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Kosovo, European defence, Asian powers to dominate security moot

MUNICH: The lessons of the Kosovo war, European defence and the emerging Asian powers are the main topics of a high-powered conference on Security Policy in Munich this weekend.

An informal forum, the annual security conference in Munich is nevertheless strongly under the influence of Nato and the Atlantic alliance in general.

As usual, this 36th edition will be attended by the Nato secretary-general, a post now held by Lord George Robertson, as well as his successor as British Defence Secretary Geoffrey Hoon and the latter's US counter part William Cohen.

Also present at the two-day gathering will be the previous Nato secretary-general, Javier Solna of Spain, who is now the High Representative of the European Union for foreign policy, as well as the French and German defence ministers, Alain Richard and Rodolf Scharping.

Germany will further be represented by its Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer while the embattled leader of the scandal-ridden opposition Christian Democrats, Wolfgeng Schaeuble, is a additional German invite.

Under the chairmanship of Horst Teltschik, a director of the BMW automobile firm, the conference gets under way in earnest on Saturday morning with a look at the lessons of the Nato-led war against Yugoslavia over Kosovo.

Robertson, Schaeuble and Richard are scheduled to speak on this topic, as are US Senator Joseph Lieberman and Hoon.

The afternoon is devoted to "The European Security and Defence Identity," with the participation of Solana, Cohen, Scharping, Fischer and also the Ukrainian defence minister, Oleksandr Kuzmuk.

These debates come as the Eurocorps, composed of German, Belgian, French and Luxembourgeois troops, is set to take over the command of the Kosovo peacekeeping and occupation force (KFOR) for six months from April, the first major mission for Eurocorps, which is seen by many as the basis for a European defence force independent of the United States.

Sunday will see further innovation for a conference formerly concentrated on the Atlantic and European theatre: the participation of Asian defence figures on the theme "Rising Worldpowers in Asia Ñ Implications for regional and global security".

Scheduled to speak are Chinese vice-foreign minister Wang Guangya, his Japanese counterpart Kato Ryozo, India's national security advisor Brajesh Mishra, and the Indonesian defence minister Juwono Sudarsono.

Notably absent this time will be Russia, despite Nato's great efforts in recent years to draw it in to a dialogue, and the war in Chechnya can only be expected to figure on the sidelines, a spokesman for the organisers said.

Originally called the Wehrkundetagung, or conference on military science, this "Davos of the defence world" has been held regularly since 1963. It was founded and organised for many years by the late publisher Ewald von Kleist. AFP