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Nato seeks to strengthen links with former soviet republics Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap12-02-024240.asp?reg=EUROPEhttp://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/ap12-02-024240.asp?reg=EUROPE
NATO seeks to strengthen links with former Soviet republics
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BRUSSELS, Belgium, Dec. 2 — NATO defense ministers sought to strengthen partnerships against terrorism and regional instability in talks Tuesday with Ukraine and former Soviet republics from Central Asia and the Caucasus.
The talks came a day after Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials in Brussels said the United States would welcome more help in Iraq. Rumsfeld said progress is being made in Iraq despite the violence.
''There are a limited number of people who are determined to kill innocent men, women and children who are connected to the coalition or who are coalition participants or who are innocent Iraqis,'' he said Monday.
On Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson opened talks with Ukraine's Defense Minister Yevhen Marchuk and praised that country's efforts to reforms its defense forces.
''Ukraine today exports stability, including by maintaining its forces in the Balkans and contributing to the post-conflict stabilization of Iraq,'' he said.
But Robertson added that ''much remains to be done.''
Among the issues likely to be discussed during the meeting of ministers from 46 nations were the situation in Moldova and Georgia — two former Soviet republics bedeviled by separatism and internal unrest.
NATO nations want to see the withdrawal of Russian troops from both countries.
Georgia's new acting president, Nino Burdzhanadze, has accused Russia of undermining Georgian sovereignty by supporting two separatist provinces over the past decade and by hosting their leaders last week in Moscow.
She is seeking western help to stabilize her country following the peaceful ouster of President Eduard Shevardnadze following last month's parliamentary election, which was marred by fraud.
Burdzhanadze, who was due to visit European Union headquarters in Brussels later Tuesday, has said Georgia wants to join both the EU and NATO.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who was attending the NATO talks, said on Monday that Georgian authorities had to crack down on fighters who cross into neighboring Chechnya.
On Moldova, western nations recently persuaded President Vladimir Voronin to scuttle a Russian plan that would grant broad autonomy for the separatist territory of Trans-Dniester.
NATO defense ministers on Monday restated a pledge to expand the alliance's peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan, but failed to fill all the gaps in equipment and personnel needed for its existing mission of 5,700 in the capital, Kabul.
Robertson warned failure to strengthen the Kabul force will hold up plans to widen the mission to provincial cities and risked shattering NATO's credibility.
However, Rumsfeld said the alliance could eventually ''take over military operations'' in Afghanistan, where the United States has about 10,000 troops to combat Taliban and al-Qaida fighters. That mission is currently separate from NATO's peacekeeping operation.
© 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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