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Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen (L) and Current NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer attend a news conference in Strasbourg, France, on April 4, 2009. Leaders of NATO member states managed to agree on Saturday to appoint Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as new secretary general of the alliance. [Wu Wei/Xinhua]
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The two-day NATO summit ended in Strasbourg on Saturday after leaders of the 28-member states agreed to appoint Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as new secretary-general of the military alliance.
Incumbent Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told a press conference that Rasmussen was chosen by "unanimity."
Consensus was forged in a last-minute effort after Turkey dropped its opposition to the candidacy of Rasmussen, who outraged the Muslim world by defending the rights of a Danish newspaper to publish cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in 2006.
Heavyweight members of the alliance tried hard to persuade Turkey to support Rasmussen.
Leaders of the NATO member states discussed the topic on Friday night during the first session of the summit, but it ended without a result.
A candidate for NATO chief is nominated through an informal process, but it needs the endorsement of all member states. Rasmussen will take over from Scheffer of the Netherlands on August 1, 2009.
On Afghanistan, the summit agreed to give support to U.S. President Barack Obama's new strategy, with some NATO allies pledging more resources to help root out extremists in the region. But most of the them declined to send more troops.
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Leaders of NATO member states take a family photo after crossing German-French border bridge, Passerelle Bridge, which connected German city Kehl and French city Strasbourg, in Strasbourg, France, on April 4, 2009. Leaders of NATO member states held a symbolic ceremony on the French-German border on Saturday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the military alliance and the return of France as a full member. [Wu Wei/Xinhua]
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy supported the new policy in Afghanistan, saying France would offer more assistance in training Afghan military forces and police, but no extra soldiers would be sent.
Under the U.S. strategy, the United States will send 17,000 additional combat troops to Afghanistan, and 4,000 troops to help train the Afghan army and more civilian personnel to deal with problems such as the narcotics trade.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also supported Obama's Afghanistan policy, but pledged no more than 600 military personnel to help train Afghan forces.
The leaders agreed to work on a new strategic concept to update NATO's current one as it does not reflect the present day practices of the military alliance, including the mission in Afghanistan, a NATO spokesman said. But collective defence and security would be at the center of the new strategic concept, he said.
The members also had a common vision to cooperate with Russia, "a great European power," the spokesman said.
He said they agreed that there were areas where cooperation would be mutually beneficial, but also recognized there were areas where NATO and Russia disagreed.
