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Perry: NATO Should Consider Extended Bosnia Role
By Charles Aldinger
At a news conference with Portugese Defence Minister Antonio Vitorino, Perry said IFOR should be removed late this year but "it is a separate consideration as to whether NATO will fill a requirement to provide any additional security for Bosnia on into next year."
Washington, with 18,000 troops helping enforce last year's peace accord in the former Yugoslav republic, has made no decision on whether to provide any troops next year. But the United States has suggested it was likely at the least that it would provide military equipment and intelligence for any new NATO effort after elections scheduled in September.
"We have not made any decision in the United States government about any activity in Bosnia after the IFOR mission is completed at the end of this year," he said. "The serious discussion of what role NATO will play will
probably take place this fall," he added. "It is my belief that any decision made for providing
additional security for Bosnia after the IFOR operation is that it should be a NATO decision, and the United States would fully participate in any decision made by NATO."
In Washington, the Defence Department announced Perry will attend the first meeting in Brussels next week of the newly organised North Atlantic Council of Defence Ministers, including France. Perry's Bosnia proposal is likely to get attention there.
Perry will meet with Macedonian leaders in Skopje before going to Brussels, the department said. It said he will visit London later in the week for events celebrating Queen Elizabeth's birthday.
Perry flew to Lisbon at the end of a four-day visit to Europe, which earlier carried him to Ukraine and Germany. He discussed a wide range of bilateral defence issues with Vitorino and other leaders of NATO partner Portugal. At a news conference in Garmisch, Germany earlier in the day, Perry said that Russia should stop "thinking in Cold War terms" and accept planned expansion by NATO into eastern Europe.
"Their (Russia's) concerns are very high and widely held," he said, adding that he felt those concerns would fade in the months and years ahead, as Moscow draws closer to the West. "They are thinking in Cold War terms. I believe that, in time, Russia will come to see that," he said. |
LISBON, June 5 (Reuters) -- NATO should consider a continued military role in Bosnia next year, U.S. Defence Secretary William Perry said Wednesday. "It is, I think, appropriate to look at what additional support NATO might be asked to provide to Bosnia after IFOR," he said when asked what would happen after NATO-led implementation force of 60,000 leaves late this year.
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