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Viewing cable 07USNATO52, SECRETARY RICE'S NATO INTERVENTIONS AND FACT SHEET

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
07USNATO52 2007-01-30 15:30 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Mission USNATO
VZCZCXRO2607
OO RUEHDBU RUEHIK RUEHSR RUEHYG
DE RUEHNO #0052/01 0301530
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 301530Z JAN 07
FM USMISSION USNATO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0412
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNIFO/IFOR COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 0290
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 0357
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES PRIORITY 0014
RUEHDO/AMEMBASSY DOHA PRIORITY 0070
RUEHPA/AMEMBASSY PRAIA PRIORITY 0005
RUEHUL/AMEMBASSY SEOUL PRIORITY 0190
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV PRIORITY 0826
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS PRIORITY 0760
RHIPAAA/USCINCCENT FWD PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0332
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/USNMR SHAPE BE PRIORITY
RUFPAHQ/USDOCO AIRSOUTH NAPLES IT PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RUCBTEC/USLO SACLANT NORFOLK VA PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/HQ USAFE RAMSTEIN AB GE PRIORITY
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 06 USNATO 000052 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SECDEF FOR USDP, ASD/ISP (NATO POLICY) 
NSC FOR ANSLEY 
JOINT STAFF FOR ACJCS, J-5 
USEUCOM FOR ECJ5-E 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OVIP RICE CONDOLEEZZA NATO MOPS PREL MARR AF
PK 
SUBJECT: SECRETARY RICE'S NATO INTERVENTIONS AND FACT SHEET 
FROM INFORMAL MINISTERIAL JANUARY 26, 2007 
 
 
USNATO 00000052  001.2 OF 006 
 
 
1. At the NATO Foreign Ministerial meetings held Friday, 
January 26, 2007, Secretary Rice addressed both a regular NAC 
and a NAC plus non-NATO Contributors and Partners.  These 
interventions are repeated below "as prepared for delivery," 
along with an Afghanistan Fact Sheet which was made available 
to international press and delegations. 
 
2.  The following is the text of the Secretary's address to 
the NAC, as prepared for delivery: 
 
I know this meeting today was my suggestion, and I thank you 
for coming. We meet here today, two months after the Riga 
Summit, to discuss the top priorities of our alliance - the 
final status of Kosovo and our ongoing mission in Afghanistan. 
 
On Kosovo, now is the time to end its uncertain status. We 
support the efforts of Special Envoy Ahtisaari to reach a 
settlement that is acceptable to the people of Kosovo, and 
gives the region its best chance to achieve lasting 
stability. We must all stand united behind him. We must use 
the trust we have built with the Kosovo Albanians to secure 
their commitment to protect the rights and heritage of 
Kosovo's Serbian citizens. And to the Serbs, a majority of 
whom has now voted for a democratic future within Europe, we 
must offer a path to achieving that goal. We were right to 
offer Serbia membership in the Partnership for Peace at Riga, 
and now we must build that partnership and help Serbia chart 
its future in Europe. 
 
Continuing to leave Kosovo's final status in question will 
destabilize the region and threaten NATO forces deployed 
there. The people of Kosovo have waited eight years for a 
decision, and we must finish our mission. 
 
We must also achieve success in Afghanistan. In Riga, our 
leaders renewed our commitment to the Afghan people, and to 
the NATO mission. 
 
We must support a comprehensive approach to our challenges - 
military, yes, but more than that. We need to increase our 
efforts in reconstruction and development, counter-narcotics, 
and law and order, including army and police training. We 
need to improve coordination with the Afghan government, and 
among the international donor community. We need to provide 
the necessary forces - with the necessary flexibility - to 
protect the Afghan people and defeat the Taliban. And we need 
to work with Pakistan to cut off support that insurgents 
receive from some in the border regions. 
 
Pakistan needs and deserves our urgent attention. We must 
support President Musharraf's effort to move the country in a 
moderate and modern direction, to gain control of the border 
areas, and to advance development there. The United States 
will contribute significant resources this year to 
fund President Musharraf's 5-year development plan, and we 
urge others to join us. At the same time, we need to make 
clear to him that we expect effective action against Taliban 
and Al Qaeda fighters who operate in the border regions. As 
recent Pakistani military action demonstrates, President 
Musharraf is stepping up his efforts, and we must encourage 
that. 
 
The United States will do its share. We have already 
contributed over $14 billion for reconstruction and 
 
USNATO 00000052  002.2 OF 006 
 
 
development in Afghanistan. Today, I want to inform you that 
President Bush will ask Congress to provide, in the next two 
years, over $2 billion in new resources for Afghanistan's 
reconstruction. 
 
Our goal is to help the Afghan government improve the quality 
of life for its people. So we will build roads and 
electricity grids, and support agricultural development. 
Working through PRTs, and with the Afghan government, we will 
build government and justice centers at the provincial level. 
We will train government personnel, and we will help meet 
local needs for markets, schools clinics, and other vital 
services. 
 
Our new resources will also help the Afghan effort to fight 
narcotics. President Karzai has already demonstrated his 
determination to lead a serious counter-narcotics effort this 
year, but to implement his ambitious plan, he needs increased 
Allied contribution to the counter-narcotics trust fund. The 
United States is dramatically expanding our commitment to 
this effort. But more is needed. I ask all of you seated at 
this table to devote significant, additional resources to 
ensure victory for the Afghan people. 
 
The United States will also continue to lead the military 
effort in Afghanistan, as the largest contributor to both the 
ISAF and the OEF operations, with some 20,000 troops in 
country. Today, I want to inform you that Secretary of 
Defense Gates plans to expand the U.S. military contribution, 
partly by extending the duty of troops already there, and 
partly through additional forces. 
 
This effort will help us build on NATO's hard-won successes, 
and provide the robust capability for NATO-ISAF to maintain 
the military initiative against the Taliban. We will make 
final decisions based on General Craddock's revised statement 
of military requirements for the mission, as well as the 
contributions of all Allies. Secretary Gates will be prepared 
to discuss the details of the increased U.S. contribution 
when he meets with Defense Ministers in Seville two weeks 
from now. But even with this new, U.S. contribution, more 
forces are needed. The Supreme Commander has clearly stated 
what is required for victory, and our European Allies must 
contribute the additional forces to fill that need as quickly 
as possible. 
 
Ultimately, the Afghan government must assume responsibility 
for security in the country, but it needs our help in 
building the necessary capacity. Today, I want to inform you 
that the President will request that Congress provide, in the 
next two years, $8.6 billion for the training and equipping 
of Afghanistan's National Security Forces - the army and 
police. Here, too, more is needed. And I ask all of you 
around this table to increase your contributions to 
strengthening the Afghan security forces. 
 
In our comprehensive approach, all elements - political, 
military, economic - must be joined together as part of an 
integrated whole. Military force is necessary for security, 
for without security, there can be no democracy, no 
development, no humanitarian relief. But we also recognize 
that political and economic progress are just as vital for 
victory. 
 
 
USNATO 00000052  003.2 OF 006 
 
 
I know how difficult it is for all of our governments, 
including mine, to put our sons and daughters in harm's way, 
many miles away from home. But if we want to win in 
Afghanistan, then we must eliminate all obstacles to victory. 
We must lift all caveats limiting our force deployments, and 
we must do so now. No excuses, and no delay. We did this in 
Kosovo in March 2004, and we must do no less today in 
Afghanistan. 
Today, many around this table are doing more than their fair 
share. They are deployed in the most dangerous areas of 
southern Afghanistan. They are seeing the heaviest fighting, 
and they bearing the greatest cost. This is deeply unfair. 
Contributing the necessary forces for this mission, sharing 
this burden fairly among all the Allies, removing all 
national caveats -- this goes to the heart of what it means 
to be an Alliance. 
 
Let me be clear: There is only one goal that we can accept in 
Afghanistan, and that is victory - victory defined as 
democracy, as development, and just as important, as the 
military defeat of Taliban fighters. Nothing less will do. 
Victory can only be achieved if every single one of us is 
meeting our responsibilities - to the Afghan people, and to 
each other. 
I wish I could say that this is the case right now, but sadly 
it is not. So we all need to ask ourselves: What more can we 
be doing - not just to get by, but to win? Now is the time to 
act. We need greater solidarity, more money to support 
political reform and reconstruction, more resources for 
counter-narcotics, more troops, and no more caveats on their 
usage. That is asking no more than is required of us as the 
greatest alliance in human history. This is a defining moment 
for NATO. We are in a fight that we can win, and one that we 
must win, for success is our only option. 
3. The following is the Secretary's intervention at the NAC 
for non-NATO Contributors and Partners, as prepared for 
delivery: 
Colleagues and Friends: The Transatlantic Alliance was 
founded in the ashes of war with a mission of security for a 
long peace. Our job in Europe is nearly done, though we have 
work to do in the Balkans. Yet, it was the dream of our 
predecessors that the principles for which we stand - liberty 
and opportunity, human dignity and human rights - would 
inspire a broader community of democracies, beyond Europe, 
with both the capability and the resolve to shape an 
international balance of power that favors freedom. 
 
Today we are realizing that aspiration. Gathered around this 
table we see the key members of a greater democratic 
community - our alliance's new global partners, Australia and 
New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, as well as three of the 
world's critical institutions: the United Nations, the 
European Union, and the World Bank. On this day, NATO 
headquarters is at the center of the wider democratic world. 
 
As democracies, we have a unique duty to help all who wish to 
join our ranks, as is the case, thousands of miles beyond 
Europe, in the nation of Afghanistan. Joining us today is 
Afghan Foreign Minister Spanta. I know that I speak for all 
of my colleagues, Mr. Minister, when I say how honored we are 
that you could be here at this important time for your 
country. 
 
As Foreign Minister Spanta has said, he and his fellow 
 
USNATO 00000052  004.2 OF 006 
 
 
citizens have, in recent years, taken heroic steps to build a 
free society, one that reflects the cultures and customs of 
its people, rather than the foreign radicalism of the 
Taliban. And let's be clear: We are winning in Afghanistan. 
Afghan police officers are now enforcing laws made by a 
freely-elected parliament. New roads, new hospitals, and new 
jobs are giving fresh hope to a nation eager to prosper. 
Where before educating women was a "crime," now over 6 
million children are back in school, 2 million of them young 
girls. 
 
We are winning, and that's why the Taliban is fighting back, 
and why the Afghan people depend on us to help them succeed. 
Let there be no doubt: Success in Afghanistan is measured in 
many ways - in political terms, in economic terms, in terms 
of human development. I agree with my European colleagues: 
Ours is a humanitarian mission, and military force alone 
cannot guarantee success. We all recognize this. 
 
At the same time, we must also recognize that political and 
economic progress depends on hard security. People cannot 
build better lives when life itself is threatened. The 
Taliban is doing everything in its power to impose a dark 
view of the world on the Afghan people, denying them the 
democratic future that they themselves have chosen. The 
violence we are seeing is not evidence that our strategy has 
failed, nor that the situation will improve in our absence; 
rather, it is evidence of how much we are needed. It is 
evidence that we must do more - and do it better, faster. We 
must protect innocent lives. We must stay, we must fight, and 
we must win. 
 
If there is to be a "spring offensive," it must be our 
offensive. It must be a political campaign, an economic 
campaign, a diplomatic campaign, and yes, a military 
campaign. Our strategy must be comprehensive: Our military 
and counter-narcotic efforts must create space for democracy 
and development to flourish in peace. At the same time, our 
political and economic assistance ensures that our soldiers' 
hard-won military victories will be lasting. These efforts 
must take place in harmony, and at the local level, where 
this struggle is being fought, and where it will be won or 
lost. 
 
All of us will share the benefits of Afghanistan's success, 
so we must also share the burdens of effort that success 
demands. Nations that have made pledges of support should 
follow through and deliver. America will do its part. 
President Bush will ask our Congress for an unprecedented 
increase in our assistance to Afghanistan over the next two 
years: $2 billion in new reconstruction assistance; and $8.6 
billion to help train and equip Afghanistan's National 
Security Forces, its army and police. 
 
In addition, Defense Secretary Gates plans to expand the U.S. 
military contribution, partly by extending the duty of troops 
already there, and partly through extra forces. This effort 
will help us to build on NATO's hard-won successes, and to 
provide the robust capability for NATO-ISAF to maintain the 
military initiative against the Taliban. We will make final 
decisions based on General Craddock's revised statement of 
military requirements, as well as the contributions of all 
Allies. Secretary Gates will be prepared to discuss the 
details of the increased U.S. contribution when he meets with 
 
USNATO 00000052  005.2 OF 006 
 
 
Defense Ministers in Seville two weeks from now. 
 
These are substantial new U.S. commitments - financial, 
military, and political - to advance our common effort in 
Afghanistan. Every one of us must take a hard look at what 
more we can do to help the Afghan people - and to support one 
another. We need greater commitments to reconstruction, to 
development, to fight the poppy economy. We need additional 
forces on the ground - ready to fight. And we need to provide 
greater support for the development of Afghan institutions, 
especially its security forces. 
 
This is a defining moment for Afghanistan, for NATO, and for 
our wider democratic community. Our nations and organizations 
have achieved our greatest success when we have married power 
and principle to achieve great purposes - not when we have 
dealt with the world as it is, but when we have sought to 
change the world for the better. This same spirit must guide 
our efforts today. 
 
We are transforming NATO into an alliance that its founders 
might not have recognized but would certainly have 
celebrated: an alliance of free nations, joined in common 
effort with other great democracies from across the globe, to 
support the growth of peace and freedom throughout the world. 
Now we must fulfill our commitment to success in Afghanistan 
- for in so doing, we will help a new democracy take root in 
the heart of a troubled region, and we will make a lasting 
contribution to the security of our world. 
 
4. The Afghanistan Fact Sheet distributed to press follows: 
 
U.S. Support for Afghanistan: Fact Sheet on Assistance Efforts 
 
2007: A Pivotal Year for Afghanistan 
In 2007, the international community must redouble its 
efforts to help the Afghan people rebuild their lives, and 
enable the government of Afghanistan to extend sound and 
accountable governance. 
 
Since 2001, the U.S. has provided over $14.2 billion in aid: 
nearly $9 billion in security assistance; $5.2 billion in 
reconstruction, humanitarian, and governance assistance. 
Because this is such a critical year for Afghanistan, 
Secretary Rice announced January 26 that the President would 
 
SIPDIS 
request from Congress an additional $10.6 billion in 
assistance over the next two years. The package includes: 
 
$2 billion for Afghanistan reconstruction, focused on the 
following key areas: 
- Roads, especially at the district level; 
- Electricity grids and generating capacity; 
- Rural development, irrigation, and agriculture; 
- Government centers, training personnel and meeting local 
needs through PRTs. 
- Strengthening all five pillars of the Afghan 
counternarcotics strategy: education,   interdiction, 
eradication, law enforcement, and rural development. 
 
$8.6 billion for Afghanistan's National Security Forces -- 
the army and police, including: 
- Expanding the Afghan Army to 70,000 soldiers and providing 
them with better training and equipment; 
- Expanding the Afghan Police to 82,000 and providing them 
 
USNATO 00000052  006.2 OF 006 
 
 
with better training, equipment and support as they deploy 
throughout the country. 
 
On the stability side, the U.S. is considering increasing its 
military commitment by extending the tours of some of the 
troops currently deployed in Afghanistan and possibly 
deploying additional troops. Final decisions will be made 
based on a revised statement of requirements expected soon 
from SACEUR. Force levels will be among the topics discussed 
at the February 8-9 informal meeting of Defense Ministers in 
Seville, Spain. 
 
The people and government of Afghanistan have made 
significant progress since 2001: 
- Free and fair election of a president in 2004, and of a 
parliament in 2005; 
- An educational system that features over 600 new schools, 
approximately six million 
students (including two million girls) 
- Economy is growing -- $1 billion in private foreign 
investment in 2006, twice the investment in 2005; 
- Creation of a multi-ethnic national army that is already 
producing results in the field; 
- Creation of a police force; and 
- Over 3,000 kilometers of roads around the country have been 
completed. 
 
NATO is succeeding in Afghanistan: 
- The NATO-led International Security and Assistance Force 
(ISAF), operating under a UN 
mandate and with wide popular support, is providing security 
throughout all of Afghanistan; 
- 37 nations - all 26 Allies plus 11 non-NATO partners - are 
working together in a united 
effort; 
- 32,000 soldiers in ISAF, including nearly 13,000 U.S. 
troops (additional 10,000 U.S. troops in Operation Enduring 
Freedom); 
- 25 Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) support stability 
and reconstruction throughout Afghanistan. 
 
NULAND