October 15, 2003	Wednesday	Sha'aban 18, 1424

BRUSSELS, Oct 14: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) will on Wednesday inaugurate a rapid response force eventually totalling 20,000 troops to dramatically extend the military alliance’s reach in the fight against terrorism.

US General James Jones, the 19-member Alliance’s supreme commander, will launch the force in a ceremony at the Dutch military base of Brunssum, home of Nato’s northern command.

The contingent, which will only reach its full capacity in 2006, represents a radical doctrinal departure for the 54-year-old Alliance originally conceived to protect the West from the Soviet threat.

It also comes only two months after Nato began its first-ever “out of area” mission — outside its traditional European theatre of operations — by taking command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.

The Nato Response Force (NRF) — called an “expeditionary” unit in Alliance jargon — will comprise naval, airborne and ground forces capable of deploying to hotspots around the globe within five days. It will be able to sustain itself for up to one month or longer if re-supplied.

“It’s not being created for pre-emption, but to respond to crises,” said a Nato official.

The US proposal to launch the force was approved at a landmark Nato summit in Prague last November, at which the Alliance also formally approved its expansion to 26 members due to take place next year.

Nato defence ministers then approved how the force will work in June. Since then Alliance military planners have been coordinating offers of men and material from member states to build an “initial operational capacity.”

The force’s potential on the ground was tested last week at a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Colorado Springs, in a fictional scenario involving a terrorist threat in 2007 somewhere in the Red Sea.

“We were given very clear political guidance to change; the instrument of change is the NRF,” General Jones said recently.

Initially the force, which will not have a home base, will comprise some 6,000 troops, growing to its full capacity of 20,000 over the next two to three years.

France, which is not part of Nato’s integrated military command, has offered to provide a 500-strong battalion and aircraft including one AWACS radar surveillance plane.

The force is set to be able to deploy in response to threats worldwide, gradually building to its full potential of tasks ranging from evacuation sitautions to responding to terrorist acts.

While the military commanders are trigger-ready to deploy wherever and whenever needed, one potential problem may be in taking the political decision to send the force into a given situation.

Nato works by consensus, so any decision must be agreed by all member states. In some countries national parliaments must authorize any foreign deployment of troops.

In Colorado Springs ministers agreed to study ways of speeding up this decision-making process, with results expected by December.

The force’s launch will come two days after the UN Security Council voted unanimously to allow the Nato-led peacekeepers in Afghanistan to expand their work beyond the capital Kabul.—AFP