NATO Widens Security 'Map'

Leaders pose for a photo Saturday during NATO's anniversary summit. From left are Turkish President Suleyman Demirel, Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, NATO Secretary General Javier Solana, and President Bill Clinton. (AFP) Related Links Can Alliance Muster Will to Win? Full Coverage of NATO Summit Summit Photos: Day 1 | Day 2

By William Drozdiak and Thomas W. Lippman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, April 25, 1999; Page A1

A day after deciding to intensify the fury of their bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, NATO leaders approved a new strategic concept for the alliance yesterday that for the first time embraces military missions in volatile regions beyond their own borders.

The much-debated initiative, which Secretary General Javier Solana called "a road map to navigate the security challenges" of the next millennium, was hailed by 19 heads of government gathered here to celebrate NATO's 50th anniversary as a renewed sense of identity and purpose for the North Atlantic Alliance in the post Cold War era.

"For five years now, we have been working to build a new NATO prepared to deal with the security challenges of the new century," President Clinton told a news conference on the summit's second day. "We have reaffirmed our readiness . . . to address regional and ethnic conflicts beyond the territory of NATO members."

But the crisis in Kosovo, which has emerged as the first major test of NATO's future strategic blueprint, continued to dominate the summit proceedings. U.S. officials said yesterday that the NATO leaders, meeting privately Friday, gave their military commanders broad new authority to strike politically important targets throughout Yugoslavia – including some that primarily affect civilians – without going through the cumbersome process of gaining approval from all 19 NATO members.

The targets include electricity and water systems, broadcasting stations and President Slobodan Milosevic's personal property and guards, even if these lie in downtown Belgrade, the officials said.

NATO warplanes struck some of these targets last week, including a television station and Milosevic's official residence. But under the new arrangement, commanders can launch such strikes without specific authorization from NATO countries' representatives in Brussels, as has been the case so far. The exceptions are some Belgrade sites where the risk of civilian casualties is particularly high and Montenegro, Serbia's junior partner in the Yugoslav federation that has sought to distance itself from Belgrade. For these sites, the officials said, NATO heads of government must issue an approval.

Despite the agreement on broadening bombing authority for NATO's supreme commander, Gen. Wesley K. Clark, the leaders found themselves at odds over how to enforce an oil embargo that is supposed to dry up fuel sources for 45,000-strong Yugoslav forces operating in Kosovo.

Defense ministers late Friday approved the idea of using NATO warships to interdict oil shipments arriving in Montenegro's ports and to step up bombing raids against roads and pipelines that funnel the oil to Yugoslav forces. But French President Jacques Chirac expressed concern that a blockade would be an act of war and could lead to a clash with Russia, which has vowed to continue supplying oil to Yugoslavia.

Italy and Greece also voiced reservations about using military force to stop the flow of oil. They pointed out this could be highly difficult to achieve and could inflict damage to Montenegro. The allies say they do not want to do anything to undermine the democratic government of Montenegro's President Milo Djuvanovic, who has emerged as a bitter foe of Milosevic.

Hungary, as the only NATO country bordering Yugoslavia, acknowledged that trucks and tankers carrying oil to Yugoslav forces are crossing its territory but that the government will seek approval from parliament to stop the deliveries. Hungary has been loathe to enforce sanctions because of fears that Milosevic could retaliate by cracking down on the 300,000 ethnic Hungarians living in the northern Serbian province of Voivodina.

As NATO seeks to tighten the squeeze on Milosevic's forces, the targeting of sensitive sites that could cause civilian casualties has also stirred dismay among some allies. Italy's foreign minister Lamberto Dini denounced the bombing of a Serb television station as a "terrible event" and insisted that there should be greater consultations over future air strikes. The decision to require approval from heads of government for certain particularly deadly attacks in Belgrade appeared designed to meet his concerns and similar doubts voiced by other NATO leaders.

To demonstrate their desire to call off the air strikes if Milosevic would accept their terms for a peaceful settlement, NATO leaders emphasized the importance of working with Russia, the traditional ally of the Serbs. Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy, a strong advocate of a prominent role for Russia, said he expects to go to Moscow in the middle of the coming week to consult with former prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, Russia's Balkan peace envoy, about the outcome of his talks in Belgrade last week.

Chernomyrdin, however, said his talks with Milosevic have produced little. "If I had a trump card I would have already used it, and I would have gone from there [Belgrade] to where I could play it," news agencies quoted him as saying.

In setting forth their new strategic blueprint, the allies acknowledged that new measures were required to cope with threats such as global terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. They endorsed a five-part action plan to expand intelligence sharing and devise more effective ways to protect their populations against nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

The NATO leaders welcomed its new members – Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic – and promised to leave the door open for nine declared candidate countries, many of which once were part of the Soviet bloc. They vowed to help these applicants bolster their democratic credentials by speeding military modernization and ensuring civilian control over the armed forces.

The leaders saluted the progress shown by Romania and Slovenia, often mentioned as the next most likely members. They also recognized the positive efforts of the three Baltic countries – Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania – as well as Bulgaria and Slovakia. The alliance said it will review their candidacies at the next summit meeting, no later than 2002.

The allies also approved a "defense capability initiative" to adapt their own military forces for 21st century missions. NATO commanders warn that a widening technology gap between U.S. and European armed forces could jeopardize future cooperation on the battlefield. The new plan is supposed to help the Europeans bolster the ability of their armed forces to project troops and firepower to distant trouble spots.

Those measures, however, have lost their urgency as the crisis in Kosovo poses a critical test of the alliance's new ambitions. After not firing a shot during 40 years of the Cold War, the alliance has since March 24 waged a bombing campaign against Yugoslavia that has set a controversial precedent, attacking a sovereign nation without explicit authority from the United Nations.

In their summit communique, the allies said "we recognize the primary responsibility of the United Nations Security Council for the maintenance of international peace and security." Chirac hailed this language as "a triumph for French diplomacy." But U.S. officials said it is virtually meaningless, because it does not require the alliance to obtain explicit U.N. Security Council for NATO military actions beyond its territory.

Staff writer Dana Priest contributed to this report.