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Elections First, Then Talk of Future Deployment, says NATO’s Commander
By Anthony Barker
"My advice has been and will continue to be that it is critical to focus on the next three months," General Joulwan said in Warsaw, currently hosting major annual NATO talks which have Bosnia high on the agenda. "I think it will be premature to try to talk about the post-December time frame. It is much more relevant to say what it is we will be doing between now and September," he told a news conference.
"I say that because how successful we are in the next three months will determine the conditions that we will face in December and if necessary...the decision beyond," he added.
The priority is to help the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to develop free and fair elections on September 14 and to support civilian agencies, Joulwan said after meeting Poland's President Aleksander Kwasniewski.
U.S. and Western European leaders are being cautious in predicting whether NATO will commit forces to Bosnia next year after the current 60,000-strong peace implementation force IFOR is withdrawn when its current mandate ends in December.
Asked what this uncertainty meant for the financial planning of cash-strapped countries like Poland which are taking part in IFOR, Joulwan said: "If Poland wants to prepare for that contingency -- that is up to each individual nation, but I think it would be premature to start speculating."
Poland regards its troop contribution to IFOR as a vital step towards its top foreign policy goal of joining NATO fast, and Joulwan warmly praised its role. But the costs are biting.
The Polish cabinet's defence committee on Thursday called for 26 million zlotys ($9.57 million) from budget reserves to cover a shortfall in defence ministry funding for the Polish IFOR contingent this year, bringing the total up to 66 million zlotys, it said in a statement.
Joulwan and NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana are among a host of top officials, ministers and generals attending the 13th annual NATO Workshops. Participants include Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev and the Czech Republic's Vaclav Havel.
While the closed-door talks cover a wide range of detailed strategic, defence industry and other issues, public statements have so far merely reasserted existing NATO policy on such matters as the alliance's future eastward expansion.
Officials, who asked not to be named, said the repercussions of the current Russian elections were widely discussed in bilateral meetings on the conference fringes. NATO officials have previously said they hope current President Boris Yeltsin will beat communist challenger Gennady Zyuganov and believe a deal can then be cut to calm Russian opposition to the eastward expansion of the alliance.
(At today's exchange rates, $1=2.7160 Zloty) |
WARSAW, June 20 (Reuters) - The top priority of NATO-led forces in Bosnia is to see through September elections and talk about any future deployment can wait, the pact's supreme allied commander in Europe George Joulwan said on Thursday.
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