Australia/NATO Pact

Canberra to sign security pact with NATO

David Nason, New York correspondent September 22, 2007

AUSTRALIA will sign a treaty with NATO in a move that will boost security and intelligence ties and assist the evolution of the 60-year-old Cold War alliance of democracies into a global force.
The treaty is due to be signed in New York next week by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

Australia is officially a NATO "contact country", but the expression does not cover the depth of the relationship, which has strengthened considerably since Diggers deployed in Afghanistan began operating under NATO command two years ago.

A spokesman for Mr Downer said yesterday the treaty would give Australia access to NATO security assessments, including those on international terrorism, and to operational matters affecting Australian Defence Force personnel.

He said the document would go before parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Treaties for final ratification.

The treaty breakthrough comes a week after Defence Minister Brendan Nelson criticised the NATO countries for failing to carry their share of the military burden in Afghanistan. Dr Nelson said NATO's deployment of 40,000 troops in Afghanistan was unacceptable, given that it had more than two million troops under its command.

In New York, UN ambassador Robert Hill, a former defence minister in the Howard Government, said closer ties with NATO were clearly in Australia's best interests.

"As NATO has looked to operations outside its original geographic area of responsibility -- particularly as it has sought to play a part in addressing global challenges such as the terrorist threat -- we have a vested interest in getting closer to NATO," Mr Hill said.

"We have shared values -- they obviously have an established and ongoing military capability, and for the first time we have gone into an operation under NATO leadership.

"In conjunction with that, we have sought to build the mechanisms to enable adequate sharing of intelligence and interactive ability in operations."

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was created in post-war Western Europe to guard against the threat of Soviet expansion. But since the collapse of communism, NATO has extended its geographic reach and the range of its operations.

In recent years, NATO has fought the Taliban in Afghanistan, been involved in training security forces in Iraq, providing logistical support to the African Union mission in Darfur, and assisting in tsunami, hurricane and earthquake relief operations in Indonesia, New Orleans and Pakistan respectively.

Mr Downer said last October Australia would develop interoperability with NATO forces. This was to include the sharing of classified information and training in how to respond to a "dirty bomb" attack.

But Mr Downer rejected the idea that Australia should become a full member of NATO, saying that geography and Australia's significant regional commitments meant it could be difficult to service a formal membership arrangement with the military alliance. That position had not changed, the minister's spokesman said.

Mr Hill said yesterday it was uncertain how the Australian-NATO relationship would evolve in the future.

"There hasn't been a suggestion from either side that Australia should join as a full member," he said.

"But both sides see an interest in Australia working more closely with NATO and participating in certain operations with NATO, as we are in Afghanistan."

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