The flags of seven new East European members were raised at NATO headquarters yesterday as foreign ministers prepared to confer on a growing list of global trouble spots where overstretched forces are involved.
"At the dawn of a new century, the entry of the seven new members extends the area of stability of our continent," said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. "It ... confirms that the divisions of the past have been overcome."
The banners of formerly communist Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia were hoisted in the courtyard of the sprawling low-rise NATO complex in a Brussels suburb four days after they joined, raising membership to 26.
PHOTO: AP
The three Baltic states are former Soviet republics whose incorporation into the Western alliance has riled Moscow.
But, after much deliberation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov agreed to meet NATO counterparts later yesterday in what Western diplomats saw as a signal of acceptance.
"It's a historic moment. For 50 years we were occupied by the Russians. We've never been as safe as we are today," said Lithuanian warrant officer Algirdas Nakvosas, resplendent in a green dress uniform, as he watched the flags go up.
NATO warplanes began air patrols over the Baltic states as soon as they acceded on Monday, despite complaints from Moscow.
Former Lithuanian president Vytautas Landsbergis, a hero of independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, told state radio: "People have been trying to tell us that the Cold War is over ... but there are many facts showing us that this is an illusion.
"I speak not of the Russian people, but in the minds of Russian leaders nothing is different from 10 or even 15 years ago. The Cold War against the Baltic States continues."
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said there was no reason for "heightened nervousness" over Russia's unease.
"I don't sense that the Russians will find it necessary to counter this move with anything that would be either provocative or destabilizing or dangerous," he said in remarks released by the State Department yesterday.
Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia once formed part of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact, NATO's foe which collapsed in 1991. Slovenia once belonged to non-aligned but communist Yugoslavia.
In their talks, the ministers were to discuss the slow delivery on pledges to expand security in Afghanistan, which won record aid from donors this week but is still threatened by a resurgent drug trade, warlordism and guerrillas.
"I would like to see additional forces go in there over the next couple of months in order to secure the country for the elections that are going to be held in September," Powell said.
Aid groups have criticized NATO for planning to set up military reconstruction teams in relatively stable areas of the country and failing to address major security problems.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS