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NATO Faces Funding Battle As Operations Expand
NATO countries this week drew up their battlelines for a strategic rethink of the bloc's funding, a growing problem as its operations expand way beyond the traditional European base. At the heart of the haggling are proposals to give the West's Soviet-era bloc more of its own resources, as opposed to current arrangements under which each state pays for whatever it does for NATO. NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, backed by the United States, wants the extension of so-called "common funding," but is facing reservations from a number of countries notably France which opposes any radical reform. At a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Berlin which finished Wednesday, de Hoop Scheffer for the first time suggested that the alliance could one day have its own planes, ships and helicopters. At the moment virtually the only standing asset owned by the 26-nation alliance - which this year has a budget of 1.7 billion euros - is its Germmany-based squadron of AWACS surveillance planes. "Some people would like to extend common funding. I expressed my reservations," said France's Michele Alliot-Marie. "I was not alone," she said, adding that a small majority of NATO states back increasing common funding. "What we don't want is for common funding to become generalized," she added. Her caution was also shared by Germany's Peter Struck and British Defense Secretary John Reid, who said he could foresee situations where common funding was appropriate, but not as an across-the-board system. Currently NATO funding is organized on the basis that "costs lie where they fall" - meaning that for example a country which offers troops for Afghanistan has to pay to send and keep them there. This can be particularly tough for smaller central European states which have recently joined NATO. "As it stands now the vast bulk of funding lies with the nations who contribute the forces," said spokesman James Appathurai. The move to reform that system is being fueled by the expansion of NATO operations outside Europe and the Balkans, not only in Afghanistan but to Iraq, Sudan and in the Mediterranean. The current arrangements "can discourage countries (who might contribute) by imposing a double burden," said de Hoop Scheffer, acknowledging that the battle over the issue will not be easy. Concretely, the funding conundrum will come to the fore with the creation of NATO's all-new Response Force, due to become fully operational by October next year. In theory the force will be deployable to hotspots around the globe at a few days' notice - and NATO authorities will not want it hobbled by squabbling over who pays for what. US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whose defense budget dwarfs all other NATO members', set out his case for more common funding at the Berlin talks. A senior US official said many new NATO members have been willing to provide troops for NATO missions, but have difficulty paying for them. "So there is a perverse disincentive whereby countries who might be politically willing to step up to the plate, and shoulder the responsibility, may have a problem in paying for it," said the official. "The countries who are willing to provide manpower and other capabilities should not be penalized," he said. The funding question comes against the background of a NATO debate about its future role and capabilities, in the run-up to a "transformation" summit of the alliance called for by Washington for late next year. All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Related Links SpaceWar Search SpaceWar Subscribe To SpaceWar Express 
Don't Hobble NATO, US Tells Allies
Berlin (AFP) Sep 13, 2005US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged allies Tuesday not to hobble NATO commanders in places like Afghanistan and Kosovo by putting national restrictions on the use of their forces.
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