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ENROUTE
TO MUSCAT, Oman, April 2008 –
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said
that he is pleased with the results of
the three-day NATO summit that wrapped
up today.
“I
think, all in all, it was a very
successful summit from the standpoint
of the alliance,” Gates told
reporters on the flight from
Bucharest, Romania, to Muscat, Oman,
the next stop on his overseas trip.
“I think most of the leaders walked
away from the summit feeling like it
had been quite a successful summit.”
Gates said the three biggest
accomplishments were the alliance’s
recommitment to its International
Security Assistance Force mission in
Afghanistan, the declaration of
support for a missile defense system
in Europe, and voting to enlarge the
alliance and accept up to five more
countries.
“In 2006, when the alliance signed
up for the ISAF mission, I think the
reality is … maybe none of us really
understood what we were getting into
as an alliance -- that the nature of
the mission would change from what
(we) anticipated it was likely to be
to being much harder and taking much
longer,” Gates said.
Now, he said, the alliance has signed
on to add forces and continue its work
in Afghanistan with its eyes wide
open.
“In full knowledge of the toughness
of the challenge, the allies
unanimously signed to and recommitted
to the Afghan mission and -- in the
words of (French) President (Nicolas)
Sarkozy -- signed up to win,” Gates
said. “For my money, that’s a huge
deal, given a lot of the challenges
the allies have faced, (and) given the
difficulties some have at home
politically in terms of this
mission.”
Gates also said agreement on the
wording for an Afghanistan vision
statement that details the
alliance’s direction there over the
next few years was an important result
of the summit conference.
Troop commitments also came from the
allies. The French announced a
battalion’s worth -- about 700
troops -- would take on part of the
mission. Gates said other nations also
made commitments for troops and
special teams. In addition, NATO
committed to building an equipped
Afghan army to 80,000 troops by 2010.
The United States went into the
conference pushing hard for NATO to
invite Croatia, Albania and Macedonia
to join the alliance. Croatia and
Albania were invited. Macedonia was
not; Greece objects to Macedonia’s
name, believing it represents a claim
to the Greek state of the same name.
Gates called that a
“disappointment,” but said he
hopes the country will work out its
differences with Greece.
The United States also wanted the
alliance’s membership action plan --
a first step toward membership --
extended to the former Soviet
republics of Georgia and Ukraine, a
measure that did not pass.
“Everybody knew going into the
summit that there was strong
opposition to providing MAP for
Georgia and Ukraine,” Gates said.
Some members questioned whether
democratic reforms in the two
countries have taken root and whether
their political systems are stable.
Georgia also has unresolved disputes
with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, he
said. However, NATO did agree on a
statement supporting the two
countries’ eventual participation in
membership action plans and directed
further work with the countries.
In December, NATO nations’ foreign
ministers will reevaluate their
progress and have authority to allow
Georgia and Ukraine to start the MAP
process.
“I think that, given where some of
the parties were when we came into the
summit, getting the single declarative
statement that Georgia and Ukraine
will become members of the alliance
was a significant achievement,”
Gates said, “because it took it out
of the realm of ‘whether’ and put
it into the realm of ‘when,’ with
a clear implication that ‘when’ is
sooner, rather than later.”
In missile defense, getting the
alliance to agree to the statement
that ballistic missile proliferation
is a developing threat to NATO
territories and populations was a
success, especially in light of many
countries’ wariness of what
Russia’s reaction would be, Gates
said. In its declaration, NATO
supported plans for developing a NATO
missile defense system that would link
with a proposed U.S. system to provide
protection from all ranges of
ballistic missiles.
Russia has vehemently opposed U.S.
plans to develop such a system.
“I think we’ve made it pretty
clear to our allies that we’ve
really bent over backward to be open
and really bring the Russians into
this thing and to make them a
partner,” Gates said. “And if they
didn’t want to be a partner, then to
have it completely transparent so they
didn’t need to worry about their own
security.”
Still, after gaining approval of the
enlargement and missile defense
measures, Gates said the test would be
in whether the United States could
still have amenable talks with Russian
President Vladimir Putin today during
the NATO-Russian Council.
“I think most of us felt that
President Putin’s comments today
were businesslike,” Gates said. “I
wouldn’t say they were particularly
conciliatory, but by the same token,
they also weren’t aggressive,
either.”
Gates will land in Muscat tonight. The
country provides a lot of support to
the United States, Gates said. It has
been 22 years since Gates has traveled
here, and four years since a U.S.
defense secretary has visited.
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