Security Threats On The Agenda In Munich

Over 50 defense and foreign affairs ministers and 200 guests debated this week-end on security policies in Munich, Germany.

The speech of Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of Defense, concentrated mainly on fighting fundamentalism and terrorism.

Rumsfeld said security issues around the Black Sea are on NATO’s agenda and that the insight and thrust the new NATO members bring to the Alliance are welcome.

"The Black Sea is an important region, there are global threats around it, and this should be on the agenda of our NATO members and partners," said Rumsfeld.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO Secretary General, said that achieving the NATO Response Force (NRF) was the Alliance’s main objective for 2006, and that he hoped the NATO summit taking place in Prague this November would assess the NRF was operational.

US Senator John McCain said it was important all NATO members participated in its operations, and that Romania set an example as the most active new member state. He also criticized Russia for "exporting autocracy" and stirring international concerns with its political and economic actions.

Sergey Ivanov, the Russian minister of defense, said "NATO will pose a threat to Russia as long as it will stay a classical military organization." Ivanov also surprised the audience when he said that "some NATO member states deliberately postpone ratifying the treaty for the control of conventional weapons in Europe," while Russia was abiding by its international commitments.

Rumsfeld pointed at Iran as the sponsor of international terrorism today, and said the world should work to stop the emergence of Iran as a "nuclear state."

Ivanov, for his part, said the Iranian case should stay under the control of the IAEA.

Mohammed el Baradei will draft the list of questions the Iranian government should answer to by March. If the IAEA experts will be ousted from Iran and the dialogue will be cut off, then that would be a very bad sign indeed," Ivanov said.

US Senator Joe Lieberman said that if sanctions against Iran will fail, then NATO should be ready to secure energy sources and transportation routes to the West.