STOP NATO: �NO PASARAN! - HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ListBot Sponsor -------------------------- Get a low APR NextCard Visa in 30 seconds! 1. Fill in the brief application 2. Receive approval decision within 30 seconds 3. Get rates as low as 2.99% Intro or 9.99% Ongoing APR and no annual fee! Apply NOW! http://www.bcentral.com/listbot/NextCard ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Rumsfeld Presses Defense Plan at Baltics Meeting http://news.excite.com/news/r/010609/09/news-arms-baltics-rumsfeld-dc Updated: Sat, Jun 09 9:20 AM EDT full image US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, left, and his Finnish counterpart Jan-Erik Enestam, right, give a press conference in Turku, Finland following a meeting of Nordic and Baltic defense secretaries. (AP) By John Acher TURKU, Finland (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, winding up a whirlwind European tour, pressed Nordic and Baltic defense ministers Saturday on the need for new Western defenses for the 21st century. Rumsfeld repeated calls made to NATO defense chiefs and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov this week to join the Bush Administration in "a new architecture," including a controversial strategic missile defense, to deal with emerging threats from long-range missiles to so-called terrorism. Speaking to a gathering of ministers from Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Rumsfeld also said that while no decisions had been made on expanding NATO, the alliance would keep an open-door policy. Rumsfeld's one-day meeting with the Nordic and Baltic defense leaders came less than a week ahead of a June 14 summit involving President Bush and European Union leaders in Gothenburg, Sweden. NATO will make no decision on expanding the alliance until next year, and the Baltic former Soviet states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, remain hopeful of consideration. "He will be talking about an open-door NATO policy, which will welcome new members as they are ready to join," a senior U.S. defense official told reporters ahead of the meeting in this seaside former capital of Finland. Any admission of the Baltics would be likely to anger Moscow, which is already bitterly opposed to Bush Administration plans to test and develop long-range missile defenses even as it debates Russia, China and its European allies on Washington's controversial demand to change or scrap the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile defense treaty. Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him earlier in the week that it was too early to begin speculating on which countries might follow former Communist East bloc states Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into NATO. The U.S. defense official said Rumsfeld was pressing ministers at Saturday's meeting to realize that the ABM treaty, which forbids strategic missile defenses, was an outdated product of the Cold War. Bush has announced plans for deep unilateral cuts in U.S. nuclear arms as part of a new architecture that would also "move beyond" ABM. Ivanov Thursday told reporters after meeting with NATO ministers, including Denmark and Norway, that Russia remained opposed to changes in the ABM treaty. He noted that the treaty was part of an international regime of more than 30 security agreements and wondered how Washington planned a "new architecture" without it. But Ivanov conceded that he agreed with Rumsfeld on new threats, including terrorism, and said he had accepted an invitation from his U.S. counterpart to visit Washington. Rumsfeld was flying back to Washington later Saturday at the end of a six-day trip, which also took him to Turkey, Ukraine, Macedonia and to visit American peacekeepers in Kosovo. Email this story | Printer-friendly version Related Stories Rumsfeld Says ABM May Have Valuable Links Sat, Jun 09 3:20 PM ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
