NATO's Robertson on sending troops to Macedonia

Robertson on which countries might send troops to Macedonia: "NATO missions mean that the countries in NATO should be involved."

If a cease-fire is declared in Macedonia, NATO has voted to send troops to the former Yugoslav province to help secure peace between the government of the Balkan nation and ethnic Albanian rebels. Urgent efforts to achieve a cease-fire are under way.

CNN Inside Politics anchor Judy Woodruff spoke with NATO Secretary-General Lord George Robertson, who is in Washington for talks with Bush administration officials about possible U.S. involvement. They also discussed Bush's plans for a national missile defense program and his efforts to gain acceptance from NATO countries. This is an edited transcript of the interview.

ROBERTSON: The decision that was taken yesterday was a NATO decision, including the United States. Nineteen countries have to agreed to send troops, and the decision was taken in principle yesterday in the North Atlantic Council, and the United States of America supports very much this mission, which is limited to helping with the peace process where the armed extremists are handing over their weapons.

So, the issue of troops has not yet come up. Who will supply the troops that will be required will be decided in what we call [a] fourth-generation conference, which will probably take place next week. And that's the moment when countries will be asked for troops, and the proper balance between the troops will be determined.

WOODRUFF: So when Secretary [of State Colin] Powell said yesterday U.S. troops had not yet been committed, that's the case, you're saying. They haven't been committed.

ROBERTSON: Absolutely true. But then, they haven't been committed by other countries as well. Some of them have made offers of troops, but the deputy supreme allied commander of Europe next week at this fourth-generation conference has to decide the kind of troops he believes are appropriate. And he then takes the offers and makes some demands of countries, so that decision is yet to be made, and Secretary [of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld made it clear that the participation of American troops will be a matter for the president.

WOODRUFF: Well, you have said that any troops going to Macedonia you assumed would be new troops to the region. Secretary Powell has already said if they were sent, they would be troops already in the region. Where would these troops come from, in your understanding?

ROBERTSON: Well, it would depend on the speed with which we were deploying the troops. They are, after all, to go in when there is a peace agreement, when there is a cease-fire in place. So, it might be in order to speedily get troops there that some troops already in the region might be used. But it would have to be back filled, as we called it. The gaps would be have to be filled, because they are already doing a very vital and important job. But there are American troops ...

WOODRUFF: You're saying, [if] they came out of Kosovo or Bosnia?

ROBERTSON: That's correct. It might be that some people would do that, but we're not at a point to say anything about that. But what Secretary Powell is saying to the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate was that there are already between 500 and 700 American troops in Skopje [the Macedonian capital] at the present moment, so the issue of then having to send fresh American troops might not necessarily apply just now. But as I said, NATO has not yet asked for the forces, because we have not yet got to that point.

WOODRUFF: Sen. Joe Biden, the new chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has said in effect that the United States must be part of these kinds of missions, because the U.S. has a special-type sense of authority in that part of the world. Can a mission like this work without U.S. troops?

ROBERTSON: Well, that's question that the secretary-general of NATO is not going to answer. Sen. Biden is perfectly entitled to that view and he will make it, presumably, to the administration as well. He is a good friend of mine and a great friend of NATO's as well. But we will decide in due course, probably in the course of next week, what troops are required and what balance is there.

What I would say is, that it is important that there is a proper wide balance of troops that come, so that they don't all come from one country. This is a NATO mission, and NATO missions mean that the countries in NATO should be involved.

WOODRUFF: Let me turn your attention, Mr. Secretary-General, to missile defense. You have tried to play down the differences within the NATO countries over President Bush's determination to put a missile defense system together. But before this is widely accepted among the NATO countries and in Europe -- especially by France and Germany -- what are the kind of assurances that this president, this administration, will have to provide, do you think?

ROBERTSON: Well, the first thing that the administration must provide -- and is providing -- is access to information about their current thinking. They have not got a proposal, there is no definitive plan yet determined by the American government in terms of missile defense. There is a decision to have missile defense, not just for the United States but European allies and for deployed forces of the alliance and of the United States.

Now, that itself, you know, is quite a big new challenge, and what I asked the president in April to do -- and what he has done -- is to share the thinking process with the allies, and that is what is happening. And that's why he got such a good response from the other 18 prime ministers and presidents at NATO headquarters last week, because they believe his offer is an open one. They have got an open mind and they want to hear what the thinking process is before the decisions are taken.

WOODRUFF: So, you are getting the information you need among the rest of the nations?

ROBERTSON: Indeed. We've had some very good briefings by the American government officials and indeed by the president himself, when he sat around the NATO council table last week.

WOODRUFF: I listened to you speak yesterday, discussing national missile defense. You talk about it as if it's still in the very early stages. Just now you talk about it as if there are still many decisions yet to made. However, high-ranking defense officials, including Secretary Rumsfeld himself, are saying this is something they want to make a crash effort on, they want to get something in place no later than the end of this president's current term in office. Are we talking about the same thing here?

ROBERTSON: Well, of course even that takes four years. And at the present moment, the administration has not made a decision about what kind of system or even systems they are going to get involved in. So, with that process of thinking -- not slowing down the process, but sharing the process with the American administration to see how best we can deal with the threats and the problems that affect the people of the NATO countries and beyond and in the future.

This is an argument not about missile defense, it's about a new strategic framework that takes account of the fact that a lot of countries have now got ballistic missiles, which can deliver deadly warheads over very long distances and which can be used for blackmail purposes. Now, we have got to measure up to that. At the end of the day, if missile defense is too expensive or if it doesn't work, then we still got to have an answer to questions that President Bush is posing.

WOODRUFF: All right. Well, NATO Secretary-General Lord George Robertson, we thank you very much for joining us.

ROBERTSON: Pleasure to be with you.