NATO Summit Bears Fruit Including Sour Grapes

Meeting for the first time since the Iraq war opened up deep divisions within the alliance, the leaders of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states strove to set aside the disagreements of the past and show a united front at the two-day summit in Istanbul which began on Monday.

And as the source of recent friction between members, it was only fitting that Iraq dominated the summit from the start. It couldn't have been a better opening for U.S. President George W. Bush and coalition partner Tony Blair, the British prime minister. As the architects of the invasion which had caused such division within NATO, news that the U.S.-led administration had handed over power to an Iraqi government 48 hours ahead of schedule was as good a way as any of preventing the wind of discontent filling the sails of opposition.

"The Iraqi people have their country back," declared Bush. "Fifteen months after the liberation of Iraq and two days ahead of schedule, the world witnessed the arrival of a full sovereign and free Iraq." It was to be a welcome buffer for the president as the subject of Iraq would go on to swallow up much of Monday's agenda with those harboring concerns waiting for the opportunity to let go their restraint.

One powerful opponent of the Iraq war offered muted congratulations tinged with a hidden animosity that would fully rear its head later in the day. "We are naturally delighted. In my eyes, the return of Iraq’s sovereignty is a necessary condition although, alas, not sufficient, for restoring peace," said French President Jacques Chirac who led the other NATO leaders in offering their opinions of developments.

New Iraqi government requests NATO help

Then it was time to get to work. Responding to a request from Iyad Allawi, the prime minister of the interim Iraqi government that had only hours before assumed power, the negotiators and leaders began discussing whether to give the alliance a direct role in providing military training for Iraq's armed forces. It was not to be easy.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, another leader firmly in opposition to the war, chose the summit to reiterate his position on German troop deployments, even as part of NATO. Before discussions began, Schröder said: "We are of course willing to participate in the training of Iraqi troops if the Iraqi government wants that. But this has to take place in training centers in Germany because we stick to our position that no German troops will be sent to Iraq."

Germany, France oppose deployment

Once discussions had begun, France soon rejected U.S. suggestions that the training would lead to a formal, high-profile alliance presence in the country. "It is not in the mission conferred upon NATO, so it won’t happen," said Jacques Chirac. "Any trace of NATO on Iraqi soil was considered as inopportune." Chirac and Schröder then stated that they would not be sending military instructors to Iraq, insisting any training will be outside the country.

"There will be no military engagement of our own, no German soldiers in Iraq," Schröder again reiterated, adding that Germany was making available army training facilities along with its continuing work instructing Iraq police officers in the United Arab Emirates.

Finally, the discussions came to an interim agreement which would see NATO train the Iraqi military and police forces with conditions to appease Germany and France. Diplomats said that to win the endorsement of Germany and France, the agreement allows for the possibility that some of the training will take place outside Iraq. But in the spirit of compromise, at the insistence of the Bush administration, the operation will be a formal NATO mission rather than a project of individual countries.

"We are united in our support for the Iraqi people and offer full co-operation to the new sovereign interim government as it seeks to strengthen internal security," the 26 leaders said in a statement. Details of the agreement, including who will be trained, where and when, must still be worked out by the governments, NATO officials added. It is thought that the alliance may start by offering instruction to senior Iraqi officers at military schools in Rome and Oberammergau, Germany, and then expand to include training in Iraq.

Afghanistan causes more U.S.-Franco friction

The agenda then moved onto the alliance's involvement in Afghanistan. The sparring soon began again when Donald Rumsfeld, the US defense secretary, called for NATO to deploy its elite new response force to protect the coming Afghan elections. Enter Chirac: "That force is meant to act in a known crisis, which is obviously not the case in Afghanistan today", the French president argued. "A NATO presence too clear and too numerous is perhaps not what is politically the wisest and most reasonable thing ahead of an election."

In the end, the NATO leaders agreed to extend NATO's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan by sending more than 3,000 additional troops to bolster security for September elections. NATO will also send permanent military teams to four more cities as part of phased expansion out of the capital, Kabul. In addition to expanding its Afghan mission, the alliance agreed to end its peacekeeping operation in Bosnia after nine years, handing responsibility for the 7,500-strong mission to the European Union at the end of the year.

Before the first day came to a close, Bush and Chirac stepped into the ring for a final bout. After the U.S. President urged European leaders to give Turkey a firm date for starting EU membership talks later this year, Jacques Chirac bluntly Bush to mind his own business.

Turkey comments turn Chirac on Bush

Finally succumbing to his own desire to ignore the determined effort to celebrate improved transatlantic relations after the Iraq crisis, Chirac complained that Bush, "not only went too far but went on to territory which is not his own." He added: "It's as if I was advising the U.S. on how they should manage their relations with Mexico."

For a summit designed to help soothe the tensions between leaders, Day One had been a bumpy affair. British Prime Minister Tony Blair offered an obvious statement in his closing remarks to reporters before the bruised leaders adjourned for Day Two: "There's no point ... in saying all the previous disagreements have disappeared; they have not."