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http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=11042002-054515-7284r NATO must modernize, says Burns By Christian Bourge UPI Think Tank Correspondent >From the Think Tanks & Research Desk Published 4/11/2002 6:05 PM -"We are facing a widening capabilities gap," said Burns, adding that the $48 million in additional military spending in 2002 that went beyond the President George W. Bush's original budget request actually exceeds the total combined defense spending of 14 of NATO's member nations. "We know that defense spending sometimes represents a choice of having to decide between guns and butter, but we are in a situation where we face severe challenges," he said. WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- Despite continued criticisms that NATO has outlived its usefulness since the fall of the Soviet Union, Nicholas Burns, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, said Thursday in a speech at a Washington think tank that the defense organization still has a vital role in ensuring the peace and stability of its member nations. "NATO is first and foremost the indispensable bridge between North America and Europe," said Burns at the Center for Transnational Relations at the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies. "NATO is also our vital insurance policy." His talk focused on the many challenges NATO faces this year as it approaches its November 2002 summit meeting in Prague. Among these are which new member nations should be admitted, out of the nine countries that are up for membership -- Albania, Bulgaria, Estonia, Croatia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Latvia, Romania and Macedonia -- and how NATO should deal with the new geopolitical role of Russia. Beyond this, Burns said that the key portion of the U.S. agenda is the effort to enhance the ability of the member nations to work together to fight worldwide terrorism. He said that in order to best address the terrorism issue, member countries need to add new capacities for fighting the problem, and to look into new initiatives beyond NATO, aimed at attacking terrorism. The top issue from the Bush administration's perspective, he said, is the need for NATO countries to invest in new military technologies in order to upgrade their forces to function in the 21st century. This includes investments in precision-guided munitions, advanced communications systems and other critical technologies, as well the development of individual strategic operations forces that can respond quickly to threats. "We are facing a widening capabilities gap," said Burns, adding that the $48 million in additional military spending in 2002 that went beyond the President George W. Bush's original budget request actually exceeds the total combined defense spending of 14 of NATO's member nations. "We know that defense spending sometimes represents a choice of having to decide between guns and butter, but we are in a situation where we face severe challenges," he said. "Can we stand by and not spend the money necessary to defend against those attacks and deter them?" Burns said the U.S. government is currently in talks with its European allies on this subject, and is also discussing the need for some of them to convert their forces, now focused on territorial defense, into forces that are easily deployable and able to quickly respond to more immediate threats. Before his speech, Burns -- a 1980 alumnus of SAIS-- was awarded the school's Woodrow Wilson award for distinguished government service. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9617B Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
