Blog Posts tagged with "Anders Fogh Rasmussen"

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen shakes hands with an Afghan commando service merber at Camp Morehead, Afghanistan, April 12.

Up north in Mazar-e-Sharif, on the northern border of Afghanistan beyond the Hindu Kush, we see the Regional Command North led by a German officer with 4,000 German troops, more than 1,000 Americans, troops from many of the Nordic nations including Sweden, and troops from Hungary and other eastern European countries - a terrific international coalition. There we see the same level of results. The leaders in this northern province -- Afghan Corps Commander, General Wesa, and Afghan Police three-star commander for the northern zone, General Baba Jan -- are officers in command of the situation and have outlined their efforts and have a clear way ahead. Overall the transition from coalition forces to Afghan forces, which is crucial to our success, is proceeding well.

Today in Afghanistan, 50 percent of the population is under Afghan-led security, but President Karzai announced the start of the Tranch III transition on May 13. Once it is completed, 75 percent of Afghanistan will be under Afghan control. In the course of next year, as transition takes hold and Afghan security forces take the lead for combat operations across the country, we will increasingly take a supporting role. But that will include supporting Afghans in combat, as necessary. In Chicago, the Alliance made clear that NATO will train, advise and assist Afghan security forces - but it will be a new mission with a new role for NATO.

Smart Defense

The NAC also discussed the idea of pooling and sharing our assets. This idea of “Smart Defense” is how we can deal with the economic challenges of today while preparing for the security challenges of tomorrow.

On the high-tech side of things, NATO announced the initial operating capability of our new Missile Defense System. This is necessary because many nations are developing, unfortunately, ballistic missiles that could potentially threaten the Alliance. But it is also a signal of strong solidarity between the North American and the European partners working together on this new missile defense system which will be embedded in Europe both at sea and ashore.

We have launched the reform of our command structure to make it leaner and more effective, and we have made progress in ensuring that NATO retains and develops key capabilities. We are acquiring Allied Ground Surveillance, which uses drones to provide crucial intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance information to our forces. Our goal is an Alliance that is fit for the next decade and beyond and the way to get there is Smart Defense – a renewed culture of cooperation that allows all Allies to provide more security for our citizens even in an age of austerity.

Adm. James Stavridis describes the capabilities of a naval ship in the NATO ballistic missile defense program to NATO Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, during a walkthrough of the ballistic missile defense display.

Partnerships

The third item on the Summit agenda dealt with partnerships. We will strengthen our network of partnerships across the globe. We have many, many partners from around the world: Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Korea, Singapore, Mongolia and others; I think NATO will want to continue developing more global partners. Some great examples of relationships like there are the Libya operations where we saw five Arab nations participating alongside NATO forces, and of course many Arab nations are engaged with us in Afghanistan today, notably Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and others.

Meanwhile, the U.S. force posture in Europe continues to evolve. If we think back on the height of the Cold War, we had almost 400,000 U.S. troops and 1,200 U.S. bases here in Europe but that number has come way down since then, by almost 75 percent. Today we have about 80,000 troops and just a few dozen key bases around the continent. I think that posture will continue to evolve as the U.S. undergoes some defense cuts to rebalance forces and focus some additional effort on the Pacific and Middle East; it’s going to bring a little bit of a reposturing here in Europe, around 10 percent. I think it’s a balanced and sensible, and even as some of the ground forces are repositioned, we’re actually adding  four new Arleigh Burke Aegis Destroyers to be home ported in Spain; Special Forces capability with the V-22 vertical lift aircraft in the U.K.; as well as additional Command and Control targeting and intelligence capabilities.

I look at this as a rebalancing of posture and conclude by saying that for the United States, our strongest strategic partners remain here. We see strategic challenge around the world but for the United States the strategic partnership continues to be embedded in Europe in this NATO Alliance with the best pool of partners that we enjoy in one geographic area around the world.

Best,
Jim

Admiral, USN
Supreme Allied Commander, Europe
Commander, US European Command
"Stronger Together"