The 42nd Munich Security Conference ended on Sunday seems to have brought positive signal to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). During the meeting, German Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed that NATO was the cornerstone of relations across the Atlantic Ocean and should become the 'first place' where Europe and the US discussed international conflicts. Merkel also supported NATO to strengthen its partnership with non-NATO member countries such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, and play a bigger role in the future world.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said last year that NATO was no longer the main place for trans-Atlantic partners to discuss and coordinate their strategic stance. Merkel's remark was in sharp contrast with her predecessor. It shows that under Merkel, German stance is closer to that of the US. Germany will resolutely support the transformation of NATO. This is good news. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said political, military and financial solidarity was the key to dealing with today's security challenges.

From the end of the 'Cold War' to the 9.11 incident, NATO has experienced its first transformation - from an ally with the US to an organization that covers the whole Europe and deals with all kinds of threat.

After the 9.11 incident, NATO has entered its second transformation period when it stepped out of European defense zone to the whole world and played its role in anti-terrorism and international security arena.

In 2003, when the US and UK launched Iraq war, NATO plunged into unprecedented division within itself. The breakup of allies almost made NATO's second transformation come to a premature end. Being fully aware of the severity of the problem, the US started to promote its relations with Europe. The revival of German and US relations make NATO's transformation face a new turning point.
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If NATO wants to go beyond Europe, one of the key activities is its peacekeeping action in Afghanistan. Like a touchstone, once it is successful there, it will be imitated elsewhere. To guarantee the success of its action in Afghanistan, NATO has tried to unite various forces such as that from Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand in addition to its own forces.

According to the US strategy, in addition to guaranteeing the success in Afghanistan and Iraq, NATO will continue to expand its forces into other Euro-Asian area, especially the Black Sea area to promote its 'democracy and stability' so that its influence will go closer to the greater Mid East region. This will help the US and Europe to further stretch their forces and promote the wave of integration.

For NATO, to realize these strategic targets is not that easy because it faces many other difficulties. First of all, the differences between the US and France still exist. Although France is not in the list of NATO's integration, it is still one of the important allies with the US. France thinks NATO's expansion will mean the weakening of the EU, thus it doesn't like to listen to the US within NATO, but hopes to be helpful in the joint defense construction of the European Union.
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European people are very suspicious of NATO. For example, Holland promised long time ago to increase over 1000 soldiers to Afghan peacekeeping force, but the domestic public didn't agree with it. So the government had to submit it to the parliament for deliberation. Later, it was passed under pressure from the US and other counterparts in Europe. This kind of public sentiment is also popular in other European countries.

Secondly, it is not very clear what kind of relations exists between NATO and the EU. Both NATO and the EU are establishing response forces, but how to cooperate or divide their work, there isn't unanimous proposals yet. In addition, how to share the expenses is also a big issue.

As for the second transformation of NATO, head of the ally, the US has made unremitting efforts to push. It's worthwhile to mention that since Germany's attitude has changed, it provides a more profound foundation for NATO's transformation.

The article, written by Zhang Niansheng and translated by People's Daily Online, is carried on the third page of People's Daily on Feb.8.

(People's Daily Online February 10, 2006)