(Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State) -NATO's foreign ministers plan to meet September 21 on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York for their final high-level talks before the NATO summit in November in Latvia, reports Trend.
The 90-minute meeting brief by NATO standards is viewed as a short, to the point business meeting to discuss major political issues, an alliance official said. Military matters are scheduled for discussion in a separate informal meeting of NATO defense ministers September 28-30 in PortoroЕѕ, Slovenia.
NATO heads of state are scheduled to meet November 28-29 in Riga, Latvia, to discuss a transformation agenda aimed at helping the alliance better undertake global missions of the 21st century.
The 61st annual U.N. General Assembly starts September 19, with weeklong debates among heads of state and other global leaders. NATO ordinarily does not meet on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. However, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer asked for the meeting because the U.N. meeting will be the last time before the Riga summit that all NATO foreign ministers are scheduled to be in one place, the alliance official said.
Topics to be discussed by the NATO foreign ministers include Afghanistan, which is viewed as NATO's top-priority mission in 2006, as well as enlargement issues, partnership issues, contact countries and the Middle East training initiative.
On the subject of enlarging NATO, the November summit in Riga is not expected to offer membership to any candidate countries, but the foreign ministers might discuss what kind of message they want to send to the three participants in the NATO Membership Action Plan: Albania, Croatia and the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia. The Riga summit will be an opportunity to signal what conditions should be met for the candidate countries to be offered membership as early as 2008. Also, the republic of Georgia has requested a formal intensified dialogue that could lead to NATO membership. Ukraine already has begun an intensified dialogue.
Regarding partnerships, NATO wants to improve the effectiveness of its Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), a cooperative forum for the 26 NATO nations and 20 nonmember nations. NATO also wants to look at ways to improve the Partnership for Peace (PFP) program, which offers assistance in military and political reforms for nations that either seek NATO membership or want to cooperate more closely with the alliance. Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia are all interested in joining PFP.
In addition, NATO wants to coordinate better with so-called contact countries such as Australia, Japan and South Korea. These nations participate in global missions but have no regional interest in joining NATO.
Finally, on the Middle East training initiative, the government of Jordan has said it is interested in discussing a NATO pilot program to conduct academic training in the Middle East. Other nations in the region also might participate. The NATO Middle East training center would train military and civilian officials of nations in the Mediterranean region, the Middle East and the Gulf.NATO currently hosts a multinational training facility in southern Germany.