----- Original Message ----- From: Peter Bein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, June 09, 2000 11:33 PM Subject: [STOPNATO] supremacy STOP NATO: NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.COM The US investments Cohen mentions are instrumental in maintaining US leading role in Europe in NATO operations. Peter http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2000/t06092000_t608nato.html Secretary Cohen: Good Afternoon. You hardy band of few? We spent much of the day discussing the Defense Capabilities Initiative that was adopted by NATO leaders at the Washington summit last year. All of the NATO members are committed to strengthening and modernizing our forces by making them more mobile, sustainable, survivable, and effective. We are also working to improve command, control, communications, and intelligence. A few allies have begun to take tangible steps to improve their capabilities and others have some ambitious plans to do so. But improvement doesn't come from mere intentions, it requires more investment and higher defense budgets. Since Kosovo, the United States has committed to increase purchases of C-17 transport planes, to augment and upgrade systems for electronic warfare and ground surveillance and to increase the purchases of precision guided munitions. These additions alone will add more than $2 billion to our defense budget. Several weeks ago we took another important step that should lead to improvements in U.S. and allied forces. We streamlined our export control rules. This is going to make it easier for companies on both sides of the Atlantic to share technology and to work together on weapons projects. As a result, allies should be able to operate more efficiently together. Tomorrow morning, in fact, I will join the defense ministers of five allied countries to announce two important steps toward improved alliance operations. ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______________________________________________________________________ Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com
