NATO posts its press conferences, communiques and some other documentation relating to the Foreign Ministers meeting here.
The second day of the meeting was largely taken up with Afghanistan, at least in public, and little if anything was added to previous discussions on enlargement and other issues. There was no formal announcement about substantive issues that may be discussed at the Summit in April. There will be a couple of Ministerial meetings in February and March to thrash out the details for the Summit.
Overall, the impression one is left with is of an Alliance 'waiting for Obama'. The US transition overshadows everything, and will do so through Strasbourg and Kehl. (it is worth noting in this context that German officials have already started briefing that they have no intention of responding to Obama's request to step up Allied engagement in the south of Afghanistan, so talks may be long and hard).
I will shortly publish a detailed analysis of this meetings and current prospects for the Summit on the Acronym Institute website at www.acronym.org.uk.
No comments:
Post a Comment