Martin Butcher

Martin Butcher

NATO Communiqué Analysis

The meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) has concluded, and a Summit Communiqué has been issued. The communiqué begins with a strong reaffirmation of the traditional purposes of NATO:

... The principle of the indivisibility of Allied security is fundamental. A strong collective defence of our populations, territory and forces is the core purpose of our Alliance and remains our most important security task...

This formulation indicates that the Alliance has consensus around territorial defence, and that those who wish NATO to become a global expeditionary Alliance have not convinced their colleagues. The "indivisibility" of the Alliance has also been used by opponents of the US strategic missile defence deployments in Europe to bolster their case, as the system could not (even if it worked) defend all Allies.

Enlargement

The enlargement decisions of the Alliance are much as was expected and reported on Martin Butcher's Bucharest Summit Blog Croatia and Albania have been invited to join the Alliance. According to the Communiqué NATO and the new invitees will ".. begin talks immediately with the aim of signing Accession Protocols by the end of July 2008 and completing the ratification process without delay."

It appears likely that these new members will formally join the Alliance at the 2009 Sixtieth Anniversary Summit. In the meantime, they will continue to pursue security sector reform through their Membership Action Plans (MAPs).

Macedonia failed to overcome Greek objections to the name of the Republic (and indeed Greece is reported to have had enough European support to overcome intense American pressure during the NAC meeting. NATO instead said that:

We recognise the hard work and the commitment demonstrated by the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 1 to NATO values and Alliance operations. We commend them for their efforts to build a multi ethnic society. Within the framework of the UN, many actors have worked hard to resolve the name issue, but the Alliance has noted with regret that these talks have not produced a successful outcome. Therefore we agreed that an invitation to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be extended as soon as a mutually acceptable solution to the name issue has been reached. We encourage the negotiations to be resumed without delay and expect them to be concluded as soon as possible.

This formula may well allow Macedonia to accede to NATO by next year, if they are able to make a compromise with Greece in the near future. The UN will continue to broker talks between the two nations to this end.

Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montengro have been invited to ".. begin an Intensified Dialogue on the full range of political, military, financial, and security issues relating to their aspirations to membership, without prejudice to any eventual Alliance decision." While Serbia has been offered support for an eventual Intensified Dialogue when the time is right.

President Bush suffered outright defeat, although that had been well predicted, when he failed to secure MAPs for Georgia and the Ukraine. The Alliance said that: