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.
?
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.
?
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)
