dominated by events in Afghanistan, the Caucasus and
the Horn of Africa - areas that can rightly be
described as 'hot'. So it is very welcome to shift our
attention to a colder region.
"[T]he High North is going to require even more of the
Alliance’s attention in the coming years.
"As the ice-cap decreases, the possibility increases
of extracting the High North’s mineral wealth and
energy deposits.
"At our Summit in Bucharest last year, we agreed a
number of guiding principles for NATO’s role in energy
security, as well as five specific areas for possible
NATO involvement....
"The third issue is territorial claims. The 1982 UN
Convention on the Law of the Seas is the legal
framework that applies to the Arctic Ocean – a fact
that was reiterated by the five Arctic coastal states
at their meeting in Greenland last May.
"However, it is already clear that there are certain
differences of opinion between the five states over
the delineation of the 200 nautical mile limits of the
Exclusive Economic Zones, as well as over the
extension of the continental shelves.
"NATO provides a forum where four of the Arctic
coastal states can inform, discuss, and share, any
concerns that they may have. And this leads me
directly onto the next issue, which is military
activity in the region.
"Clearly, the High North is a region that is of
strategic interest to the Alliance. But so are the
Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, and the Mediterranean."
His Arctic manifesto, anything but a modest proposal,
was commented upon by a press agency:
"De Hoop Scheffer noted that sea routes through the
Arctic will be significantly shorter than many of
those that currently require passage through the Suez
or Panama canals.
"He said the melting of the Arctic will open up
opportunities for the extraction of the mineral wealth
and energy deposits in this area. In this context,
NATO will have a role to play as the alliance's heads
of state and government have identified energy
security as a new task for NATO."
(Trend News Agency, January 30, 2009)
Note that Scheffer's earlier quotes were structured in
such a manner that, after skirting the main topic for
several paragraphs, emphasis was finally laid on
"military activity in the region" in relation to and,
as will be addressed later, even more important than
"opportunities for the extraction of the mineral
wealth and energy deposits."
Commander General John Craddock, late of ordering
anyone in Afghanistan suspected of involvement in the
drug trade to be shot dead, whose address was reported
on a NATO website as follows:
"General John Craddock, attending a NATO seminar in
Reykjavik, Iceland examining future security issues,
spoke of the need to think strategically when planning
for security in the High North.
"General Craddock opined that NATO could contribute
greatly to facilitating cooperation in areas such as
the development and security of shipping routes,
energy security, surveillance and monitoring, search
and rescue, resource exploration and mining...."
(NATO International, Supreme Headquarters Allied
Powers Europe, January 29, 2009)
Having read Craddock's and Scheffer's comments an
uninformed reader, or one unaware of the international
and historical context, would be excused for thinking
that the world's first global military bloc was going
in for some harmless diversion by dabbling in the
extractive industry, as it earlier was in humanitarian
intervention, disaster relief, ridding the coasts of
Africa of poachers and pirates and Afghanistan of
opium.
Again a dose of reality from the Voice of Russia:
"NATO is seriously thinking of [establishing] military
presence in the Arctic. It considers global warming
and consequently an Arctic thaw as an occasion for
this. NATO sees this as a possibility for its Arctic
expansion.
"When taking into account the fact that all Arctic
littoral nations but Russia are NATO member countries,
it is quite clear who the alliance considers its rival
in this region."
(Voice of Russia, January 30, 2009)
But one doesn't have to go as far as Russia to
determine the true purpose of the Reykjavik
conference.
"At least four people were arrested outside the
Reykjavik conference venue Wednesday before the
meeting - two of them for burning a NATO flag. Many
Icelanders oppose the volcanic island's membership in
the military bloc, fearing it compromises the nation's
independence."
(Associated Press, January 29, 2009)
Icelanders themselves realized what was at stake and
the protesters turned out to confront the NATO
conclave in actions that "resulted in a violent
clash with police for the first time in Iceland since
1949."
(Fox News, January 30, 2009)
The US news source doesn't provide background
information to explain what occurred in 1949, as it
might reflect poorly on the NATO and its chief
architect, the US.
Sixty years ago as Iceland was being pulled into the
newly formed Alliance, protests and riots broke out in
the capital and had to be, as with three days ago, put
down by force in the name of 'Euro-Atlantic values'
and the 'Atlantic community.'
The same Fox News dispatch, though, does reveal these
facts:
"The most favored political party right now in Iceland
is the Left-Greens, which will be a principal member
of the interim coalition government here. It doesn't
fully support possible European Union membership for
Iceland, but more significantly for the US, it would
like to pull Iceland out of NATO.
"Iceland was a founding member of North Atlantic
Alliance. Due to its utterly strategic location just
under the Arctic Circle it played a crucial role for
the U.S. during the Cold War. There was a U.S. air
base on the island up until 2006."
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
