Rasmussen: Nato still 'indispensable'
2011-10-05 22:09
Brussels - Nato's chief says ongoing military operations in Afghanistan and Libya demonstrate that the alliance continues to play an "indispensable" role in confronting current and future security challenges.
"In Libya we and our allies have been remarkably successful - we have saved countless lives and helped the Libyan people take their destiny into their own hands," Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Wednesday.
"In Afghanistan ... transition is on track and the insurgents will not be allowed to derail it," he said at the opening of a meeting of defence ministers.
The meeting, the first in a series of conferences of foreign and defence ministers ahead of the alliance's summit in May in Chicago, is aimed at exploring ways to end the aerial campaign in Libya and train Afghan security forces for a larger role in their country's war.
Fogh Rasmussen said that Nato has "no intention whatsoever" of intervening in Syria, where the government's crackdown on protesters has killed nearly 3 000 people in six months.
He declined to comment on Russia's and China's veto on Tuesday of a UN Security Council resolution condemning the violence, but said "the only way forward in Syria is to accommodate the Syrian people's desire for freedom and democracy".
South Africa, Russia, China, India and Brazil all opposed that sanctions resolution, arguing that Nato misused a previous UN measure authorising the use of force to protect civilians in Libya to justify months of air strikes.
They have expressed fears that any new resolution against Syria might be used as a pretext for armed intervention.
In a speech before the meeting, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta urged Nato member states to co-operate more closely and pool their resources in order to make up for the shortfalls that have plagued the alliance's operations in Libya and Afghanistan.
With the Pentagon facing $450bn in budget cuts over the next 10 years, allies can't assume that the US will be able to continue covering their shortcomings, Panetta said in a speech to the Brussels-based organisation Carnegie Europe.
- AP