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Thursday, 21 November, 2002, 16:38 GMT
Nato creates rapid response force
![]() An alliance of 26 will be unwieldy, critics say
Nato leaders meeting in Prague have decided to set up a response force to react quickly to crisis situations around the world.
Nato must be able to "field forces that can move quickly to wherever they are needed... including in an environment where they might be faced with nuclear, biological and chemical threats," the summit declaration said.
The candidates - Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia - are due to become full members in 2004, swelling the alliance's membership to 26. In what he called a defining moment, Nato Secretary General George Robertson said a "transformed Nato will be a stronger, more effective partner for all our friends" - even though many of the new members are bringing with them only small and poorly equipped armies. US President George W Bush warned that all Nato members - both new and old - must contribute military strength to the alliance, even if it means increasing defence spending.
New threats BBC Pentagon correspondent Nick Childs says that beyond the enlargement question, the summit is following very much a Pentagon-inspired agenda.
Arguing the need for a rapid reaction force, Mr Bush said: "Never has our need for collective defence been more urgent." The Nato response force (NRF) is expected to comprise 20,000 highly equipped air, ground and sea troops able to be deployed quickly to trouble spots around the world and play a key role in the US-led war on terror. The force should be fully operational by 2006. The leaders spoke of the need to prepare forces to neutralise threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
"Terrorism... poses a grave and growing threat to alliance populations, forces and territory. We are determined to combat this scourge for as long as necessary," the statement went on. Leaders also pledged to:
BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Marcus says the test for the new alliance will be to honour the commitments made in Prague. Some analysts already wonder if the threat from global terrorism is sufficient to encourage countries to reorientate their spending and to give this restyled Nato renewed life, he says. Critics say that Nato - new or old - is increasingly irrelevant. New allies Praising the newly-invited candidates, Lord Robertson said the had shown "political determination to join Nato", and the alliance itself had been working to ensure that it was "ready to enlarge".
He aimed to placate Russian concerns about its neighbours becoming members of the organisation which once opposed the Soviet Union in the Cold War. Three former Soviet republics - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - were invited to join Nato on Thursday. Allied leaders refused to explicitly support US military action to disarm Baghdad, confining themselves to taking "effective action to assist and support the efforts of the UN to ensure full and immediate compliance by Iraq" with the disarmament resolution passed on 8 November.
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21 Nov 02 | Europe
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