AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
SOFIA: A US push to give special NATO partnerships to Australia and other Pacific-rim allies ran into trouble at a top-level meeting due to end Friday after European members voiced scepticism, diplomats said.
The proposal would see Australia, New Zealand and possibly Japan and South Korea extended privileged status with NATO that would reflect their active role in some Alliance missions while stopping short of offering membership.
Foreign ministers from the 26-nation Alliance discussed the issue, among other topics, at a conference in the Bulgarian capital Sofia that began Thursday.
But diplomats attending said several ministers from big European states were balking at the idea of NATO extending its influence into Asia.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, speaking after a first round of talks, tried to allay those fears.
“NATO does not aim to turn itself into a global policeman, but if you look at the threats we are faced with today, they are of a global nature,” he said.
“There is a difference between a global alliance and an alliance with global partners,” he insisted.
He and other NATO officials also emphasised that the ministers were just discussing possibilities and would not be making formal decisions in Sofia.
Nevertheless, some NATO members made it clear they were against the idea from the beginning.
“We're talking about what? The Pacific, Taiwan? … That risks upsetting China and Russia,” one diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.
“If it's about creating a global club meant to solve all the world's problems, the Europeans are wary,” another said.
For the United States, NATO partnerships with Australia, Japan and South Korea would reinforce military links to countries already contributing to its ad hoc “coalition of the willing” in Iraq.
Some overtures have already been made, with New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer both recently visiting NATO headquarters in Brussels. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso is due to travel there in early May, and high-level contacts have also been made with South Korea.
Significantly, though, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — who arrived at the NATO meeting directly from a surprise visit to Baghdad — made almost no comment about the initiative after hearing other ministers talk in the closed-door session.
She said only that NATO needed “global partners” if it were to counter the threat of weapons of mass destruction and called this a “critical and challenging time” for the Alliance.
An Australian diplomat in Europe said Australia was watching with interest the discussions, even though it was not represented, and added: “If there's broad support within NATO, we'd be open to enhancing relations.”
Jean-Yves Hine, an expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said the partnership idea underlined NATO's transformation from a Cold War body ensuring mutual defence to an organisation taking on a global security role.
“NATO is everywhere,” he said, noting its missions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan and its disaster relief operations in Pakistan. “It's quite right that other countries, such as Australia, have a say in its defence planning,” given they sometimes take part, he said.
The advantage of NATO associated status for Australia and other Pacific Ocean democracies, he said, was that “the bigger the pool of force available, the better it is”.
