NATO bekijkt training Officieren in het MO

[Lex]

NATO Looks To Train Officers in Middle East

By REUTERS, BRUSSELS, Belgium  2006,06-06

NATO is looking to provide officer training to Middle East, Gulf and North African states, possibly by opening a military academy in the region, alliance diplomats said on June 6.
The U.S.-backed initiative is part of alliance efforts to shift NATO's centre of gravity eastwards from its Cold War focus on Europe. Diplomats said Jordan had shown interest in hosting a NATO-run academy but that no final decision had been taken.
"It would be training of high-rank officers, such as we are already doing in Iraq," said one senior NATO diplomat, referring to a two-year-old NATO military school near Baghdad which last year trained 1,000 mid- and senior-level Iraqi officers.
The training would be open to the six Arab Mediterranean and four Gulf states with whom NATO has formal ties, plus Israel.
The idea of opening a school in the region has won backing from some NATO allies, including the United States. Other proposals include sending NATO training teams to the region or having officer cadets be trained in NATO schools in Europe.
"We are in the very early stages of examining what NATO can usefully do," NATO Assistant Secretary-General for Defence Policy and Planning John Colston told a news briefing ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels on June 1.
The United States is keen for NATO to develop a role as a provider of high-end training to other armies, pointing to the experience the alliance has gained with the Iraq academy and in mentoring African Union officers in Sudan's Darfur region.
Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has sought to improve its image and ties in the region in the Middle East. But the results have so far been patchy, with many in the Arab world wary of what some local critics see as interfering.
"This has to be driven by what our partners in the region want," said one senior diplomat.
NATO has formal ties with Israel, Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia under what it calls the Mediterranean Dialogue. In addition, four Gulf states -- Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates -- have joined a regional cooperation initiative it launched in 2004.