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."
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS