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Tue, 02 Apr 02
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Apr 02, 2002 11:59 PST
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NATO ENLARGEMENT DAILY BRIEF (NEDB)
Tuesday, 02 Apr 2002, 13:27 EDT
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= OPINION =
* NATO'S CLIFFHANGER: WT / Tod Lindberg
* WHITTLING DOWN THE NEW RUSSIA-NATO SET-UP: Russia Journal / Ira Straus
* PUTIN'S FOREIGN POLICY A PRIVATE AFFAIR: Moscow Times / Gregory Feifer
* EXPANDING NATO AND ITS PURPOSE - National Post
* MACEDONIA: END OF THE BEGINNING OR BEGINNING OF THE END? - Parameters / H. Liotta (US Naval War College) and C. R. Jebb (US Military Academy)
= NEWS =
* US TO HELP LITHUANIA IN FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION
* LITHUANIA SELECTS HARRIS RADIOS
* SWEDEN AND FINLAND TO SHARE MILITARY RADAR INFORMATION
* SLOVAKS TO AMEND PENALTY CODE TO INCLUDE ARTICLES ON TERRORISM
* EYEING NATO INVITE, ROMANIA OPENS PORT TO US TROOPS
* ROMANIA STARTS NATO ACTION PLAN
* ALBANIA: AGREEMENT SIGNED WITH TURKISH ARMY.
* BUSH, PUTIN DISCUSS NUCLEAR ARMS
* RUSSIA-NATO DEAL TO BE READY BY MAY - ROBERTSON
* RUSSIA ESTABLISHES ANTITERROR TEAM TO COOPERATE WITH NATO
* UKRAINIANS HOPE REFORMER CAN HELP
* MOLDOVANS VOW ONGOING PROTESTS AGAINST COMMUNISTS
= VISITS AND MEETINGS =
* NATO CHIEF GEORGE ROBERTSON TO VISIT WHITE HOUSE APRIL 9
* ESTONIAN FORMIN TO REPORT ON MAP PROGRESS IN BRUSSELS
* ROMANIA'S FORMIN STARTS WORKING VISIT TO US
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= OPINION =
NATO'S CLIFFHANGER
The Washington Times, 02 Apr 02, by Tod Lindberg
BRASOV COUNTY, Romania -- The craggy wall of rock rises 120 meters above the curving bed of a gently babbling stream in the Carpathian mountains. The face is in places so steep as to incline past the vertical. Mainly, though, it is massive and it is high. If you drove by it on the narrow, unpaved road that runs parallel to the stream, especially in the light spring snow that is falling, you might think it beautiful scenery.
But not today. Today the rock wall is pure intimidation. This impression comes from watching through binoculars as the singularly unintimidated men of Romania's 21 Mountain Hunters Battalion scale its many faces with alacrity and even grace.
The snow makes for treacherous climbing, especially for the second man up, when it has turned to ice. Indeed, the commander, Brig. Gen. Ion Bucaciuc, has had to call off one exercise because of iced-up rope lines at the wall's highest heights. Nevertheless, the 40 participating Mountain Hunters offer plenty to see in this capabilities exercise, and it is impressive: from the free-climb up sheer rock, to the speedy traverses by zip wire high above, to the singular spectacle of two men carefully rappelling down the rock face transporting a "wounded" comrade suspended horizontally by rope from a pole between them, to a by-the-book ambush on a three-vehicle convoy, complete with a flash-bang simulated explosion.
Ordinarily, of course, one rappels facing the rock. For sheer vicarious thrills, nothing tops watching a couple soldier-alpinists race down a steep grade facing not the mountain but the enemy - that is, away from the rock, rifles in hand - hitting a ledge and firing off a few rounds, then resuming the near-vertical descent.
Romania is one of nine countries hoping to be invited to join NATO this fall at the alliance summit in Prague. Assuming they continue to work diligently on their to-do lists between now and then, the admission of five of them seems no longer to be controversial: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
That leaves open the question of a "southern dimension" to enlargement - specifically, the fate of Romania and Bulgaria. In early October, Bulgaria hosted a summit of aspirant countries in Sophia. Understandably, it was largely given over to discussions of the implications of the September 11 attacks, including declarations of solidarity from the aspirants as well as reassurances from the United States and NATO that the enlargement process as a whole remained on track. Last week, Romania played host to the same group in Bucharest, and this time the question of the southern dimension came to the forefront.
Purely in geographical terms, the case for enlargement to the south, linking Hungary to Greece and Turkey, makes a fair amount of sense, especially given the new terrorism-driven emphasis on Central Asia and the attendant need for as much stability in the Balkans as possible. One encouraging development is that longtime rivals Greece and Turkey have been working together in behalf of Romania and Bulgaria's admission.
But geography is not enough. The real question is what a nation can contribute to the mutual self-defense of alliance members. True, American military power within the alliance is pre-eminent. But free riders are not welcome.
That's where the capabilities exercise I watched in the mountainous gateway to Transylvania has some lessons to teach. What each aspirant member of the alliance ought to be doing (and current members as well, for that matter) is seeking its military "comparative advantage," to apply a concept from economics. That is, each should figure out what it does best and then do it as well as it can.
In the Romanian case, that surely encompasses training and equipping crack mountain troops. This creates real capabilities, which in turn may be truly useful and perhaps even essential in contingencies that lie ahead - in the mountains of Afghanistan, for example. (In fact, Romania has already contributed a C-130 transport detachment to the effort there; it's now based in Karachi.)
The aspirant nations have various military problems and issues before them. The problem in the south is actually armies that are too big, a hangover from the Warsaw Pact days. They need to be downsized, professionalized, modernized. The Baltics, on the other hand, had to start largely from scratch, since their experience was that of Soviet occupation.
The answers will be different in each case. The question, though, is what value-added each can bring. The Romanians offered a good example. Believe me, these are guys you want on your side the next time you're coming down an unfriendly mountain.
WHITTLING DOWN THE NEW RUSSIA-NATO SET-UP
The Russia Journal, 02 Apr 02, by Ira Straus
A NATO-Russia Council of 20 members - the idea that was proposed last fall as a breakthrough in mutual relations - has been persistently delayed and whittled down. It is now going through a further round of whittling-down. Russia is publicly upset, warning last week that the new Council was being reduced, in the words of Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, to a "purely cosmetic" renaming of the NATO-Russia Joint Council that already exists.
The reason is simple. NATO never tried to figure out a workable way to include Russia in its core processes. If it can't figure it out for the core processes, it won't be able to figure it out for the peripheral processes either.
As long as NATO does not think about how to do it right with Russia, it will be left only with plans for doing it wrong. It will become afraid of these plans. It will want to whittle them down to a bare minimum, which would limits the damage but still leave the net balance negative. And that fails to offer prospects for major gains.
That is what is going on now.
The crux of the matter is that NATO has never tried to figure it out. This would not be so hard to do, but it would require some creativity about reforming the decision processes. It would mean giving up the traditional NATO rhetoric that portrays the existing processes as the best of all possible worlds, a near-miraculous achievement in consensus - a process that no one has been able to explain without mystification, that was better fitted to the Cold War than to the fast-changing world of today and that no one thinks Russia could fit into. There would have to be some open discussion about the existing mix of decision processes in NATO, their aspects of flexibility and rigidity, and how to develop supplementary procedures for getting past the rigidities - procedures for evaluating new situations without dogma or gang spirit, making decisions quickly enough, presenting them publicly without fearing if a few members mildly dissent, implementing them under the joint aegis yet through flexible coalitions and changing them expeditiously as the external world changes and as the initial joint measures bring some unanticipated consequences.
In the absence of ideas on how to do this, it is not surprising that NATO is running into all kinds of self-contradictions when it comes to its plans for including Russia in decision-making on some new anti-terrorism issues. With every issue, no matter whether old or new, the same need arises for a more flexible system. No matter which issues are coming up for decision, the same inadequacies in existing NATO mechanisms come into play. If NATO cannot solve them for the old core issues, it cannot solve them for any other ones, either.
While the existing decision processes have some flaws, they are nowhere near as bad as the public rhetoric about them. People are led to believe that there is a right of veto for NATO members. This is repeatedly uncritically in the mass media, day in and day out. It has gained the status of an accepted myth, a basis for making all kinds of false deductions.
In reality, the North Atlantic Treaty creates no right of veto and leaves it to the NATO Council to set its own procedures. The main U.S. author of the Treaty, Ambassador Theodore Achilles, told me a few years before his death that this was deliberate: They did not want NATO to be hamstrung by a veto. The myth of a right of veto nevertheless has served some PR purposes, particularly during the Cold War, when it was important to present a front of unanimity against the enemy.
The overall NATO veto-right myth is what gives rise to the sub-myth that Russia was offered a veto last fall. As long as the NATO decision-making system is described as if it were one in which every country had a legal right of veto, people will wonder whether Russia is also getting this right. And as long as the actual NATO decision-making system is only somewhat flexible, operating by a mix of normal mutual political pressures and abnormal privileges that diplomats of member states sometimes extend to one another for dragging out the discussion in the name of consensus, no one will be able to understand how to extend that system to include Russia without at least some damage to the ability to reach meaningful results.
A former U.S. Ambassador to NATO told me that the fears of a "Russian veto" had all arisen by a kind of accident. "Lord Robertson was tricked by the press. They asked him if Russia was being offered a veto over NATO decisions, and he was unusually flat-footed in his response. Then the press spread the story all around that Russia was being given a veto, and we've had to keep explaining ever since that it isn't so."
That was an accurate recounting of how the flap over a "Russian veto" began last fall, but it didn't explain why it began. Why did the press ask trick questions? Why did it seize upon an ambiguous response to spread a myth? Why was it so easy to create a panic? Why was there a similar panic about a "Russian veto" five years ago, when the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council was being created? Why is everyone afraid of this "veto", when no one has been able to define it or explain where or when it could ever come into play? Why are the official denials about the "Russian veto" so unconvincing, despite being absolutely true?
The explanation lies in the rigidities in the existing procedures of NATO and the even more rigid language used for describing them. If every member of NATO is said to have a "veto," Russia naturally wants one, too - otherwise it cannot expect to get any respect for its views. If Russia talks of wanting a "veto," everyone gets scared. And so NATO and Russia run around the circle again and again.
We've been through all this before. In 1997, when the Permanent Joint Council was created, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger raised up a veritable hysteria about it. Discussion with Russia was equated with a Russian veto and the destruction of NATO - unless NATO reached a joint position first and simply presented it to the Russians, take it or leave it. The Republicans in Congress and the mass media joined in the hysteria; no one refuted it effectively, probably because the language game of NATO served to delete all the space for refuting it. The Clinton Administration caved in and imposed restrictions on the Joint Council: It could not talk with Russia until the Alliance had already made up its mind. Advertised as a breakthrough in relations, the Council was reduced to near-insignificance.
Are we running around the same circle all over again?
Again, Kissinger is whipping up hysteria about a "Russian veto." This time he is joined in it by Zbigniew Brzezinski and by the three new Central European members of NATO. The last time, the Central Europeans had been cautious: They were on their best behavior, and they knew an agreement on a Russia-NATO Joint Council might be a condition for their joining NATO. Today, however, they are securely entrenched in NATO, and are available for the mobilization of hysteria about Russia. The situation will get worse if more states with anti-Russian feelings are admitted in November.
The crux of the problem, regarding any new NATO-Russia council and NATO's handling of new members in its old North Atlantic Council, remains NATO decision-making. David Abshire, one of the most respected of the former U.S. ambassadors to NATO, wrote in 1992 of a need to consider procedures such as "consensus-minus-one" or "weighted voting" so that former enemies could not "prevent the Alliance's traditional members from acting." Ten years have been lost since then, but last month Lord Robertson, in a speech at Chatham House, said it is time to get on with the "modernisation of NATO's decision-making machinery" so that it will continue to be able to make decisions expeditiously "after NATO's enlargement in November."
Carried out seriously, such a "modernisation" would make a tremendous difference, not only in NATO's internal effectiveness, but also in its capacity to adapt to the new challenges. Whether it will be carried out seriously enough and soon enough for NATO to build a working alliance with Russia is the question on which the future of the relationship rides.
PUTIN'S FOREIGN POLICY A PRIVATE AFFAIR
The Moscow Times, 02 Apr, 02, by Gregory Feifer, Staff Writer
Unlike with President Vladimir Putin's domestic policies, which are usually ascribed to one or another group of advisers within the corridors of power, the genesis of foreign policy is a murky affair.
Read full text: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/04/02/002.html
EXPANDING NATO AND ITS PURPOSE
National Post, 29 Mar 02
Judging by the positive comments made by Washington's representative, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, at a meeting earlier this week in Romania of 10 Eastern European prime ministers, NATO now looks certain to embark on a major expansion at November's summit in Prague. The organization may accept up to seven new members (though four or five is likelier), including former communist states that, before Sept. 11, were virtual no-hopers. By accelerating the process of integration, NATO is reacting and adapting to the exigencies of the post-Sept. 11 world.
Read full text: http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20020329/487502.html&qs=NATO
MACEDONIA: END OF THE BEGINNING OR BEGINNING OF THE END?
Parameters, Spring 2002, by H. Liotta (US Naval War College) and Cindy R. Jebb (US Military Academy)
Read: http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/02spring/liotta.htm
= NEWS =
US TO HELP LITHUANIA IN FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION
AFP, 29 Apr 02
VILNIUS - Lithuania on Friday signed an agreement with the United States to help its special investigation service fight corruption, the foreign ministry said Friday.
"I have to commend the Lithuanian government for its serious attitude towards corruption and am convinced that this agreement will strengthen the efforts," US Ambassador to Lithuania John Tefft said after the signing ceremony.
The United States is to provide 500,000 dollars (570,000 euros) of equipment and training to officers in Lithuania's special investigation service.
In its last progress report on Lithuania the European Union noted corruption as a key area needing improvement if the country is achieve its aim of joining the EU by 2004. /./
LITHUANIA SELECTS HARRIS RADIOS
DefenseNews.com, Industry Digest, 01 Apr 02, by Emily Woodward, DefenseNews.com Assistant Editor
The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense tapped Melbourne, Fla.-based Harris Corp. to supply tactical radios under a $13.2 million contract, the company said in a March 29 statement.
The contract covers the supply of an undisclosed number of RF-5800H and RF-5800V Falcon 2 radio systems. The Lithuanian Army will use the radios as part of an ongoing effort to upgrade its data communications systems to meet NATO standards.
NEUTRAL COUNTRIES SWEDEN AND FINLAND TO SHARE MILITARY RADAR INFORMATION
AP, 30 Mar 02
STOCKHOLM, Sweden () _ Sweden and Finland will share radar and satellite surveillance pictures of the sea and airspace between them in an unprecedented move to promote security and safety in the region, a Swedish defense official said Saturday.
"What we're trying to achieve is a secure Baltic Sea and find ways to more quickly intervene in different incidents that concern the sea and air space," defense spokeswoman Paula Burreau said.
Such incidents could include territorial violations by foreign powers but also natural disasters and accidents like oil spills or ship wrecks, she said, adding that details of the cooperation were still being worked out.
The joint surveillance proposal has been in the works for more than a year and is expected to be finalized this spring, Burreau said.
No other countries would be involved, she said.
Nordic neighbors Sweden and Finland are separated by the Baltic Sea in the south and by the Torne River in the north. Both countries are military nonaligned, although they've become more open to defense cooperation since the end of the Cold War, during which the two countries were squeezed between the nuclear arsenals of NATO and members of the Warsaw Pact.
SLOVAKS TO AMEND PENALTY CODE TO INCLUDE ARTICLES ON TERRORISM
BRATISLAVA, April 2, (SITA)- At its Wednesday sitting, the Slovak Cabinet will deal with the amendment to the Penal Code passed by its Legislation Council last week. The revision installs the definition of crime of terrorism and establishment of a terrorist group into the legislation. The amendment along with defining terrorist group and opens wider possibilities for seizing property that could be used to finance terrorist acts. Terrorists can be jailed for 12-25 years or get a life sentence. The Justice Ministry proposes the exceptional sentence of 15-25 years in prison if several people are killed in a terrorist action or if it is extremely brutal.
The amendment also redefines the crime of disseminating false alarm to make it possible to apply this category to other dangerous acts including mailing of anthrax imitations with no text enclosed. The new norm will include also crime against the humanity.
EYEING NATO INVITE, ROMANIA OPENS PORT TO US TROOPS
AFP, 02 Apr 02
BUCHAREST - Romania is to open the Black Sea port of Constanta to US troops in the region, as the country strengthens its role in the fight against terrorism, Defence Minister Ioan Mircea Pascu said Tuesday.
Romania, which hopes the post-September 11 anti-terror war could boost its chances of being invited to join NATO later this year, is also upgrading two military airports for potential use by foreign forces, he said.
The port of Constanta will be made available to US troops specifically for operations in the UN-administered Yugoslav province of Kosovo.
"The last preparations are being made and the port could soon be used as a basis for US troops going to Kosovo," said Pascu.
American forces will initially be allowed to use the port for two months, but the period could be extended. "It is a test to allow NATO to see if we are up their demands," Pascu told a group of foreign journalists.
Bucharest has meanwhile launched operations to evaluate and modernize facilities at the military airports of Fetesti in the east and Timisoara in the west of the country.
The airports could be made available to NATO forces if necessary. "Romania is a member of the anti-terrorist coalition and we have pledged to open Romanian air, sea and land to NATO forces," the minister added.
Romania is among nine ex-communist countries -- the others are Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania -- hoping for an invitation to join NATO at a summit in Prague in November.
Five of the candidates -- the Baltic trio plus Slovenia and possibly Slovakia -- are tipped as frontrunners, while Romania and Bulgaria could be added to the list, diplomats indicate.
Romania has seen an "increased interest" in recent months by NATO for southeastern Europe, Pascu said, insisting that Romania and Bulgaria's inclusion as NATO members "has become logical and necessary."
ROMANIA STARTS NATO ACTION PLAN
Rompres / BBC Monitoring, 30 Mar 02
Bucharest: "The outcome of the recent summit meeting of heads of government of the V-10 [Vilnius Group] NATO candidate countries is certainly positive. We can safely say that Romania is now closer than ever before to being admitted to NATO, a top priority objective that enjoys the support of 80 per cent of the people," Romania's Prime Minister Adrian Nastase said [on] Saturday [30 March] on a working visit to the northern county of Suceava.
Nastase stated that the Romanian government has a pro-NATO action agenda divided into seven chapters that it would start putting into effect starting 1 April, in daily and weekly action charts. This agenda will be supervised by a group of technical experts made up of state secretaries with the Defence Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the Interior Ministry. The group will be coordinated by the Government's General Secretariat and Minister Serban Mihailescu. Its main task will be to supervise the list of sensitive issues, said Nastase.
Nastase pointed out that dialogue with other parliamentary political groups should be started on Romania's admission to NATO, adding that he would make this proposal in the week to come.
ALBANIA: AGREEMENT SIGNED WITH TURKISH ARMY.
ATA, 02 Apr 02
Turkish Army signed an agreement on the continuation of support for Albanian Government in Tirana on Monday [1 April], the Information and Press Department close to the Defence Ministry reported.The continuity of this assistance has been tangible through a grant of $2.5 million for Albanian Army. Before signing the agreement, the military team headed by Brigadier Cihangir Dumali was received in a meeting by the Chief of General Staff of Albanian Armed Forces, Brigadier Pellumb Qazimi.
BUSH, PUTIN DISCUSS NUCLEAR ARMS
AP, 02 Apr 02
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke Tuesday for the second time in less than a week as the White House reported progress toward agreements on offensive nuclear weapons reductions.
The two presidents, in their 15-minute phone conversation, also ``said they were satisfied that negotiators had signed an interim protocol to resolve the Russian ban on U.S. chicken imports,'' White House spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
Bush, who meets Putin in Russia for summit talks next month, spoke to him just Wednesday about the nuclear weapons agreement and U.S. concerns over the chicken ban that is so damaging to American poultry farmers.
In their conversation Tuesday, Bush and Putin agreed that discussions on a new NATO-Russian relationship also were making progress, McCormack said.
State Department officials said last week that U.S. and Russian negotiators had made so much progress on a new strategic framework and how to codify promised nuclear weapons reductions that agreements on both may be ready for signatures when Bush and Putin meet next month in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
``Discussions are progressing,'' McCormack said.
Among the issues still to be worked out are the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and a U.S. proposal for a new way to count warheads as the United States and Russia reduce their strategic arsenals to 1,700-2,200 each.
RUSSIA-NATO DEAL TO BE READY BY MAY - ROBERTSON
Interfax, 02 Apr 02
MOSCOW - NATO Secretary General George Robertson, in an article to appear in a newspaper on Tuesday, expresses confidence that Russia and the North Atlantic alliance will be able to work out a new mechanism for mutual relations by this May.
Robertson tells the newspaper Izvestia that it will be hard work but that he is sure the mechanism will be ready by a planned foreign minister-level meeting between Russia and NATO. /./
RUSSIA ESTABLISHES ANTITERROR TEAM TO COOPERATE WITH NATO
People Daily, 29 Mar 02
The Russian government has set up an inter-departmental working team to cooperate with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in fighting international terrorism, local media cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoly Safonov as saying Thursday. /./
Safonov made the announcement while addressing a roundtable meeting, which was entitled "Russia-NATO: Common Interests in the Fight Against International Terrorism" and held in Russia's secondbiggest city of St. Petersburg within the framework of the ongoinginternational parliamentary forum on the fight against terrorism.
The team was formed last week on the initiative of the Russian President Vladimir Putin and would "coordinate the efforts of manyagencies," he said.
The working group would coordinate the cooperative efforts of many federal departments in Russia, he said.
In Safonov's opinion, positive changes have occurred in the domain of Russia-NATO relations after the September 11 terror events. Meanwhile, the past several months also revealed a range of problems that prompt the two sides to give maximum attention to coordinating the anti-terrorism campaign.
In promoting the anti-terrorism partnership between Russia and NATO, the two sides should act likewise -- at first, consolidate everything that they had previously achieved and move on only after that, he stressed. /./
UKRAINIANS HOPE REFORMER CAN HELP
AP, 02 Apr 02
KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's political landscape assumed a striking new look this week after voters chose Viktor Yushchenko's pro-Western, pro-capitalist party to lead their next parliament.
But Yushchenko's victory was slim and his challenges are colossal. Analysts say his hopes of transforming Ukraine through tax reforms and by eliminating graft may get bogged down in political infighting, or succumb to pressure from President Leonid Kuchma, a former communist boss averse to change.
The stakes are high for both Russia and Europe, and a key issue is whether Ukraine will continue to sink in a swamp of corruption scandals that alienated it from the outside world or fulfill the promise of becoming a powerhouse on Europe's eastern rim.
While the close race reflected deep fissures over Ukraine's direction, Yushchenko's victory was a milestone in its post-Soviet history.
``It's the first time that non-communists won'' in the post-Soviet parliament, said Ihor Zhdanov, political scientist with Kiev's Razumkov Center for Economic and Political Research. ``It's a very important step for Ukraine, a real sign of political development.''
Europeans would like Ukraine to be a sturdier and friendlier neighbor as NATO and the European Union envelop countries along Ukraine's borders, such as Poland and Hungary.
``The European Union wants to cooperate with Ukraine'' and wants the new parliament to speed up integration into Europe, EU foreign policy and security chief Javier Solana was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying Tuesday.
Western investors scarred by Ukrainian corruption see hope in Yushchenko, who in 16 months as prime minister drove the country's first-ever economic growth, quelled inflation and paid workers defeated by years of wage delays.
Moscow, meanwhile, sees a compliant Ukraine as a key buffer between itself and an expanding Europe, and is content with its relationship with Kuchma that keeps Ukraine dependent on Russian energy supplies.
Yushchenko's popularity ``cannot but worry us,'' Russia's ambassador to Ukraine, ex-Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, said recently.
Yushchenko's victory may push Russia to work harder to protect its interests on the fringes of its former empire.
Already, Kremlin-linked consultants are believed to have boosted the pro-Kuchma party's parliamentary campaign with money and mudslinging articles in the Ukrainian press.
``Ukraine still hasn't adapted to the idea that this is their country,'' a top Western diplomat in Kiev said.
Russia's reported role in the campaign prompted an exaggerated outcry from Ukrainian liberals and fueled their belief that Moscow harbors hopes of reoccupying its southern neighbor.
Voting patterns Sunday reflected Ukraine's east-west divide, with the industrial east favoring the Communist Party and the pro-presidential For United Ukraine, and the Ukrainian-speaking west preferring Yushchenko.
Overall, For United Ukraine won nearly as many seats in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada as Yushchenko - 105 to his 110, according to the latest results. The communists have about 65 and two opposition groups, the Socialists and ex-deputy premier Julia Tymoshenko's bloc, have about 24 each. That gives no one a clear majority.
``Yushchenko must make alliances quickly, and he must be both firm and crafty,'' said Volodymyr Malinkovich, director of Kiev's Institute for Humanitarian and Political Research.
The brainy Yushchenko has more experience in finance and banking than in legislative politics, and some warn that could prove his downfall.
MOLDOVANS VOW ONGOING PROTESTS AGAINST COMMUNISTS
Reuters, 02 Apr 02
CHISINAU, April 2 (Reuters) - About 3,000 Moldovans, who had camped overnight outside government headquarters, vowed on Tuesday to continue mass rallies after the Communist government refused to meet their demands for an early election.
The demonstration, led by the opposition nationalists, was the latest in a series aimed at ousting a government the protesters say is trying to drag the ex-Soviet state back into the sphere of its imperial master, Russia.
A deputy for the nationalists said the Communists had refused to call an early election after condemning the rallies as illegal, and had sent hundreds of riot police to surround the parliament building.
"The authorities have ignored our demands," said opposition deputy Stefan Sacareanu, who had held talks with the country's Deputy Prime Minister Valerian Cristea.
Sacareanu said protests would continue until the government stepped down. The government was not available for comment.
About 500 riot police in flak jackets surrounded the parliament building, where protesters were trying to put up banners saying: "Resign" and "The people do not want you."
More than 50,000 Moldovans had massed in Chisinau on Sunday and erected tents on the capital's central square, launching round-the-clock rallies against the Communists in the country of four million wedged between Ukraine and Romania.
Protesters took to the streets in January when the government announced plans for schoolchildren to learn Russian alongside Moldovan, the national language which is identical to Romanian.
The demonstrations dwindled after the government scrapped the plan, but the disappearance of opposition deputy Vlad Cubreacov, a driving force behind the rallies, on March 21 has given new life to the protests.
The opposition nationalist pro-Romanian Christian Democratic People's Party says Cubreacov vanished after a driver dropped him off outside his home. The police have found no trace of him.
Communists hold 71 seats in the 101-seat parliament and took 50 percent of the vote in elections a year ago, thanks to a strong power base in rural areas. But they are facing growing discontent over their failure to improve living standards.
More than 80 percent of Moldovans live below the poverty line of one dollar a day. Emigration, legal and illegal, is at a record high.
President Vladimir Voronin says the nationalists are waging a smear campaign against his party.
Many protesters say they fear the government plans to drag Moldova away from its close links with Romania. Much of present-day Moldova once belonged to Romania and contacts across the border were severely restricted in communist times.
= VISITS AND MEETINGS =
NATO CHIEF GEORGE ROBERTSON TO VISIT WHITE HOUSE APRIL 9
AFP, 02 Apr 02
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush will next week welcome NATO chief George Robertson, the White House said Monday.
During the April 9 visit, the two will focus on the fight against terrorism and the upcoming North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
"This visit is an opportunity for the president to discuss with the leader of NATO our progress in the war against terrorism, and our preparations for the November NATO summit meeting in Prague," Fleischer said.
The leaders of 19 NATO member countries are due to decide at the summit on a new wave of expansion for NATO. Eight months away from the summit, diplomatic sources say two options are on the table.
One would be to include five new members in NATO: Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and Slovenia, while the other option would also take in Bulgaria and Romania.
"This cooperation underscores the transatlantic commitment to shared values and collective defense that NATO has embodied for over 50 years," Fleischer added, noting that the meeting would be the fourth between the two leaders in little more than a year.
ESTONIAN FORMIN TO REPORT ON MAP PROGRESS IN BRUSSELS
BNS, 29 Apr 02
TALLINN - Estonian Prime Minister Siim Kallas will go to Brussels next week as head of a delegation of Estonian defense structures to report to the North Atlantic Council on Estonia's preparations for accession to NATO.
ROMANIA'S FORMIN STARTS WORKING VISIT TO US
Rompres, 02 Apr 02
Bucharest - Romania's Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana on April 1 started a working visit to the US, to end on April 5.
This visit is part of the political and diplomatic moves of Romania to win the support of the US Administration for admission to NATO. At the same time, the visit is meant to strengthen political and economic dialogue between Romania and the US in the context of a reinvigorated bilateral framework instituted under a strategic partnership between the two countries.
A main event of the visit will be a meeting of Geoana with Condoleezza Rice, the national security advisor to the US President.
The schedule of this visit also includes meetings with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman; Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs, as well as with Under Secretary of Defence for Defence Policies Douglas Feith.
Roundtable talks will be hold at the US Department of State on Romanian and US collaboration in fighting trafficking in people in Romania, expected to be attended by officials of the US relevant governmental authorities. On this occasion, Geoana will meet ambassador Nancy Ely-Raphel, director of the State Department's office to combat trafficking in persons.
Geoana will also meet RAND Corporation chief analyst Robert Hunter; special advisor to President George W. Bush for Europe and Eurasia Dan Fried, as well as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Samuel Berger.
An important part of the visit will be the meetings with US academics. Geoana will deliver a speech to the Yale University on the recent meeting in Bucharest of the NATO candidate countries called ''Spring of New Allies'' as well as the challenges, contributions and responsibilities of the emerging European democracy. Geoana will have conversations with Yale President Charles Levin and Strobe Talbott, a former US deputy secretary of state.
Geoana will have a working meeting with senior officials of the most influential US and foreign media.
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<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>NATO ENLARGEMENT DAILY BRIEF (NEDB)<BR>Tuesday,
02 Apr 2002, 13:27
EDT<BR>---------------------------------------------------<BR>= OPINION =<BR>*
NATO'S CLIFFHANGER: WT / Tod Lindberg<BR>* WHITTLING DOWN THE NEW
RUSSIA-NATO SET-UP: Russia Journal / Ira Straus<BR>* PUTIN'S FOREIGN POLICY A
PRIVATE AFFAIR: Moscow Times / Gregory Feifer</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>* EXPANDING NATO AND ITS PURPOSE - National
Post</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>* MACEDONIA: END OF THE BEGINNING OR BEGINNING OF
THE END? - Parameters / H. Liotta (US Naval War College) and C. R. Jebb (US
Military Academy)<BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2><BR> = NEWS =<BR>* US TO HELP LITHUANIA IN
FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION <BR>* LITHUANIA SELECTS HARRIS RADIOS<BR>* SWEDEN
AND FINLAND TO SHARE MILITARY RADAR INFORMATION<BR>* SLOVAKS TO AMEND PENALTY
CODE TO INCLUDE ARTICLES ON TERRORISM<BR>* EYEING NATO INVITE, ROMANIA OPENS
PORT TO US TROOPS <BR>* ROMANIA STARTS NATO ACTION PLAN <BR>* ALBANIA: AGREEMENT
SIGNED WITH TURKISH ARMY.<BR>* BUSH, PUTIN DISCUSS NUCLEAR ARMS<BR>* RUSSIA-NATO
DEAL TO BE READY BY MAY - ROBERTSON <BR>* RUSSIA ESTABLISHES ANTITERROR TEAM TO
COOPERATE WITH NATO<BR>* UKRAINIANS HOPE REFORMER CAN HELP <BR>* MOLDOVANS VOW
ONGOING PROTESTS AGAINST COMMUNISTS<BR></DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> </DIV></FONT>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2>= VISITS AND MEETINGS =<BR>* NATO CHIEF GEORGE
ROBERTSON TO VISIT WHITE HOUSE APRIL 9 <BR>* ESTONIAN FORMIN TO REPORT ON MAP
PROGRESS IN BRUSSELS <BR>* ROMANIA'S FORMIN STARTS WORKING VISIT TO
US<BR>--------------------------------------------------<BR>To subscribe to
NEDB, send a blank email to<BR></FONT><A
href="mailto:nato-su-@topica.com"><FONT face=Verdana
size=2>nato-su-@topica.com</FONT></A><BR><FONT face=Verdana
size=2>Browse/Search NATO Enlargement Daily Brief:<BR></FONT><A
href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nedb"><FONT face=Verdana
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size=2>Send your contributions & comments to </FONT><A
href="mailto:NE-@Latvia-USA.org"><FONT face=Verdana
size=2>NE-@Latvia-USA.org</FONT></A><BR><FONT face=Verdana
size=2>------------------------------------------------- <BR>=
OPINION =<BR> NATO'S CLIFFHANGER <BR>The Washington Times, 02 Apr 02, by
Tod Lindberg<BR> <BR>BRASOV COUNTY, Romania -- The craggy wall of rock
rises 120 meters above the curving bed of a gently babbling stream in the
Carpathian mountains. The face is in places so steep as to incline past the
vertical. Mainly, though, it is massive and it is high. If you drove by it on
the narrow, unpaved road that runs parallel to the stream, especially in the
light spring snow that is falling, you might think it beautiful scenery.
<BR> <BR>But not today. Today the rock wall is pure intimidation. This
impression comes from watching through binoculars as the singularly
unintimidated men of Romania's 21 Mountain Hunters Battalion scale its many
faces with alacrity and even grace.<BR> The snow
makes for treacherous climbing, especially for the second man up, when it has
turned to ice. Indeed, the commander, Brig. Gen. Ion Bucaciuc, has had to call
off one exercise because of iced-up rope lines at the wall's highest heights.
Nevertheless, the 40 participating Mountain Hunters offer plenty to see in this
capabilities exercise, and it is impressive: from the free-climb up sheer rock,
to the speedy traverses by zip wire high above, to the singular spectacle of two
men carefully rappelling down the rock face transporting a "wounded" comrade
suspended horizontally by rope from a pole between them, to a by-the-book ambush
on a three-vehicle convoy, complete with a flash-bang simulated
explosion.<BR> Ordinarily, of course, one rappels
facing the rock. For sheer vicarious thrills, nothing tops watching a couple
soldier-alpinists race down a steep grade facing not the mountain but the enemy
— that is, away from the rock, rifles in hand — hitting a ledge and firing off a
few rounds, then resuming the near-vertical
descent.<BR> Romania is one of nine countries
hoping to be invited to join NATO this fall at the alliance summit in Prague.
Assuming they continue to work diligently on their to-do lists between now and
then, the admission of five of them seems no longer to be controversial:
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and
Slovenia.<BR> That leaves open the question of a
"southern dimension" to enlargement — specifically, the fate of Romania and
Bulgaria. In early October, Bulgaria hosted a summit of aspirant countries in
Sophia. Understandably, it was largely given over to discussions of the
implications of the September 11 attacks, including declarations of solidarity
from the aspirants as well as reassurances from the United States and NATO that
the enlargement process as a whole remained on track. Last week, Romania played
host to the same group in Bucharest, and this time the question of the southern
dimension came to the forefront.<BR> Purely in
geographical terms, the case for enlargement to the south, linking Hungary to
Greece and Turkey, makes a fair amount of sense, especially given the new
terrorism-driven emphasis on Central Asia and the attendant need for as much
stability in the Balkans as possible. One encouraging development is that
longtime rivals Greece and Turkey have been working together in behalf of
Romania and Bulgaria's admission.<BR> But
geography is not enough. The real question is what a nation can contribute to
the mutual self-defense of alliance members. True, American military power
within the alliance is pre-eminent. But free riders are not welcome.
<BR> That's where the capabilities exercise I
watched in the mountainous gateway to Transylvania has some lessons to teach.
What each aspirant member of the alliance ought to be doing (and current members
as well, for that matter) is seeking its military "comparative advantage," to
apply a concept from economics. That is, each should figure out what it does
best and then do it as well as it can. <BR> In the
Romanian case, that surely encompasses training and equipping crack mountain
troops. This creates real capabilities, which in turn may be truly useful and
perhaps even essential in contingencies that lie ahead — in the mountains of
Afghanistan, for example. (In fact, Romania has already contributed a C-130
transport detachment to the effort there; it's now based in
Karachi.)<BR> The aspirant nations have various
military problems and issues before them. The problem in the south is actually
armies that are too big, a hangover from the Warsaw Pact days. They need to be
downsized, professionalized, modernized. The Baltics, on the other hand, had to
start largely from scratch, since their experience was that of Soviet
occupation.<BR> The answers will be different in
each case. The question, though, is what value-added each can bring. The
Romanians offered a good example. Believe me, these are guys you want on your
side the next time you're coming down an unfriendly
mountain.<BR> <BR>WHITTLING DOWN THE NEW RUSSIA-NATO SET-UP<BR>The Russia
Journal, 02 Apr 02, by Ira Straus<BR> <BR>A NATO-Russia Council of 20
members – the idea that was proposed last fall as a breakthrough in mutual
relations – has been persistently delayed and whittled down. It is now going
through a further round of whittling-down. Russia is publicly upset, warning
last week that the new Council was being reduced, in the words of Foreign
Minister Igor Ivanov, to a "purely cosmetic" renaming of the NATO-Russia Joint
Council that already exists.<BR> <BR>The reason is simple. NATO never tried
to figure out a workable way to include Russia in its core processes. If it
can’t figure it out for the core processes, it won’t be able to figure it out
for the peripheral processes either.<BR>As long as NATO does not think about how
to do it right with Russia, it will be left only with plans for doing it wrong.
It will become afraid of these plans. It will want to whittle them down to a
bare minimum, which would limits the damage but still leave the net balance
negative. And that fails to offer prospects for major gains.<BR> <BR>That
is what is going on now.<BR>The crux of the matter is that NATO has never tried
to figure it out. This would not be so hard to do, but it would require some
creativity about reforming the decision processes. It would mean giving up the
traditional NATO rhetoric that portrays the existing processes as the best of
all possible worlds, a near-miraculous achievement in consensus – a process that
no one has been able to explain without mystification, that was better fitted to
the Cold War than to the fast-changing world of today and that no one thinks
Russia could fit into. There would have to be some open discussion about the
existing mix of decision processes in NATO, their aspects of flexibility and
rigidity, and how to develop supplementary procedures for getting past the
rigidities – procedures for evaluating new situations without dogma or gang
spirit, making decisions quickly enough, presenting them publicly without
fearing if a few members mildly dissent, implementing them under the joint aegis
yet through flexible coalitions and changing them expeditiously as the external
world changes and as the initial joint measures bring some unanticipated
consequences.<BR>In the absence of ideas on how to do this, it is not surprising
that NATO is running into all kinds of self-contradictions when it comes to its
plans for including Russia in decision-making on some new anti-terrorism issues.
With every issue, no matter whether old or new, the same need arises for a more
flexible system. No matter which issues are coming up for decision, the same
inadequacies in existing NATO mechanisms come into play. If NATO cannot solve
them for the old core issues, it cannot solve them for any other ones,
either.<BR>While the existing decision processes have some flaws, they are
nowhere near as bad as the public rhetoric about them. People are led to believe
that there is a right of veto for NATO members. This is repeatedly uncritically
in the mass media, day in and day out. It has gained the status of an accepted
myth, a basis for making all kinds of false deductions.<BR>In reality, the North
Atlantic Treaty creates no right of veto and leaves it to the NATO Council to
set its own procedures. The main U.S. author of the Treaty, Ambassador Theodore
Achilles, told me a few years before his death that this was deliberate: They
did not want NATO to be hamstrung by a veto. The myth of a right of veto
nevertheless has served some PR purposes, particularly during the Cold War, when
it was important to present a front of unanimity against the enemy.<BR>The
overall NATO veto-right myth is what gives rise to the sub-myth that Russia was
offered a veto last fall. As long as the NATO decision-making system is
described as if it were one in which every country had a legal right of veto,
people will wonder whether Russia is also getting this right. And as long as the
actual NATO decision-making system is only somewhat flexible, operating by a mix
of normal mutual political pressures and abnormal privileges that diplomats of
member states sometimes extend to one another for dragging out the discussion in
the name of consensus, no one will be able to understand how to extend that
system to include Russia without at least some damage to the ability to reach
meaningful results.<BR>A former U.S. Ambassador to NATO told me that the fears
of a "Russian veto" had all arisen by a kind of accident. "Lord Robertson was
tricked by the press. They asked him if Russia was being offered a veto over
NATO decisions, and he was unusually flat-footed in his response. Then the press
spread the story all around that Russia was being given a veto, and we’ve had to
keep explaining ever since that it isn’t so."<BR> <BR>That was an accurate
recounting of how the flap over a "Russian veto" began last fall, but it didn’t
explain why it began. Why did the press ask trick questions? Why did it seize
upon an ambiguous response to spread a myth? Why was it so easy to create a
panic? Why was there a similar panic about a "Russian veto" five years ago, when
the NATO-Russia Permanent Joint Council was being created? Why is everyone
afraid of this "veto", when no one has been able to define it or explain where
or when it could ever come into play? Why are the official denials about the
"Russian veto" so unconvincing, despite being absolutely true?<BR>The
explanation lies in the rigidities in the existing procedures of NATO and the
even more rigid language used for describing them. If every member of NATO is
said to have a "veto," Russia naturally wants one, too – otherwise it cannot
expect to get any respect for its views. If Russia talks of wanting a "veto,"
everyone gets scared. And so NATO and Russia run around the circle again and
again.<BR> <BR>We’ve been through all this before. In 1997, when the
Permanent Joint Council was created, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger raised up a veritable hysteria about it. Discussion with Russia was
equated with a Russian veto and the destruction of NATO – unless NATO reached a
joint position first and simply presented it to the Russians, take it or leave
it. The Republicans in Congress and the mass media joined in the hysteria; no
one refuted it effectively, probably because the language game of NATO served to
delete all the space for refuting it. The Clinton Administration caved in and
imposed restrictions on the Joint Council: It could not talk with Russia until
the Alliance had already made up its mind. Advertised as a breakthrough in
relations, the Council was reduced to near-insignificance.<BR> <BR>Are we
running around the same circle all over again? <BR>Again, Kissinger is whipping
up hysteria about a "Russian veto." This time he is joined in it by Zbigniew
Brzezinski and by the three new Central European members of NATO. The last time,
the Central Europeans had been cautious: They were on their best behavior, and
they knew an agreement on a Russia-NATO Joint Council might be a condition for
their joining NATO. Today, however, they are securely entrenched in NATO, and
are available for the mobilization of hysteria about Russia. The situation will
get worse if more states with anti-Russian feelings are admitted in
November.<BR>The crux of the problem, regarding any new NATO-Russia council and
NATO’s handling of new members in its old North Atlantic Council, remains NATO
decision-making. David Abshire, one of the most respected of the former U.S.
ambassadors to NATO, wrote in 1992 of a need to consider procedures such as
"consensus-minus-one" or "weighted voting" so that former enemies could not
"prevent the Alliance’s traditional members from acting." Ten years have been
lost since then, but last month Lord Robertson, in a speech at Chatham House,
said it is time to get on with the "modernisation of NATO’s decision-making
machinery" so that it will continue to be able to make decisions expeditiously
"after NATO’s enlargement in November."<BR>Carried out seriously, such a
"modernisation" would make a tremendous difference, not only in NATO’s internal
effectiveness, but also in its capacity to adapt to the new challenges. Whether
it will be carried out seriously enough and soon enough for NATO to build a
working alliance with Russia is the question on which the future of the
relationship rides.<BR> <BR>PUTIN'S FOREIGN POLICY A PRIVATE AFFAIR<BR>The
Moscow Times, 02 Apr, 02, by Gregory Feifer, Staff Writer<BR> <BR>Unlike
with President Vladimir Putin's domestic policies, which are usually
ascribed to one or another group of advisers within the corridors of
power, the genesis of foreign policy is a murky affair.<BR>Read full text:
</FONT><A href="http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/04/02/002.html"><FONT
face=Verdana
size=2>http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/04/02/002.html</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Verdana size=2> <BR>EXPANDING NATO AND ITS
PURPOSE<BR>National Post, 29 Mar 02<BR> <BR>Judging by the positive
comments made by Washington's representative, Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage, at a meeting earlier this week in Romania of 10 Eastern European prime
ministers, NATO now looks certain to embark on a major expansion at November's
summit in Prague. The organization may accept up to seven new members (though
four or five is likelier), including former communist states that, before Sept.
11, were virtual no-hopers. By accelerating the process of integration, NATO is
reacting and adapting to the exigencies of the post-Sept. 11 world.<BR>Read full
text: </FONT><A
href="http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20020329/487502.html&;qs=NATO"><FONT
face=Verdana
size=2>http://www.nationalpost.com/search/story.html?f=/stories/20020329/487502.html&;qs=NATO</FONT></A><BR><FONT
face=Verdana size=2> <BR>MACEDONIA: END OF THE BEGINNING OR BEGINNING OF
THE END?<BR>Parameters, Spring 2002, by H. Liotta (US Naval War College) and
Cindy R. Jebb (US Military Academy)<BR>Read: </FONT><A
href="http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/02spring/liotta.htm"><FONT
face=Verdana
size=2>http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/02spring/liotta.htm</FONT></A><FONT
face=Verdana size=2> <BR> <BR>= NEWS =<BR>US TO HELP LITHUANIA IN
FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION <BR>AFP, 29 Apr 02<BR> <BR>VILNIUS - Lithuania on
Friday signed an agreement with the United States to help its special
investigation service fight corruption, the foreign ministry said Friday.
<BR> <BR>"I have to commend the Lithuanian government for its serious
attitude towards corruption and am convinced that this agreement will strengthen
the efforts," US Ambassador to Lithuania John Tefft said after the signing
ceremony. <BR>The United States is to provide 500,000 dollars (570,000 euros) of
equipment and training to officers in Lithuania's special investigation service.
<BR>In its last progress report on Lithuania the European Union noted corruption
as a key area needing improvement if the country is achieve its aim of joining
the EU by 2004. /…/<BR> <BR>LITHUANIA SELECTS HARRIS
RADIOS<BR>DefenseNews.com, Industry Digest, 01 Apr 02, by Emily Woodward,
DefenseNews.com Assistant Editor<BR> <BR>The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense
tapped Melbourne, Fla.-based Harris Corp. to supply tactical radios under a
$13.2 million contract, the company said in a March 29 statement. <BR>The
contract covers the supply of an undisclosed number of RF-5800H and RF-5800V
Falcon 2 radio systems. The Lithuanian Army will use the radios as part of an
ongoing effort to upgrade its data communications systems to meet NATO
standards.<BR> <BR>NEUTRAL COUNTRIES SWEDEN AND FINLAND TO SHARE MILITARY
RADAR INFORMATION<BR>AP, 30 Mar 02<BR> <BR>STOCKHOLM, Sweden () _ Sweden
and Finland will share radar and satellite surveillance pictures of the sea and
airspace between them in an unprecedented move to promote security and safety in
the region, a Swedish defense official said Saturday. <BR> <BR> "What
we're trying to achieve is a secure Baltic Sea and find ways to more quickly
intervene in different incidents that concern the sea and air space," defense
spokeswoman Paula Burreau said. <BR>Such incidents could include territorial
violations by foreign powers but also natural disasters and accidents like oil
spills or ship wrecks, she said, adding that details of the cooperation were
still being worked out. <BR>The joint surveillance proposal has been in the
works for more than a year and is expected to be finalized this spring, Burreau
said. <BR>No other countries would be involved, she said. <BR>Nordic neighbors
Sweden and Finland are separated by the Baltic Sea in the south and by the Torne
River in the north. Both countries are military nonaligned, although they've
become more open to defense cooperation since the end of the Cold War, during
which the two countries were squeezed between the nuclear arsenals of NATO and
members of the Warsaw Pact. <BR> <BR>SLOVAKS TO AMEND PENALTY CODE TO
INCLUDE ARTICLES ON TERRORISM<BR> <BR>BRATISLAVA, April 2, (SITA)– At its
Wednesday sitting, the Slovak Cabinet will deal with the amendment to the Penal
Code passed by its Legislation Council last week. The revision installs the
definition of crime of terrorism and establishment of a terrorist group into the
legislation. The amendment along with defining terrorist group and opens wider
possibilities for seizing property that could be used to finance terrorist acts.
Terrorists can be jailed for 12-25 years or get a life sentence. The Justice
Ministry proposes the exceptional sentence of 15-25 years in prison if several
people are killed in a terrorist action or if it is extremely brutal. <BR>The
amendment also redefines the crime of disseminating false alarm to make it
possible to apply this category to other dangerous acts including mailing of
anthrax imitations with no text enclosed. The new norm will include also crime
against the humanity.<BR> <BR>EYEING NATO INVITE, ROMANIA OPENS PORT TO US
TROOPS <BR>AFP, 02 Apr 02<BR> <BR>BUCHAREST - Romania is to open the Black
Sea port of Constanta to US troops in the region, as the country strengthens its
role in the fight against terrorism, Defence Minister Ioan Mircea Pascu said
Tuesday. <BR> <BR>Romania, which hopes the post-September 11 anti-terror
war could boost its chances of being invited to join NATO later this year, is
also upgrading two military airports for potential use by foreign forces, he
said. <BR>The port of Constanta will be made available to US troops specifically
for operations in the UN-administered Yugoslav province of Kosovo. <BR>"The last
preparations are being made and the port could soon be used as a basis for US
troops going to Kosovo," said Pascu. <BR>American forces will initially be
allowed to use the port for two months, but the period could be extended. "It is
a test to allow NATO to see if we are up their demands," Pascu told a group of
foreign journalists. <BR>Bucharest has meanwhile launched operations to evaluate
and modernize facilities at the military airports of Fetesti in the east and
Timisoara in the west of the country. <BR>The airports could be made available
to NATO forces if necessary. "Romania is a member of the anti-terrorist
coalition and we have pledged to open Romanian air, sea and land to NATO
forces," the minister added. <BR>Romania is among nine ex-communist countries --
the others are Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria,
Macedonia and Albania -- hoping for an invitation to join NATO at a summit in
Prague in November. <BR>Five of the candidates -- the Baltic trio plus Slovenia
and possibly Slovakia -- are tipped as frontrunners, while Romania and Bulgaria
could be added to the list, diplomats indicate. <BR>Romania has seen an
"increased interest" in recent months by NATO for southeastern Europe, Pascu
said, insisting that Romania and Bulgaria's inclusion as NATO members "has
become logical and necessary." <BR> <BR>ROMANIA STARTS NATO ACTION PLAN
<BR>Rompres / BBC Monitoring, 30 Mar 02<BR> <BR>Bucharest: "The outcome of
the recent summit meeting of heads of government of the V-10 [Vilnius Group]
NATO candidate countries is certainly positive. We can safely say that Romania
is now closer than ever before to being admitted to NATO, a top priority
objective that enjoys the support of 80 per cent of the people," Romania's Prime
Minister Adrian Nastase said [on] Saturday [30 March] on a working visit to the
northern county of Suceava.<BR> <BR>Nastase stated that the Romanian
government has a pro-NATO action agenda divided into seven chapters that it
would start putting into effect starting 1 April, in daily and weekly action
charts. This agenda will be supervised by a group of technical experts made up
of state secretaries with the Defence Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the
Interior Ministry. The group will be coordinated by the Government's General
Secretariat and Minister Serban Mihailescu. Its main task will be to supervise
the list of sensitive issues, said Nastase.<BR>Nastase pointed out that dialogue
with other parliamentary political groups should be started on Romania's
admission to NATO, adding that he would make this proposal in the week to
come.<BR> <BR>ALBANIA: AGREEMENT SIGNED WITH TURKISH ARMY.<BR>ATA, 02 Apr
02<BR> <BR>Turkish Army signed an agreement on the continuation of support
for Albanian Government in Tirana on Monday [1 April], the Information and Press
Department close to the Defence Ministry reported.The continuity of this
assistance has been tangible through a grant of $2.5 million for Albanian Army.
Before signing the agreement, the military team headed by Brigadier Cihangir
Dumali was received in a meeting by the Chief of General Staff of Albanian Armed
Forces, Brigadier Pellumb Qazimi.<BR> <BR>BUSH, PUTIN DISCUSS NUCLEAR
ARMS<BR>AP, 02 Apr 02<BR> <BR>WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush and Russian
President Vladimir Putin spoke Tuesday for the second time in less than a week
as the White House reported progress toward agreements on offensive nuclear
weapons reductions.<BR>The two presidents, in their 15-minute phone
conversation, also ``said they were satisfied that negotiators had signed an
interim protocol to resolve the Russian ban on U.S. chicken imports,'' White
House spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.<BR>Bush, who meets Putin in
Russia for summit talks next month, spoke to him just Wednesday about the
nuclear weapons agreement and U.S. concerns over the chicken ban that is so
damaging to American poultry farmers.<BR>In their conversation Tuesday, Bush and
Putin agreed that discussions on a new NATO-Russian relationship also were
making progress, McCormack said.<BR>State Department officials said last week
that U.S. and Russian negotiators had made so much progress on a new strategic
framework and how to codify promised nuclear weapons reductions that agreements
on both may be ready for signatures when Bush and Putin meet next month in
Moscow and St. Petersburg.<BR>``Discussions are progressing,'' McCormack
said.<BR>Among the issues still to be worked out are the proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction and a U.S. proposal for a new way to count warheads
as the United States and Russia reduce their strategic arsenals to 1,700-2,200
each.<BR> <BR>RUSSIA-NATO DEAL TO BE READY BY MAY - ROBERTSON <BR>Interfax,
02 Apr 02<BR> <BR>MOSCOW - NATO Secretary General George Robertson, in an
article to appear in a newspaper on Tuesday, expresses confidence that Russia
and the North Atlantic alliance will be able to work out a new mechanism for
mutual relations by this May. <BR>Robertson tells the newspaper Izvestia that it
will be hard work but that he is sure the mechanism will be ready by a planned
foreign minister-level meeting between Russia and NATO. /…/<BR> <BR>RUSSIA
ESTABLISHES ANTITERROR TEAM TO COOPERATE WITH NATO<BR>People Daily, 29 Mar 02
<BR> <BR>The Russian government has set up an inter-departmental working
team to cooperate with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in fighting
international terrorism, local media cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister
Anatoly Safonov as saying Thursday. /…/ <BR> <BR>Safonov made the
announcement while addressing a roundtable meeting, which was entitled
"Russia-NATO: Common Interests in the Fight Against International Terrorism" and
held in Russia's secondbiggest city of St. Petersburg within the framework of
the ongoinginternational parliamentary forum on the fight against terrorism.
<BR>The team was formed last week on the initiative of the Russian President
Vladimir Putin and would "coordinate the efforts of manyagencies," he said.
<BR>The working group would coordinate the cooperative efforts of many federal
departments in Russia, he said. <BR>In Safonov's opinion, positive changes have
occurred in the domain of Russia-NATO relations after the September 11 terror
events. Meanwhile, the past several months also revealed a range of problems
that prompt the two sides to give maximum attention to coordinating the
anti-terrorism campaign. <BR>In promoting the anti-terrorism partnership between
Russia and NATO, the two sides should act likewise -- at first, consolidate
everything that they had previously achieved and move on only after that, he
stressed. /…/<BR> <BR>UKRAINIANS HOPE REFORMER CAN HELP <BR>AP, 02 Apr
02<BR> <BR>KIEV, Ukraine (AP) - Ukraine's political landscape assumed a
striking new look this week after voters chose Viktor Yushchenko's pro-Western,
pro-capitalist party to lead their next parliament.<BR> <BR>But
Yushchenko's victory was slim and his challenges are colossal. Analysts say his
hopes of transforming Ukraine through tax reforms and by eliminating graft may
get bogged down in political infighting, or succumb to pressure from President
Leonid Kuchma, a former communist boss averse to change.<BR>The stakes are high
for both Russia and Europe, and a key issue is whether Ukraine will continue to
sink in a swamp of corruption scandals that alienated it from the outside world
or fulfill the promise of becoming a powerhouse on Europe's eastern
rim.<BR>While the close race reflected deep fissures over Ukraine's direction,
Yushchenko's victory was a milestone in its post-Soviet history.<BR>``It's the
first time that non-communists won'' in the post-Soviet parliament, said Ihor
Zhdanov, political scientist with Kiev's Razumkov Center for Economic and
Political Research. ``It's a very important step for Ukraine, a real sign of
political development.''<BR>Europeans would like Ukraine to be a sturdier and
friendlier neighbor as NATO and the European Union envelop countries along
Ukraine's borders, such as Poland and Hungary.<BR>``The European Union wants to
cooperate with Ukraine'' and wants the new parliament to speed up integration
into Europe, EU foreign policy and security chief Javier Solana was quoted by
the Interfax news agency as saying Tuesday.<BR>Western investors scarred by
Ukrainian corruption see hope in Yushchenko, who in 16 months as prime minister
drove the country's first-ever economic growth, quelled inflation and paid
workers defeated by years of wage delays.<BR>Moscow, meanwhile, sees a compliant
Ukraine as a key buffer between itself and an expanding Europe, and is content
with its relationship with Kuchma that keeps Ukraine dependent on Russian energy
supplies.<BR>Yushchenko's popularity ``cannot but worry us,'' Russia's
ambassador to Ukraine, ex-Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, said
recently.<BR>Yushchenko's victory may push Russia to work harder to protect its
interests on the fringes of its former empire.<BR>Already, Kremlin-linked
consultants are believed to have boosted the pro-Kuchma party's parliamentary
campaign with money and mudslinging articles in the Ukrainian
press.<BR>``Ukraine still hasn't adapted to the idea that this is their
country,'' a top Western diplomat in Kiev said.<BR>Russia's reported role in the
campaign prompted an exaggerated outcry from Ukrainian liberals and fueled their
belief that Moscow harbors hopes of reoccupying its southern neighbor.<BR>Voting
patterns Sunday reflected Ukraine's east-west divide, with the industrial east
favoring the Communist Party and the pro-presidential For United Ukraine, and
the Ukrainian-speaking west preferring Yushchenko.<BR>Overall, For United
Ukraine won nearly as many seats in the 450-seat Verkhovna Rada as Yushchenko -
105 to his 110, according to the latest results. The communists have about 65
and two opposition groups, the Socialists and ex-deputy premier Julia
Tymoshenko's bloc, have about 24 each. That gives no one a clear
majority.<BR>``Yushchenko must make alliances quickly, and he must be both firm
and crafty,'' said Volodymyr Malinkovich, director of Kiev's Institute for
Humanitarian and Political Research.<BR>The brainy Yushchenko has more
experience in finance and banking than in legislative politics, and some warn
that could prove his downfall.<BR> <BR>MOLDOVANS VOW ONGOING PROTESTS
AGAINST COMMUNISTS<BR>Reuters, 02 Apr 02<BR> <BR>CHISINAU, April 2
(Reuters) - About 3,000 Moldovans, who had camped overnight outside government
headquarters, vowed on Tuesday to continue mass rallies after the Communist
government refused to meet their demands for an early election.<BR> <BR>The
demonstration, led by the opposition nationalists, was the latest in a series
aimed at ousting a government the protesters say is trying to drag the ex-Soviet
state back into the sphere of its imperial master, Russia.<BR>A deputy for the
nationalists said the Communists had refused to call an early election after
condemning the rallies as illegal, and had sent hundreds of riot police to
surround the parliament building.<BR>"The authorities have ignored our demands,"
said opposition deputy Stefan Sacareanu, who had held talks with the country's
Deputy Prime Minister Valerian Cristea.<BR>Sacareanu said protests would
continue until the government stepped down. The government was not available for
comment.<BR>About 500 riot police in flak jackets surrounded the parliament
building, where protesters were trying to put up banners saying: "Resign" and
"The people do not want you."<BR>More than 50,000 Moldovans had massed in
Chisinau on Sunday and erected tents on the capital's central square, launching
round-the-clock rallies against the Communists in the country of four million
wedged between Ukraine and Romania.<BR>Protesters took to the streets in January
when the government announced plans for schoolchildren to learn Russian
alongside Moldovan, the national language which is identical to Romanian.<BR>The
demonstrations dwindled after the government scrapped the plan, but the
disappearance of opposition deputy Vlad Cubreacov, a driving force behind the
rallies, on March 21 has given new life to the protests.<BR>The opposition
nationalist pro-Romanian Christian Democratic People's Party says Cubreacov
vanished after a driver dropped him off outside his home. The police have found
no trace of him.<BR>Communists hold 71 seats in the 101-seat parliament and took
50 percent of the vote in elections a year ago, thanks to a strong power base in
rural areas. But they are facing growing discontent over their failure to
improve living standards.<BR>More than 80 percent of Moldovans live below the
poverty line of one dollar a day. Emigration, legal and illegal, is at a record
high.<BR>President Vladimir Voronin says the nationalists are waging a smear
campaign against his party.<BR>Many protesters say they fear the government
plans to drag Moldova away from its close links with Romania. Much of
present-day Moldova once belonged to Romania and contacts across the border were
severely restricted in communist times.<BR> <BR>= VISITS AND MEETINGS
=<BR>NATO CHIEF GEORGE ROBERTSON TO VISIT WHITE HOUSE APRIL 9 <BR>AFP, 02 Apr
02<BR> <BR>WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush will next week welcome
NATO chief George Robertson, the White House said Monday. <BR>During the April 9
visit, the two will focus on the fight against terrorism and the upcoming North
Atlantic Treaty Organization summit, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
<BR>"This visit is an opportunity for the president to discuss with the leader
of NATO our progress in the war against terrorism, and our preparations for the
November NATO summit meeting in Prague," Fleischer said. <BR>The leaders of 19
NATO member countries are due to decide at the summit on a new wave of expansion
for NATO. Eight months away from the summit, diplomatic sources say two options
are on the table. <BR>One would be to include five new members in NATO: Estonia,
Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia and Slovenia, while the other option would also take
in Bulgaria and Romania. <BR>"This cooperation underscores the transatlantic
commitment to shared values and collective defense that NATO has embodied for
over 50 years," Fleischer added, noting that the meeting would be the fourth
between the two leaders in little more than a year. <BR>ESTONIAN FORMIN TO
REPORT ON MAP PROGRESS IN BRUSSELS <BR>BNS, 29 Apr 02<BR> <BR>TALLINN -
Estonian Prime Minister Siim Kallas will go to Brussels next week as head of a
delegation of Estonian defense structures to report to the North Atlantic
Council on Estonia's preparations for accession to NATO. <BR> <BR>ROMANIA'S
FORMIN STARTS WORKING VISIT TO US<BR>Rompres, 02 Apr 02<BR> <BR>Bucharest -
Romania's Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana on April 1 started a working visit to
the US, to end on April 5. <BR> This visit is part
of the political and diplomatic moves of Romania to win the support of the US
Administration for admission to NATO. At the same time, the visit is meant to
strengthen political and economic dialogue between Romania and the US in the
context of a reinvigorated bilateral framework instituted under a strategic
partnership between the two countries. <BR> A main
event of the visit will be a meeting of Geoana with Condoleezza Rice, the
national security advisor to the US President.
<BR> The schedule of this visit also includes
meetings with Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Marc Grossman;
Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs, as
well as with Under Secretary of Defence for Defence Policies Douglas Feith.
<BR> Roundtable talks will be hold at the US
Department of State on Romanian and US collaboration in fighting trafficking in
people in Romania, expected to be attended by officials of the US relevant
governmental authorities. On this occasion, Geoana will meet ambassador Nancy
Ely-Raphel, director of the State Department's office to combat trafficking in
persons. <BR> Geoana will also meet RAND
Corporation chief analyst Robert Hunter; special advisor to President George W.
Bush for Europe and Eurasia Dan Fried, as well as Deputy Assistant Secretary of
Defense Samuel Berger. <BR> An important part of
the visit will be the meetings with US academics. Geoana will deliver a speech
to the Yale University on the recent meeting in Bucharest of the NATO candidate
countries called ''Spring of New Allies'' as well as the challenges,
contributions and responsibilities of the emerging European democracy. Geoana
will have conversations with Yale President Charles Levin and Strobe Talbott, a
former US deputy secretary of state. <BR> Geoana
will have a working meeting with senior officials of the most influential US and
foreign media. <BR> <BR> </FONT></DIV>
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