Britain's hopes of
keeping the western alliance intact following the Iraq war suffered a
major setback. Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg, who opposed the
war, unveiled a military pact to rival the US-led NATO alliance on Tuesday
after a meeting in Brussels.
The four announced the creation of a force made up of a Franco-German
brigade, Belgian commandos and Luxembourg reconnaissance officers. This is
being interpreted here as the first concrete sign that the transatlantic
military link of 50 years is showing signs of breaking up.
The aides of Tony Blair, who was given a bruising snub by Russian
President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, admitted they had been taken by
surprise by the decision at a mini-summit from which Britain, Spain and
Italy - all supporters of the Iraq war - were excluded.
Ironically, a short time before the decision in Brussels, Blair had warned
that nothing should be done to undermine NATO. The four countries have, in
fact, decided to set up a multi-national force headquarters, designed to
coordinate European operations in which NATO was not involved.
They also decided to hurry up with the creation of a European Rapid
Reaction Force. Both London and Washingtion are said to be incensed with
the decisions on Tuesday.
The apprehension is that Moscow would endorse and may join in the non-NATO
European force. Putin putdown of Blair at their Moscow meeting rather was
more severe than expected by Whitehall.
He rejected Blair's vision of a new world order in which all nations,
Putin said, would have to rally round the US. He also scornfully added,
"We don't know whether Saddam is still hiding somewhere in a bunker
sitting on cases containing weapons of mass destruction, and is preparing
to blow the whole thing up killing hundreds of thousands of people."
Putin has also told Blair that the UN weapons inspectors must be allowed
back into Iraq for the search of WMDs. |
