NATO urges Ukraine military reform despite crisis

NATO nations urged Ukraine Friday to keep up the pace of military reform needed to join their alliance despite being badly hit by the global economic downturn. “Allies are aware that the financial and economic crisis that has also hit Ukraine very hard is having an effect on Ukrainian reforms,” NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said after defence ministers’ talks in Poland. “Ministers encouraged Ukraine to keep up the effort including with the necessary resources, difficult as that may be, because an inefficient and antiquated defence and security sector will cost Ukraine much more in the long run,” he told reporters. “Times are dire in this regard, nevertheless it is important to continue,” Scheffer said after the meeting in Krakow, which involved talks with Ukrainian Defence Minister Yuri Yekhanurov. Ukraine is striving to join NATO — a move its public largely disapproves of — but has been particularly badly hit by the global economic crisis. The former Soviet republic’s crucial steel sector has suffered from a sharp slowdown in global demand for the metal, its banks have been struck by the credit crunch and its currency has halved in value against the dollar. The IMF in November granted Ukraine a 16.4-billion-dollar loan but a second tranche of the loan worth 1.9 billion dollars has been held up amid political infighting in Ukraine that led to the finance minister’s resignation last week.

NATO considers permanent force for eastern Europe

NATO is examining whether to set up a permanent military force in eastern Europe to encourage regional allies to send combat troops to Afghanistan, the alliance’s top civilian official said Friday.

The idea, proposed by Britain to ease concerns in eastern Europe about Russian belligerence since its war with Georgia, would see 3,000 troops drawn from the NATO Response Force, a contingent for use in the world’s hotspots.

“I got a positive reception from many around the table on this idea,” NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters in Krakow, southern Poland, after informal talks between allied defence ministers.

He said that top alliance commander US General John Craddock “will now elaborate ideas on the NATO Response Force in conjunction with this solidarity force.”

Russia may “cover” the borders with Central Asian countries

 

Establishment of full-fledged borders, first of all, with Kazakhstan and other Central Asian states should become an important countermeasure against drug mafia, declared Viktor Ivanov, the head of the Federal Drug Control Agency (FDCA). “The administrative legal regime of borders, trade and loads import to Russia are extremely washed out by international agreements and does not allow to organize an effective control over drug trafficking from Afghanistan”,- said, in particular, Ivanov while addressing the State Duma parliamentary session on February, 18, reports a REGNUM correspondent.

According to him, today borders are not a barrier to the drug couriers. “Any Central Asian country’s citizen can cross the borders practically unlimited times. It is determined by visa-free regime and legal possibility to use internal, but not foreign passport”, — added Ivanov.