23 June 2005

NATO committed to Iraq, says Secretary General News 22/06/2005 - NATO Iraqi Foreign Minister calls for continuing NATO support Background NATO’s assistance to Iraq Opinions 22/06/2005 - NATO Intervention by Secretary General at International Conference on Iraq Speaking at a high-level conference on Iraq in Brussels on 22 June, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer invited partners to contribute to the Alliance’s assistance to the country. The conference, co-organized by the European Union, the United States, and the Iraqi Government brought together senior representatives from over 80 countries to discuss Iraq’s reconstruction needs. Training on track The Secretary General said that NATO remains committed to helping Iraq train and equip its security forces, and is on track to achieve its goal of training 1,000 senior Iraqi officers inside Iraq and 500 outside of Iraq each year. He added that an important next step for NATO will be the establishment of a Training and Education Doctrine Center in the outskirts of Baghdad this September. This Centre, equipped with state of the art facilities, will allow training and classroom activities to be concentrated in one place. In this context, the Secretary General invited “friends and partners” to contribute to a special NATO trust fund, which will support the running of the new Centre, the travel and subsistence of Iraqi Security Forces for training outside Iraq, and the transport of donated military equipment. “ Iraq now has a democratically-elected parliament and government that wants to work with all friends of Iraq to bring peace and stability,” Mr. De Hoop Scheffer said, “In this new phase, there is no reason for any country not to make a significant contribution to this effort, and compelling reasons why all of us should do so.”