Word: nato
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...That something was apparently communication. The decision to pull Spain's troops from Kosovo seemed to be made both suddenly and without previously discussing it with Spain's allies. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer expressed his disapproval on Friday. "Any significant change in the size or structure of KFOR should be the result of a decision within the Alliance," he said through a spokeswoman. U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood went further, saying, "We are deeply disappointed by this decision taken by Spain." Coming almost exactly five years after Zapatero's decision to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq...
...March 19, Chacón told Spanish soldiers at a base in Istok that they and the rest of Spain's more than 600 troops who have formed part of the NATO peacekeeping forces (KFOR) in Kosovo since 1999 had finished their work. Once Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia last year, Spain has been looking for a way out - in part because Spaniards don't recognize an independent Kosovo and also because they have their own separatist issues to deal with at home, in the form of Basque and Catalan nationalism. "The mission has been completed...
...mediate among the various parts of government involved, it's not unusual for a little intraministerial miscommunication to occur now and then. But many are asking why this decision, communicated poorly or not, was made now. With the G-20 meeting in London on April 2 and the NATO gathering in Strasbourg immediately after offering Spain a first chance to work with Obama, why would Zapatero risk alienating his allies? (See pictures of the world reacting to Obama's election...
...answer, says Antonio Remiro, professor of international law at Madrid's Autonomous University has to do with what's going on in Kosovo now. "NATO is starting to help form the embryo of an independent Kosovan army," he says. "They're reinforcing civil institutions too. It's become more and more contradictory for Spain to be a part of that since they don't recognize Kosovo's independence...
...Other places like, say, Afghanistan. At the NATO meeting, Obama is widely expected to ask for more European assistance in Afghanistan, and Chacón herself, who in December lifted Spain's 3,000-person ceiling on troops abroad, has made it clear she is open to the request. (Vote for the 2009 TIME 100 Finalists...