The 2014 NATO Summit has opened in Newport, Wales with the NATO secretary general pledging to make sure the alliance remains relevant and ready at this “pivotal moment” in international affairs.
World leaders from some 60 nations have arrived in Wales to discuss NATO’s future plans, with particular focus on the Russian occupation of Crimea and Ukraine, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) withdrawal from Afghanistan, as well as what individual nation states are doing to combat the rise of Islamic insurgents in Syria and Iraq.
Secretary general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, welcomed the humanitarian and military support individual nations have offered to the crisis in Iraq, which has included aid drops by a number of countries to displaced refugees, as well as the conduct of air strikes by the US military against the terrorists.
“I welcome that individual allies have taken steps to help Iraq, and I welcome the US military action,” Rasmussen says. “I welcome that other allies have contributed in different ways.
“We haven’t received any request for a NATO engagement,” he adds, although if NATO as an alliance received an official request for assistance, he says this would be “seriously considered” by NATO allies.
Rasmussen adds that NATO has pledged to continue its support for the Afghan National Security Forces should the selected presidential candidate enforce the required legal framework for the alliance to continue a training operation in country.
ISAF forces are due to withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of 2014, after which a training mission is expected to begin as of 1 January 2015 as part of a $4.1 billion pledge that NATO made at its last summit, in Chicago in 2012. The training mission would continue until 2017.
“We have achieved our overall goal, but our commitment will endure,” Rasmussen says. “We have received a message from the two presidential candidates and they have pledged to do all they can.”
The crisis in Russia, Crimea and Ukraine remains a concern to NATO, with it officially condemning the “illegal and illegitimate” annexation of Crimea by Russia. It also stands united in its support of “Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders”, NATO said at the summit. “Allies recognise Ukraine’s right to restore peace and order and to defend its people and territory and encourage the Ukrainian armed forces and security services to continue to exercise the utmost restraint in their on-going operation to avoid casualties among the local population,” it adds.
Meanwhile, a variety of military aircraft will be taking to the skies of Wales on the morning of 5 September to form a flypast.
Included will be Polish air force RAC MiG-29s, French air force Dassault Mirage 2000s, Royal Canadian Air Force Boeing CF-18 Hornets, Portuguese air force, Dutch air force and Danish air force Lockheed Martin F-16s, US Air Force Boeing F-15s, Royal Air Force and German air force Eurofighters, an RAF Airbus A330 Voyager tanker/transport and the service's Red Arrows aerobatic display team.
Royal Air Force
Some 22 aircraft are expected to fly, with most operating out of RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire.
A full-scale replica of the Typhoon is present at the summit, as is a full-scale replica of the Lockheed Martin F-35B Joint Strike Fighter. The UK is at some point expected to make a formal purchase for production examples of the latter.
Rex Features
Source: FlightGlobal.com
