NATO defense ministers were to meet in Germany yesterday to discuss the future of the transatlantic military alliance, notably boosting its presence in Afghanistan and defining the role it could play in Iraq.
Diplomatic sources have said the focus of the informal meeting, held around a working lunch, will be to ensure a successful mission in Afghanistan, probably by deploying more troops to regions outside the capital.
"We cannot afford to lose in Afghanistan," NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday after meeting German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
Iraq's security, and NATO's part in it, will also be broached at the meeting, which comes ahead of a weekend security conference here, as well as the damage caused to transatlantic ties by the US-led war there.
A year after the war began, the fact that no weapons of mass destruction have been found and inquiries have been launched into intelligence findings in the US and Britain could foster more conflict.
With the US military badly stretched and elections approaching, the talks may provide US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld with an opportunity to mend fences, as Washington needs help as it prepares to return sovereignty to the Iraqis.
Rumsfeld expressed hope here Thursday that NATO will assume a larger role in Iraq but said the alliance's priority now should be its expanded peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.
"I think NATO's ... first task is to do well the Afghan task," Rumsfeld told reporters on the flight from Washington. "The next step might be for them to take on a somewhat larger role in Afghanistan."
"With respect to Iraq, they have stepped forward and been working with the Polish and Spanish multinational division, and we would hope they would they would continue to take a still larger role," he said.
Rumsfeld antagonized some western European allies last year by referring to them as "Old Europe" and arguing that NATO's center of gravity was shifting to the new members from former Soviet bloc countries.
"I would say the relationships right now are very normal," he said.
Afghanistan was NATO's first mission outside Europe. It took command last August of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which was set up in December 2001 after the defeat of the hardline Taliban regime.
The Alliance wants to extend ISAF's operations beyond the capital, Kabul, and press reports suggest it could double the number of troops present and create up to 18 civilian reconstruction teams, up from around 10 currently planned.
Shamans in Peru on Monday gathered for an annual New Year’s ritual where they made predictions for the year to come, including illness for US President Donald Trump and the downfall of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” Juan de Dios Garcia proclaimed as he gathered with other shamans on a beach in southern Lima, dressed in traditional Andean ponchos and headdresses, and sprinkling flowers on the sand. The shamans carried large posters of world leaders, over which they crossed swords and burned incense, some of which they stomped on. In this
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
Near the entrance to the Panama Canal, a monument to China’s contributions to the interoceanic waterway was torn down on Saturday night by order of local authorities. The move comes as US President Donald Trump has made threats in the past few months to retake control of the canal, claiming Beijing has too much influence in its operations. In a surprising move that has been criticized by leaders in Panama and China, the mayor’s office of the locality of Arraijan ordered the demolition of the monument built in 2004 to symbolize friendship between the countries. The mayor’s office said in
‘TRUMP’S LONG GAME’: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said that while fraud was a serious issue, the US president was politicizing it to defund programs for Minnesotans US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday said it was auditing immigration cases involving US citizens of Somalian origin to detect fraud that could lead to denaturalization, or revocation of citizenship, while also announcing a freeze of childcare funds to Minnesota and demanding an audit of some daycare centers. “Under US law, if an individual procures citizenship on a fraudulent basis, that is grounds for denaturalization,” US Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Denaturalization cases are rare and can take years. About 11 cases were pursued per year between 1990 and 2017, the Immigrant Legal Resource
RSS