NEWPORT, Wales
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen stated NATO would be ready to support countries in conflict such as Iraq or Ukraine in a speech before the start of the organization’s summit in Wales on Thursday.
World leaders gathered in Newport in Wales on Thursday for a two-day NATO Summit, which is likely to focus on the crisis in Ukraine and the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
Rasmussen said that the summit would be "one of the most important summits in the history."
"We are faced with a dramatically changed security environment," he said, referring to the situation in Ukraine, Iraq and Syria.
He also said that the organization would upgrade its intelligence gathering and sharing as well as update defense plans and enhance its training schedule.
On the other hand, Rasmussen referred to Wednesday’s cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine, saying that NATO welcomes all peaceful solutions to the Ukrainian crisis.
However, a solution to the conflict has apparently not yet been reached.
"We are still witnessing unfortunately Russian involvement in destabilizing the situation in eastern Ukraine," said Rasmussen. "So we continue to call on Russia to pull back its troops from Ukrainian borders, stop the flow of weapons and fighters into Ukraine, stop the support for armed militants in Ukraine and engage in a constructive political process."
Rasmussen informed he would have a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in order to improve cooperation between Ukraine and NATO.
When asked about NATO’s actions against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Rasmussen said that the organization had not yet received a request for assistance and that if the Iraqi government did request help, NATO would not hesitate to help.
Rasmussen also stated he was pleased that allies "have taken steps to help Iraq."
The secretary general was also asked about the situation in Afghanistan and the country's signing of a security agreement with the United States as NATO prepares to withdraw its 11-year mission in Afghanistan.
"We need to know very soon whether the necessary security arrangements will be signed by the Afghan government because it is a prerequisite for our continued presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014 that we have a NATO status of forces agreement in place, and that will also imply a signature on the bilateral security agreement between the United States and Afghanistan," Rasmussen stated.
Erdogan in Wales for NATO summit
World leaders including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are gathering in Newport in Wales for a NATO Summit which is likely to focus on the crisis in Ukraine and the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
Along with U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko will also attend the summit as a non-member state. Poroshenko will discuss talks he had last Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin upon the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
Poroshenko will also meet with Erdogan on Thursday on the sidelines of the conference. Erdogan is due to meet with Obama on Friday.
NATO will revisit the principle of relations with Russia upon the latter's role in Ukraine crisis. The organization is expected to decide on forming an enhanced NATO Response Force for an effective and quick defense to deter any Russian agression.
Despite Russia's repeated denials, NATO and western countries accuse Moscow of deploying troops in eastern Ukraine and handing military supplies to the pro-Russian separatists fighting the Ukrainian army during the four-month conflict. The fierce conflict has killed at least 2,220 people and injured 5,956 since clashes began in April, according to the U.N. figures.
Discussions on tackling extremism in the Middle East will also take place, with a special focus on the threat from the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, who already control parts of Syria and Iraq.
The group captured the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in June and then surged across the north, taking control of a number of predominantly Sunni cities. The IS involves in violent actions such as public demonstrations of severed heads of their victims and burning people alive including woman and children.
On Tuesday, the militant group released a video claiming to show the beheading of 31-year-old reporter Steven Sotloff, who held a dual U.S.-Israeli nationality, in retaliation for recent U.S. airstrikes in Iraq.
Also, the U.S. and the U.K. is due to raise the issue of increasing NATO defense budget with more support from the member states.
NATO vows to continue supporting Afghanistan
NATO will continue to support Afghanistan even after its security mission withdraws from the country at the end of the year, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen told reporters Thursday.
The NATO-led security mission will come to a close at the end of December 2014 as 350,000 Afghan troops and police will assume full responsibility for the security of their own country.
"With the end of the International Security Assistance Force in December, we will change the nature and the scope of our involvement in Afghanistan. But our commitment will endure. Because stability in Afghanistan also means security for us," Rasmussen said following a meeting on Afghanistan at the NATO Summit in Wales.
Rasmussen said they would continue supporting Afghanistan in three ways.
"First, NATO Allies and partners stand ready to launch a new non-combat mission. To train, advise and assist the Afghan forces from next year. When the required legal framework is in place. But we stand ready," he said.
The second support will be in financial nature, as the organization renewed its financial commitments to support the sustainment of the Afghan forces, including to the end of 2017.
"The Afghan government has also committed to making an increasing financial contribution itself," Rasmussen said and urged the rest of the international community to stay engaged, and to support Afghanistan’s future stability.
The third and final support is the reaffirmation of the organization's commitment to an enduring partnership between NATO and Afghanistan.
"That partnership provides a framework for political consultations and practical cooperation. It is already in place, and we are determined to strengthen it," Rasmussen said.
The NATO chief also called on Afghanistan’s two presidential candidates to work together, "to swiftly deliver a peaceful outcome of this election, acceptable to the Afghan people and to conclude the necessary security agreements as soon as possible, as they have said they will."
"This is what Afghans deserve. It is key to regional stability. And it gives the Afghans the best opportunity for a better life, while maintaining security," Rasmussen said.
Afghanistan’s presidential rivals, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, signed a unity government deal on August 8 following their ongoing dispute over the results of the presidential poll in April and its runoff in June.
Abdullah has accused Ghani of large-scale vote fraud in run-off, and rejected an audit of 8 million votes that suggests there has only been a small amount of fraud, by both sides.
Abdullah’s spokesman, Fazil Sancharaki, told reporters in Kabul on Monday that they would boycott both the political and audit processes if the audit continued in the same manner.
The Independent Election Commission has suggested that the audit process will be completed within a few days and the final result announced shortly afterwards.
The summit is the first one the U.K. hosted since 1990, the fall of Soviet Republic.
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