how many more forces to commit.

Britain and the other Europeans have tried hard to lobby Washington with their own views in the last few weeks, but now they have to wait for pronouncements from Washington, and hope for a workable strategy that will eventually pave the way home for their forces.

But that is not going to happen any time soon: the sheer size of Bagram air base testifies to that. In the past few years, the base has grown into a sizeable town, sustaining itself behind its 20km (13-mile) fortified perimeter like a city state of old. There is a Burger King and Dairy Queen, a huge tented gym, to be found on the high road, Disney Boulevard (named after a US serviceman killed here, not the cartoon king). Most of the accommodation is in containers, but multi-storey concrete flats are rising in the heart of town – a reflection of long-term resolve. Transport planes, helicopters and jet fighters thunder in and out day and night, constantly replenishing the 18,000 population.
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Source: washingtonpost.com

Militants blew up a bridge in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, cutting the major supply line for U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan with an explosion that turned the narrow span into a jagged metal “V.”

It was the latest, and perhaps most serious, attempt to block supplies to the U.S.-led mission against the Taliban.

The length of the slender metal bridge slanted to one side and was blocked by an overturned truck that spilled dozens of dusty bags into the pavement. Traffic from the bare hills continued on foot, with Afghans and Pakistanis, including women in burqas, hurrying their baggage over the dry riverbed.

A NATO spokesman in Afghanistan said supplies along the route had been halted “for the time being,” but stressed the alliance was in no danger of running out of food, equipment or fuel.

The latest attack on the famous Khyber Pass highlights the urgent need NATO and the U.S. have for alternative supply routes to landlocked Afghanistan through nations to its north, especially as the U.S. plans to double its troop numbers in the country this year.

Up to 75 percent of the fuel and supplies destined for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan travel through Pakistan after being unloaded at the port of Karachi, and most are driven along the Khyber Pass.

Full Story

Source: FT.com

Nato warned Russia on Tuesday that it could not draw a “new line” in Europe preventing Georgia and other countries from joining the western military alliance if they wished to do so.

Meeting in emergency session in Brussels, the western military alliance’s 26 foreign ministers also suspended regular top-level ties with Russia, saying that “business as usual” could not continue while Russian troops remained in Georgia.

Expressing their strong support for Georgia’s independence in one of the most serious disputes between the west and Russia since the end of the cold war, Nato members agreed to establish a permanent commission with the embattled Caucasian country, which is desperate to join the western alliance.

Nato is also sending 15 civil emergency experts to Georgia to ease conditions for an estimated 150,000 refugees.

Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, insisted that Moscow could not divide those countries that had already entered Nato from those that still aspired to do so.

“There will absolutely be no new line. Nato does not accept that there is a new line, and we are acting as if there is no new line,” she said, evoking the Iron Curtain that divided Nato from the Soviet bloc during the cold war.

“Nato intends to support the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Georgia and to support its democratically-elected government, and to deny Russia the strategic objective of undermining that democracy and making Georgia weaker,” she said.

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