NATO leaders yesterday put behind them bitter rows over Iraq and agreed to train the security forces of the new Baghdad government, just hours after it formally took office.
The vaguely worded deal was approved at a summit of the 26 leaders who have spent more than a year glowering at each other over the US-led invasion of Iraq, which was opposed by many European states, including France and Germany.
There were no details in the training deal, reflecting continued disputes over how overt a role the alliance should play in Iraq and a careful attempt to play up harmony in the alliance as it gears to face new security threats.
"There was the expected agreement, which related to training, and to training only," said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. "Germany has an interest in a stabilized, a democratic Iraq."
The alliance also agreed to boost troop numbers in Afghanistan from 6,500 to 10,000 to bolster security during September elections.
"We have agreed today on a major expansion of NATO's role in Afghanistan," said NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. "We made a commitment to help and we will meet it."
He has cited the alliance's plans to widen its peace mission as proof that it can project stability far from national borders. Critics say NATO is doing too little, too late.
De Hoop Scheffer has had to wheedle troops and costly equipment out of nations to expand the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan and it was unclear which countries would contribute the extra 3,500 troops announced yesterday.
Iraq's new interim government formally took power from the US-led occupying authority two days ahead of schedule in an effort to thwart rising guerrilla activity.
"We need training and assistance inside Iraq," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told reporters after meeting British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the sidelines of the summit.
"We need to build our capabilities to rise to the challenge and we have asked NATO to take Iraq seriously."
The deal on helping Iraq falls far short of the boots-on-the-ground role Washington had sought for the alliance, which was scotched by French and German resistance.
While US officials have briefed reporters in glowing terms about the training agreement, France was distinctly cool.
French officials said it would be a job for allies, not the alliance as a whole, and there would be "no NATO flag" in Iraq.
Leftist protesters objecting to NATO hurled paving stones and petrol bombs at riot police yesterday, but were kept far from the summit center.
Police responded with baton charges, tear gas and water cannon. Around 30 people were reported injured.
In a separate protest, Greenpeace activists dangling from a suspension bridge over the Bosphorus strait unfurled a 30m banner showing a dove of peace with a nuclear missile in its beak and the phrase "Nukes out of NATO."
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
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
‘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