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Straw: Europe must up defence cash
CHICAGO, Illinois -- British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has urged European governments to raise their defence spending in light of the new threats facing Western nations and in order to keep pace with the United States within NATO. In a speech in Chicago, Straw said European nations needed to act now to reverse a decade-long underfunding of the military if they were to tackle the three scourges of international security: global terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and state failure. He said that if the U.S. continued to shoulder such a disproportionate military burden within the alliance it would prove a "recipe for resentment." Straw acknowledged that Europe did tend to exert influence using "civilian power" -- through trade, aid and peacekeeping -- but said this did not compensate for its "increasingly adequate response" to current international threats. Nine Britons have been confirmed dead in the bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali on Sunday and the British death toll is expected to be about 30. It was now essential that the European members of the alliance used next month's NATO summit in Prague to deliver on their commitment to strengthen their military capabilities, the British minister said. NATO sources told CNN the issue was a critical one and the speech, coming from a leading member nation of the alliance, was being viewed as important and "helpful." New threats and the need to increase military capabilities are high on the agenda for the forthcoming Prague talks. Straw said the post-Cold War threats of rogue states and international terrorist organisations underlined the need for a "vigorous" North Atlantic alliance at the centre of West's security response. However, during the 1990s, defence spending in most European countries -- apart from Britain and France had dropped below 2 percent of national income compared to around 3 percent in the United States. "A relationship where one side of the alliance disproportionately shoulders the military burden is a recipe for resentment," he said. NATO deputy spokesman Mark Laity told CNN the organisation's secretary-general George Robertson had repeatedly emphasised the need for NATO to improve its capability and ensure Europe did not slip further behind the United States. "Our efforts to improve our capabilities and adapt to the new strategic enviroment is an overriding theme at the moment. "So Mr Straw is talking about an issue which NATO as a whole recognises we need to address and we are doing so." Straw said that Europe had to understand that the disparity between effective military contributions to the alliance was something "it should not view with equanimity." "However effective Europe becomes as a regional or global actor, we cannot expect to make a real difference without regular, close and systematic co-operation with the U.S. in NATO, higher and more focused defence spending and greater efficiency in Europe's armed forces. "Europe could and should not aim to match American spending. But it is essential for the future of the alliance that European forces get the investment they need to allow them to work effectively with their American counterparts." Straw, who earlier on Tuesday held talks in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, again emphasised the need to pursue to the war against international terrorism with "relentless determination" following the Bali bomb attack. (Powell on Iraq) At the same time he strongly backed U.S. demands for Iraq to comply with the demands of the international community to give up its weapons of mass destruction or face military action. "The Iraqi regime should be left under no illusion of the consequences of non-compliance or the depth of our resolve." Support in Britain for military action against Iraq has risen sharply since the Bali bomb attack, according to an opinion poll published on Wednesday. An ICM survey for The Guardian today found that 42 percent backed action against Saddam Hussein -- a 10-point jump since last week -- with 37 percent against. Only 35 percent thought that Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network rather than Iraq should have been the focus of international attention. ICM interviewed a random sample of 1,008 British adults by telephone on Monday.
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