NATO finally gets its man, Rasmussen to lead alliance

Despite objections from Turkey, NATO leaders meeting in Strasbourg, France resolved a potentially embarrassing rift by picking Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the alliance’s new secretary general, outgoing NATO head Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said. “Every state and government believed that Anders Fogh Rasmussen was the man to lead NATO and the 28 members through the 21st Century,” said de Hoop Scheffer, who is to step down on July 31. Turkish opposition had threatened to overshadow a summit celebrating the 60th anniversary of NATO’s founding before US President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi applied strong pressure on Turkish leaders to lift their objections. A last-gasp deal was worked out just moments before the summit was to end.

“This is indeed a historic day, and not only because a Dane assumes the post of secretary general for the first time,” a delighted Rasmussen said. “I will do my utmost to live up to the confidence shown to me by my colleagues,” Rasmussen said after being chosen as the next head of the world’s largest military alliance. The Turks had strongly objected to Rasmussen because of his handling of the 2005 and 2006 row over caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed that appeared in Danish media and angered large sectors of the Muslim world.

The controversy had also caused a stir earlier during the ceremonial crossing of the Rhine River from Germany to France, when Berlusconi called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan while other leaders strolled across the Passerelles des Deux Rives bridge. Describing the summit as “a success,“ de Hoop Scheffer later said NATO allies had also agreed to beef up the training programs for Afghanistan’s police and armed forces, and that more soldiers would be deployed in the strife-torn country to secure the August elections. “When it comes to Afghanistan, this summit and this alliance has delivered,” de Hoop Scheffer said. During the two-day gathering, Merkel described Afghanistan as “a litmus test for us all,” and praised Obama over his new strategy for the country. The German chancellor, who co-hosted the summit with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, said her country was ready to contribute more soldiers, trainers and money towards “the Afghanistanisation” of the country. Sarkozy also lauded Obama’s new approach to the conflict, which involves speeding up Afghan reconstruction and involving other regional players such as Pakistan and Iran.

OBAMA LOVES THE EU, FRANCE

Before the meeting, which coincided with the 60th anniversary of NATO’s founding, Obama called for a stronger Europe and praised Sarkozy for his leadership in the conflict in Afghanistan. “We want strong allies. We would like to see Europe have more robust defence capabilities,” Obama said after talks with Sarkozy in the French city of Strasbourg. “We are not looking to be patrons of Europe; we are looking to be partners of Europe.”

The two leaders held their first head-to-head talks since Obama was elected to the White House. They met ahead of the opening of a two-day NATO summit in Strasbourg and in the German cities of Kehl and Baden-Baden. “NATO is the most successful alliance in modern history,” Obama said. “The basic premise of NATO was that Europe’s security was also US security, and vice versa. This is a pillar of American foreign policy.” Obama, who was attending his first NATO summit, went out of his way to praise France and Sarkozy on their contribution to the efforts to stabilise Afghanistan. “France has already been a stalwart ally when it comes to Afghanistan,” he said. “We didn’t have to drag France kicking and screaming into Afghanistan.”

Paris and Washington were “on the same page” regarding Afghanistan, Obama said, and thanked Sarkozy for his “outstanding leadership” in the conflict. While Sarkozy reiterated his position that France would not deploy more fighting troops to the region, he said that Paris was “ready to do more in the matter of police, gendarmes and (aiding) the economy.” France will be sending 1,500 French gendarmes to Afghanistan as part of a European policing contingent. The French president said he was also prepared to help Obama with one of his thorniest problems, closing the prison camp in Guantanamo, Cuba. Asked if France was prepared to accept some Guantanamo detainees that were too dangerous to be freed, Sarkozy said, “If it permits the United States to close the camp, the answer is yes.”

Sarkozy praised the new “spirit of openness” in Washington since Obama became president. “It is damn good news to have a US president who knows that the world does not end at the borders of his country,” he said. Obama praised Sarkozy’s decision to return his country to NATO’s military command structure, calling France “our oldest ally, our first ally.”

Officials say France’s return to the NATO fold is likely to have important repercussions for the alliance. A French general is expected to take over one of the two top NATO command posts, the Allied Command Transformation project, which has its headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia and France and Italy are to be given joint leadership of a NATO regional command in Lisbon, Portugal, one of three NATO regional commands.

France was restored as a full NATO member, 43 years after Charles de Gaulle pulled the country out of its military command. Accompanied by his wife, Michelle, Obama was given a rock star’s welcome when he arrived near noon at the Palais de Rohan in Strasbourg for talks with Sarkozy. Obama and Sarkozy last met briefly in Paris in the summer of 2008 when Obama, then a presidential candidate, visited several European capitals. The two presidents confirmed that Obama would to return to France on June 6 to take part in festivities commemorating the anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces invaded Nazi-controlled France in 1944.