NATO Enlargement

NATO Head Calls for Expansion of Strategic Partnerships

Washington - NATO must engage in broader political dialogue, expand its strategic partnerships and reform its funding mechanisms, says its secretary-general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. “In this new world, solidarity is the key,” he said. “Political, military and financial solidarity.” De Hoop Scheffer, speaking at the Munich (Germany) Conference on Security Policy February 4, called on trans-Atlantic allies to bring more issues to the alliance for discussion, naming energy security as one topic for consultations. In addition, he said, NATO should build closer links with democratic nations outside of Europe, such as Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Japan. He described NATO’s partnership nations  -- “from Austria to Finland and from Armenia to Kazakhstan” – as strategic assets.  “We need to ensure that we have the closest possible partnership with those countries that can, and are willing to, help defend our shared values,” he said. Read More

Next Step for NATO
By Richard Holbrooke and Ronald D. Asmus
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Some controversies fade so quickly, and seem so silly in retrospect, that people forget they ever took place. But they can be instructive. For example: Less than a decade ago, there was an intense public debate over whether NATO should be enlarged to take in new members from Central and Eastern Europe. The issue was closely linked to the war in Bosnia; the foreign policy establishment in the United States and Europe -- including many commentators, both liberal and conservative -- largely opposed enlarging NATO, and most senior diplomats and bureaucrats thought it would destabilize Europe. Read More

US in push for NATO ties
November 23, 2006
THE US is pushing for NATO to forge closer links with key Western allies including Australia as the organisation expands its military deployments beyond Europe. But Canberra is lukewarm about developing any formal association with the group. Washington wants Australia, Japan and South Korea to become global partners with the 26-member Atlantic alliance, together with two European non-NATO allies - Sweden and Finland.
US President George W. Bush is expected to push the idea at a NATO summit meeting in the Latvian capital of Riga next week as NATO becomes more involved in the struggle against Islamist terrorism. Australia already has military ties with NATO through its task group in Oruzgan province in Afghanistan, which comes under overall NATO command. Read More

US to Propose NATO Partnership With South Korea Next Week
November 22
WASHINGTON (Yonhap) - The United States will propose that South Korea and four other nations be added as partners to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) at the group’s summit next week, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said Tuesday.
President George W. Bush will suggest establishing a “program of global partners” that would include South Korea, Japan, Australia, Sweden and Finland to have the Atlantic organization reach out to the Pacific, Burns said at a briefing. They are not being asked to join NATO, nor do they seek to, Burns said.
“But we seek a partnership with them so that we can train more intensively, from a military point of view, and grow closer to them because we are deployed with them,” he said. Read More

Bush to propose global partnership for five countries at NATO summit next week
November 21, 2006
President George W. Bush plans to propose at a NATO summit next week a partnership arrangement for five countries that would expand the reach of the Atlantic alliance to the Pacific Ocean. No invitations for full-fledged membership will be issued. Japan, Australia, South Korea, Sweden and Finland will be invited at the Riga, Latvia, summit to expand training and meetings with the 26-country NATO alliance but not to join, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said Tuesday. "These five countries — at least the three Asian countries, I should say, Australia, Japan and South Korea — do not seek NATO membership," Burns said. "But we seek a partnership with them so that we can train more intensively, from a military point of view, and grow closer to them because we are deployed with them." Read More

NATO PA advocates closer integration of Bosnia Herzegovina
November 17, 2006
NATO Parliamentary assembly has called attention on the future of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Euroatlantic Community. The country traumatized by a the ethnic wars following the implosion of former Yugoslavia, now looks ready to undertake a commitment to further integration into Western Institutions. While advocating additional constitutional reforms, the resolution praises Bosnian successful elections of October and encourages NATO members to “promote the closest possible co-operation between relevant international organizations, particularly the United Nations, the European Union, the OSCE and NATO.” Read Full Text

Moldova to expand cooperation with NATO
August 28, 2006

Moldova is not going to join NATO, but it will perceptibly expand cooperation with it, says the Individual Plan of Cooperation with NATO, which came into force. (...)According to Viorel Chebotaru, director of the programme of the Chisinau Institute of Public Politics and one of the authors of the Plan, “the new plan of cooperation with NATO does not undermine the neutral status of Moldova. It is not directed against Russia.”
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North - Atlantic Alliance open to Ukraine, NATO Secretary General says
July 17, 2006

The North - Atlantic Alliance is open to Ukraine and Georgia, as well as to any other European nation willing to develop relations with NATO. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, an adherent of real terms, stated that the process of NATO enlargement must not be limited in time and noted Ukraine's and Georgia's remarkable progress on the way to NATO. As he believes, the process of NATO enlargement "strengthens security" of countries joining it.
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NATO Mulls Expansion as Munich Security Conference Starts
February 2, 2006

Japan Wants Closer Ties to NATO
DefenseNews.com (subscription) - USA
February 6, 2006

Japan wants closer links with NATO although it does not want to become a member,Japanese deputy foreign minister Yasuhisa Shiozaki told a high-level security conference here Feb. 5. "I do not think that we will be part of NATO as a full member but I think there will be more cooperation between NATO and Japan if NATO’s missions are going to be expanding to geographical areas where we also cover,” Shiozaki said. Read More

Georgia to become NATO member in 2008
February 18, 2006

TBILISI , February 18 (RIA Novosti) - In 2008, Georgia will receive a formal invitation to join NATO and will become a full-fledged member of the alliance, the Georgian state minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration said Saturday. "I am confident that in 2008 we will receive an invitation from NATO and will become a full-fledged member of the alliance," Georgy Baramidze told a session of the International Security Forum. Read More

NATO considers closer ties with other countries
FT-By Daniel Dombey
April 03, 2006

NATO is considering creating closer military ties with countries like Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Finland or even Japan and South Korea, in an initiative pushed by the US but opposed by France. Washington has been gathering support for the idea of a more flexible "global partnership" which would lead to a rationalization of the organization's web of partnerships but also push for "advanced partnerships" with Nordic, Asian and Australian countries. Moreover, such initiative would boost ties with countries that already cooperate with the alliance such as New Zealand, Australia, Finland and Sweden participating in the Afghanistan mission. "It makes sense to consider making this community stronger. We need as many countries as possible that share our values and have effective forces on the same team to face all the challenges we are seeing in places such as Afghanistan," Nato’s James Appathurai told the FT. Yet France is uneasy with the idea as it fears it would further strengthen the US position in the alliance. Read More

Algeria, Israel, Morocco, to join NATO Maritime operations
By-Agence France Presse(AFP)
April 8, 2006

NATO has accepted a proposal that Algeria, Israel and Morocco take part in an alliance maritime operation. "NATO has given its agreement in principle that the three countries should take part" in an operation to monitor merchant shipping in the area of the Strait of Gibraltar, NATO deputy general secretary Alessandro Minuto Rizzo told reporters. The participants have agreed to set up a "partnership cell" to make easier cooperation between the alliance and the countries of the south, Rizzo said. Read More