NATO Chief Delivers a Wake-Up Call to European Members

NATO Secretary-General George Robertson warned the alliance’s European defense ministers Thursday that their lag in military capabilities compared with the United States, painfully bared during this spring’s Kosovo conflict, has turned them into a “paper tiger.”

At a meeting with his NATO colleagues, U.S. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen tried to win converts to Washington’s proposal for a limited missile-defense system, designed to safeguard the United States against attack from North Korea, Iran or other “rogue” countries.

But many West European allies are dead set against the Clinton administration’s brainchild, fearing that it would unravel arms control treaties painstakingly negotiated with Russia and would trigger a new escalation in weapons building.

“We must remain prudent about this program, which could indirectly encourage the arms race,” French Defense Minister Alain Richard--whose government is one of the most scathing critics of the U.S. proposal--told a news conference in Brussels.

Robertson said he rammed home the message Thursday to the Europeans that they must boost their defense capacity to be able to field more modern, mobile and sustainable forces. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 11-week bombing campaign against Yugoslavia was a stark revelation of how far behind the United States that Europe has fallen. According to alliance officials, the Pentagon shouldered 85% of the burden in Kosovo and the other 18 NATO members only the remaining 15%.

“The Europeans need to do more about getting relevant capabilities for the future,” Robertson, once Britain’s defense secretary, said in an interview with BBC radio. “That means we’ve got to reorder spending priorities and, in a lot of countries, spend more on defense if we’re going to have the investment in security for the future that the continent needs.”

The European Union, 11 of whose 15 members belong to NATO, is in the early stages of approving an armed rapid-reaction force of 40,000 to 50,000 troops that would help broaden what has been an economic and trading bloc into a group of states with a uniform foreign and security policy. The first formal decisions are expected next week at an EU summit in Helsinki, Finland.

But simultaneously with the EU’s grand ambitions, most European members of NATO are spending less on defense, alliance officials say.

“The time for a peace dividend is over, because there is no permanent peace, in Europe or elsewhere,” Robertson told a news conference at the close of the first day of the defense ministers’ two-day meeting.

On Wednesday, addressing top-ranking officers of the German military, Cohen lambasted Germany for planning a cut, albeit a small one, in its budgetary outlay for defense, saying Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s government is setting a bad example for other NATO members and endangering the alliance’s military capabilities.

“Perhaps more than ever, the alliance looks to German leadership to contribute to the capabilities necessary if we are to continue shaping peace and security in the next decade,” Cohen said in Hamburg.

On Thursday, he and the other NATO ministers approved a five-year force plan spotlighting what Europe needs to do, and spend, to field more properly staffed, equipped, trained and supplied armed forces.

The ministers also declared their will to obtain the “necessary resources,” but budgetary constraints connected with the euro--the new common European currency--and weak public support in some countries for increased defense expenditures make following through on that pledge problematic.

According to U.S. officials, Cohen told his NATO colleagues that North Korea is developing a long-range missile, the Taepodong 2, that within five years might be capable of striking targets in the United States or Europe. In twice that time, Cohen reportedly said, Iran will probably be able to reach Western countries with its own intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Cohen admitted that many alliance members were unswayed by his pitch for the limited missile shield. He also stressed that the Clinton administration has made no decision about whether to build the system and won’t before next year.

“The U.S. would have to have the support of its allies to have an effective system,” Cohen stressed. Robertson, the NATO chief, indicated that many of the Europeans have misgivings but that they could ultimately be convinced.

“We’re a long way from crystallizing thoughts among the European allies on this,” said the Scotsman, chairing his first ministerial meeting since taking up duties as NATO’s top civilian official Oct. 14.