The NATO Istanbul summit took place amid massive security in the alliance’s only mainly Muslim state, which also borders Iraq. Turkey’s biggest city had all but closed down with 23,000 police and soldiers blanketing the metropolis which straddles Europe and Asia.

Security force training for Iraq

Among the most important decisions taken during the June 28-29 summit was an agreement for NATO to supply and train security forces in Iraq, made just hours after a surprise early handover of Iraqi sovereignty. NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said all 26 NATO members had agreed to assist Iraqi’s interim government in training security forces.

“It is certainly NATO that is embarking on the training exercise,” said de Hoop Scheffer. That decision, plus one to assume responsibility for additional peacekeeping units in Afghanistan – namely north and west of the capital City of Kabul, known as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) – brought rigor to the planning process that did not exist before.

Increase troop levels in Afghanistan

Afghan President Hamid Karzai welcomed NATO´s decision to increase its troop level from 6,300 to 10,000 in the run-up to planned September elections, even as attacks by Taliban fighters remained intense in the country’s provinces. Some 5.2 million Afghan voters have been registered among an electorate of almost 10 million, the Afghan leader said.

Karzai praised the “excellent performance” of ISAF in Kabul and said he was pleased with NATO´s latest troop pledges – even though they were not spelled out in exact figures in the summit communiqué.

NATO leaders agreed to create four additional “Provincial Reconstruction Teams” in northern Afghanistan on the model of Germany´s civil-military mission in Kunduz.

The recent NATO summit resulted in agreement to supply and train security forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and urged all members to bring accused war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic to The Hague.

A joint communiqué issued by the leaders underlined that the key priority is peace and stability in Afghanistan and declared the alliance’s commitment to “assist in the emergence of a secure and stable Afghanistan, with a broad-based, gender-sensitive, multiethnic and fully representative government.”

France blocked a proposal to use the new NATO Reaction Force to bolster the alliance’s presence in Afghanistan, arguing that the force’s purpose is exclusively to intervene in crisis situations. Both France and Germany also refused to train troops on Iraqi soil. Countries either redeploying their Afghan forces or sending fresh troops would include Germany, Britain, Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands.

French outrage over US lobbying

French President Jacques Chirac also expressed outrage over US President George W. Bush’s strong lobbying - on the sidelines of the summit - of the European Union to quicken its pace on accession talks with Turkey. In a broad package of measures to combat global terrorism, NATO announced plans to improve intelligence sharing, bolster means of response to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks, offer assistance in protecting international events (such as the Athens Olympics in August) with AWACS aircraft, implement a Civil Emergency Action plan and pursue increased cooperation with the EU.

The alliance also underlined its commitment to implement international treaties and accords on the non-proliferation of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

While confirming NATO´s decision to end its SFOR mission in Bosnia by the end of the year, it called on all countries to work to bring Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic before the International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague. The communiqué also stated the strategic importance of the security environment in the troubled Balkans and declared that the KFOR presence in Kosovo “remains essential to further enhance security and promote political process.”

The alliance confirmed its open-door policy, looking forward to the eventual membership of Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. NATO leaders restated their determination to enhance the alliance’s capabilities with a new flexible NATO response force due to reach initial operational capability later this year, implementing streamlined command arrangements and advancing sealift, airlift and airto-air refueling capabilities. Additionally, the leaders confirmed the need for closer trans-Atlantic cooperation between defense industries.