Martin Butcher

Martin Butcher

Introduction

NATO heads of State and Government will meet in Bucharest April 2 to April 4, 2008. NATO ministers have been preparing a substantial Summit agenda for some months (see previous Acronym reports on recent foreign and defence ministers meetings). Ongoing NATO missions in Afghanistan and Kosovo will be addressed, with Afghanistan the principal focus. The Alliance has worked with several international organisations and the Afghan government to prepare a comprehensive strategy to defeat the Taliban militarily and politically. Enlargement of the Alliance into the Balkans has been prepared for agreement, with potential future enlargement to the Ukraine and Georgia also on the agenda. European aspects of US strategic missile defences will forma key part of the agenda, both between allies and in the NATO-Russia Council when NATO leaders will meet with President Putin for the last time before he leaves office. NATO's defence transformation, energy security and cyber-security will also be addressed. (NATO has released a statement on its website about the Summit agenda http://www.nato.int/docu/update/2008/04-april/e0402b.html) Norway and Germany have pressed for a review of NATO arms control and disarmament policy, and a review document may emerge from this Summit. Finally, some NATO countries have called for NATO to revise its guiding policy document, the Strategic Concept, last changed in 1999. Such a process could be launched in Bucharest.

The Summit will open with a working dinner on the evening of April 2. The North Atlantic Council will meet on Thursday 3 April, in a meeting which will last all day. This will include meetings dedicated to the situation in Afghanistan with the Afghan government, the World Bank and other stakeholders present. On Friday 4 April NATO leaders will meet with President Putin in the NATO-Russia Council, and also with Ukrainian leaders in the NATO-Ukraine Commission.

Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels last month appear to have agreed most of the details for a new Afghanistan strategy, so while this will be a major section of the Heads of State agenda, there is little controversial detail to be decided. In contrast, the ongoing dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on the name of the republic shows little sign of resolution. Relations with Russia over NATO expansion and missile defences are also set to cause the Alliance some problems.

Afghanistan

Meeting in early March, NATO foreign ministers approved a framework for a NATO strategy in Afghanistan. The Summit, and the strategy that emerges from it, will be an "illustration of top-level international commitment" to Afghanistan. NATO spokesman James Appathurai briefed reporters on March 27 that "The meeting in and of itself is a demonstration of what we call the comprehensive approach to Afghanistan. That this is not simply a military issue -- it is very much a comprehensive issue relating to the full spectrum of areas in which there needs to be international support for Afghan efforts, and that includes governance, it includes reconstruction and development, and, of course, the military aspects as well."