NATO Won’t Agree Shield Is Warranted

Despite weeks of intensive diplomacy, the United States on Tuesday failed to convince its NATO allies that the world faces a common threat of missile attacks--a significant setback for President Bush’s most ambitious foreign policy goal.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell had hoped to win agreement from the 19-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization on language affirming the existence of the threat as the basis for discussions of Bush’s controversial plan to build a defense shield against strategic missiles.

Instead, a communique issued after a conference of NATO foreign ministers here mentions only the danger that missiles “can pose” and pointedly calls for further talks on the matter.

“We intend to pursue these consultations vigorously and welcome the United States’ assurance that the views of allies will be taken into account as it considers its plans further,” says the statement by the North Atlantic Council, the top NATO policymaking body.

The decision came just two weeks before Bush’s inaugural European tour.

France and Germany were particularly opposed to a stronger joint declaration, according to European diplomats here. In an indication of the divisions, NATO delegations debated at length whether missiles “can pose” or “do pose” a threat, French envoys said. The Europeans prevailed.

Critics of missile defense called the NATO communique a serious blow.

“The U.S. failed in its goal of getting allies to agree on the gravity of the threat,” said Stephen Young, Washington representative of the Union of Concerned Scientists. “That means they don’t agree on the need for strategic missile defenses.”

Powell tried to paper over the differences on the threat assessment.

“Some people see it as more immediate than others. Some people see it as greater than perhaps others. But I don’t think there’s any question that there’s some sort of threat out there,” Powell told a news conference.

The top U.S. diplomat said he had reassured colleagues that the Bush administration was engaged in “a real consultation--not a phony consultation.” At the same time, Powell said he had made clear that the U.S. has “to move forward. We can see the threat.”

In another sign of the impasse between long-standing allies on 21st century defense issues, the communique makes no mention of the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty, which the U.S. wants to modify, bypass or scrap in order to build a missile defense system.

Last year, the NATO foreign ministers called the ABM treaty the “cornerstone of strategic stability” and the basis for future reductions of strategic weapons. Many Europeans still support it, so this year the North Atlantic Council meeting opted to avoid any language on it, European envoys said.

“The fact that the ABM treaty is missing entirely from the final document indicates a major rift remains between the United States and its allies over missile defense,” Young said.

Critics fear that a missile defense shield would undercut the ABM treaty and lead to a new arms race.

The North Atlantic Council did agree on other issues critical to NATO’s future, and particularly on the Balkans. The foreign ministers agreed to another “moderate reduction” of the NATO-led Stabilization Force on peacekeeping duty in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

No figures were mentioned, but NATO defense ministers, who will hold a semiannual meeting here early next month, are expected to agree to a 10% to 15% reduction in the 21,000 NATO troops. The reduction could include the withdrawal of as many as 500 of the roughly 3,600 U.S. soldiers deployed in Bosnia.

At the first such meeting behind the former Iron Curtain since NATO added three former Warsaw Pact countries, Powell reassured his counterparts that the U.S. does not plan any unilateral reductions in the Balkans.

“We know our presence is required,” he told reporters.

He conceded that there might be differences within the Bush administration on the pace and timing of troop reductions. But he said there is no disagreement on the basic principle that “we went in together and we’ll come out together.”