President Obama and NATO’s Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at a March 25 White House press conference.

NATO Faces Growing Challenges as 60th Anniversary Approaches NATO Allies Share Vital Interest in Stabilizing Afghanistan Stabilizing Afghanistan Common Challenge for America and Iran Analysis: America and Russia ‘Press the Reset Button’

26 March 2009

(Upcoming 60th anniversary celebration testament to trans-Atlantic ties)

Washington — As NATO prepares to celebrate its 60th birthday, President Obama calls for a renewed commitment to Afghanistan and other shared security challenges facing the 26-nation alliance.

“We are confident that we can create a process whereby NATO, which is already strong, becomes stronger, where we become even more effective in coordinating our efforts in Afghanistan,” Obama said following a March 25 White House meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

The leaders met to discuss the alliance’s anniversary summit, to be jointly hosted by Germany and France April 3–4. Obama praised the anniversary as “a testimony to the strength of the trans-Atlantic alliance.” (See “NATO Faces Growing Challenges as 60th Anniversary Approaches.”) 

Since taking office, the Obama administration has consulted extensively with America’s partners around the globe on a way forward in Afghanistan. As leader of the U.N.-mandated, 41-nation International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), NATO is a key player in efforts to help the South Asian nation eliminate terrorist safe havens and emerge from decades of war and poverty.

With militant attacks at the highest level since 2001, Obama has already ordered 17,000 additional U.S. soldiers and Marines to reinforce the international peacekeeping force, step up training for Afghan army and police personnel, and improve security ahead of elections scheduled for August. Richard Holbrooke, Obama’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, traveled to NATO headquarters in Brussels March 24 to brief alliance representatives on the White House’s comprehensive review of Afghan policy. The rollout of the administration’s new Afghanistan strategy is scheduled for March 27. (See “NATO Allies Share Vital Interest in Stabilizing Afghanistan.”)

“We believe that we are going to be able to ensure that the NATO members who have made so many sacrifices and have been working so hard already are reinvigorated and that the coordination that’s going to be taking place will make it even more effective for us as we complete a successful NATO mission,” Obama said.

In addition to peacekeeping forces, the 50,000-strong NATO-led mission also oversees 26 Provincial Reconstruction Teams that are supporting international humanitarian aid and development efforts. Among their accomplishments, the teams have built hundreds of new health clinics across the country, giving 83 percent of Afghans access to basic medical services compared to only 8 percent in 2001, as well as schools for 7 million Afghan children, including 2 million girls previously denied education under the Taliban regime.  

The new U.S. strategy will top the agenda at the NATO summit, as well as at a March 31 international conference on Afghanistan in The Hague, Netherlands. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will represent the United States at the U.N.-sponsored event aimed at focusing Afghanistan’s neighbors and the international community on the many security challenges ahead for the region. (See “Stabilizing Afghanistan Common Challenge for America and Iran.”)  

NATO SUMMIT AND RESET OF U.S.-RUSSIAN RELATIONS

Effective action against the security challenges posed by failed states, terrorism and the spread of nuclear weapons will also require a new relationship with Russia, another top U.S. foreign policy priority, says Obama.

“My administration is seeking a reset of the relationship with Russia, but in a way that’s consistent with NATO membership and consistent with the need to send a clear signal throughout Europe that we are going to continue to abide by the central belief that countries who seek and aspire to join NATO are able to join NATO,” he said.

Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have exchanged letters and a series of phone calls ahead of their first meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in London April 2. Obama seeks improved cooperation on global security, economic and environmental challenges, despite Russia’s actions against aspiring future NATO members Georgia and Ukraine, as well as Moscow’s longstanding suspicions of NATO expansion and a proposed Europe-based ballistic missile defense system. (See “Analysis: America and Russia ‘Press the Reset Button’.”)

“We have many things on which we disagree, but NATO needs Russia and Russia needs NATO,” said de Hoop Scheffer. “Let’s work on the things we agree on, and let’s not hide our disagreements, and let us realize that also this relationship can, and in my opinion should, be strengthened.”