Timeline NATO
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The 16 member North Atlantic Treaty Organization
headquartered near Brussels. The Supreme Head-quarters of the Allied
Powers Europe was also known as SHAPE.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.C1)(WSJ, 10/20/97, p.A1)
1893
Apr 11, Dean G. Acheson, U.S. secretary of
state (1949-53), was born. He helped cre-ate NATO.
(HN, 4/11/99)
1948 The Western European Union
(WEU) was founded as a defensive arm for postwar Europe. It led to the
formation of NATO. In 1992 its tasks were re-defined to cover
humanitarian and rescue missions, peacekeeping and crisis management.
(SFC, 2/17/99, p.A8)
1949 Apr 4, The (NATO) North
Atlantic Treaty Organization pact was signed by the US, Great Britain,
France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Portugal, Denmark,
Iceland, Nor-way and Canada. It provided for mutual defense against
aggression and for close military co-operation.
(WUD, 1994, p.1684)(TOH, 1982, p.1949) (HN, 4/4/98)
1949 Jul 21, The North Atlantic
Treaty (NATO) was ratified by the US Senate.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)
1949 Jul 25, NATO was signed by
Pres. Truman.
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)
1949 Aug 24, The North Atlantic
Treaty went into effect.
(AP, 8/24/97)
1949 Sep 17, The North Atlantic
Treaty Council (NATO) met for the 1st time.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1949 Oct 6, Pres. Truman signed
the Mutual Defense Assistance Act that appropriated more than one
billion dollars for military aid primarily to members of the Atlantic
Pact (NATO).
(EWH, 1968, p.1207)
1950 Nov 19, US General Eisenhower
became supreme commander of NATO.
(MC, 11/19/01)
1950 Dec 19, The North Atlantic
Council named General Eisenhower supreme commander of Western European
defense forces of NATO.
(HN, 12/19/98)(AP, 12/19/00)
1954 Mar 31, Moscow offered to
join NATO on the condition that the West join the Soviet European
security treaty.
(HN, 3/31/98)
1954 May 7, US, Great Britain and
France rejected Russian membership in NATO.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1954 Oct 22, West Germany joined
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The country had no standing
army. [see Oct 23]
(AP, 10/22/97)(SFC, 4/22/98, p.A8)
1954 Oct 23, In Paris, an
agreement was signed providing for West German sovereignty and
permitting West Germany to rearm and enter NATO and the Western
European Union. Britain, England, France and USSR agreed to end
occupation of Germany. [see Oct 22]
(HN, 10/23/98)(MC, 10/23/01)
1955 May 6, West Germany joined
NATO.
(WSJ, 10/8/01, p.A14)(MC, 5/6/02)
1966 France pulled out of NATO's
integrated military command.
(SFC, 12/25/99, p.B4)
1957 Mar 20, Britain accepted a
NATO offer to mediate in Cyprus, but Greece rejected it.
(MC, 3/20/02)
1957 May 4, It was reported that
NATO has warned the Soviet Union that it would meet any attack with all
available meads including nuclear weapons.
(SFC, 5/4/09, p.B2)
1961 Mar 4, Paul-Henri Spaak
resigned as Secretary-General of NATO.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1966 Mar 7, Charles de Gaulle said
he would pull France out of NATO's integrated military command. French
military personnel stepped down from their positions in NATO on July 1.
(www.charles-de-gaulle.org/article.php3?id_article=181)
1980 Dec 14, After four days of
meetings, members of NATO warned the Soviets to stay out of the
internal affairs of Poland, saying that intervention would effectively
destroy the detente between East and West.
(HN, 12/14/98)
1981 Dec 17, Red Brigade
terrorists kidnapped Brigadier General James Dozier, the
highest-ranking US NATO officer in southern Europe, from his home in
Verona, Italy. Dozier was res-cued 42 days later.
(HN, 12/17/98)(AP, 12/17/04)
1982 May 30, Spain became
NATO's 16th member, the first country to enter the Western alli-ance
since West Germany in 1955.
(AP,
5/30/97)(http://europa.eu.int/abc/history/1982/index_en.htm)
1984 Nov 28, Hans Speidel
(b.1897), German general and NATO-supreme commander (1957-63), died.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Speidel)
1986 Apr 14, Italy, which opposed
an American strike against Libya, warned Libya a day be-fore the
strike, which was launched from a NATO base on the Sicilian island of
Lampedusa.
(AP, 10/30/08)
1987 Dec 11, NATO allies urged the
U.S. Senate to ratify the intermediate-range missile treaty quickly and
underscored their support by pledging to let the Soviet Union inspect
missile bases in five European countries.
(AP, 12/11/97)
1987 The NATO sec.-gen’l.
negotiated a Turkish-Greek dispute.
(WSJ, 10/8/01, p.A14)
1989 Jan 15, NATO, the Warsaw Pact
and 12 other European countries adopted a human rights and security
agreement in Vienna, Austria.
(AP, 1/15/99)
1990 Nov 19, Leaders of 16 NATO
members and the remaining six Warsaw Pact nations signed treaties in
Paris making sweeping cuts in conventional arms throughout Europe and
pledging non-aggression toward one another. The Treaty on Conventional
Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) was signed by the United States and 21
other NATO and WTO countries at a CSCE summit in Paris.
(AP,
11/19/00)(www.fas.org/nuke/control/cfe/chron.htm)
1991 Jun 6, NATO issued a
statement saying it would not accept any “coercion or intimida-tion”
against the emerging democracies of Eastern Europe.
(AP, 6/6/01)
1991 Nov 9, President Bush
returned from a four-day European trip that included a NATO summit.
(AP, 11/9/01)
1992 Jul 17, A historic accord for
deep cuts in tanks and other non-nuclear arms in Europe went into
effect, nearly two years after it was signed by NATO and the
now-defunct Warsaw Pact.
(AP, 7/17/97)
1993 Apr 13, NATO forces began
combat patrols over Bosnia to enforce a UN ban on flights.
(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1994 Jan 10, On the first day of a
two-day NATO summit in Belgium, leaders signed a docu-ment inviting
nations of the former Warsaw Pact to join in a "partnership for peace."
(AP, 1/10/99)
1994 Jan 11, NATO leaders
concluded a summit in Belgium by warning Bosnian Serbs of their
willingness to order bombing raids in former Yugoslavia to relieve
embattled Muslim en-claves. President Clinton, who attended the summit,
then traveled to the Czech Republic for a short visit.
(AP, 1/11/99)
1994 Jan, US Pres. Clinton got
NATO to reach eastward with the Partnership for Peace pro-gram.
(WSJ, 10/20/97, p.A1)
1994 Feb 9, NATO delivered an
ultimatum to Bosnian Serbs to remove heavy guns encircling Sarajevo, or
face air strikes. Hours before the ultimatum was issued, the Bosnian
Serbs agreed to withdraw their artillery and mortars from around
Sarajevo.
(AP, 2/9/99)
1994 Nov 21, NATO retaliated for
repeated Serb attacks on a U.N. safe haven by bombing an airfield in a
Serb-controlled section of Croatia.
(AP, 11/21/02)
1994 Nov 23, NATO warplanes
blasted Serb missile batteries in two air raids while Bosnian Serb
fighters, for the first time, broke into the U.N.-designated safe haven
of Bihac.
(AP, 11/23/99)
1994-1995 Depleted uranium shells were used by NATO
forces against Bosnian Serb positions around Serayevo.
(WSJ, 1/11/00, p.A14)
1995 May 25, NATO warplanes struck
Bosnian Serb headquarters. Serbs answered with swift defiance,
storming UN weapons depots, attacking safe areas and taking
peacekeepers as hostages.
(AP, 5/25/00)
1995 May 26, Serbs bombarded
Serajevo. On Jun 6 NATO launched 2 air raids against an ammunition dump
in Serb-held central Bosnia.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A10)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Jun 6, NATO launched 2 air
raids against an ammunition dump in Serb-held central Bosnia. The
air strikes touched off a crises in which [270] 350 UN peacekeepers
were taken hostage by Bosnian Serbs. Serb forces seized 270 UN
peacekeepers, shackled them to poten-tial targets, and ordered them to
plead on camera for the NATO air attacks to stop. Serbia im-proved its
relations with the West by helping to arrange the release of the
hostages.
(SFC, 6/7/96, p.A10)(SFC,10/16/97, p.A12)
1995 Oct 20, NATO Secretary
General Willy Claes resigned to face corruption charges in his native
Belgium. He later received a three-year suspended jail sentence.
(AP, 10/20/00)
1995 Nov 21, The Dayton Peace
Accord, was initialed by the leaders of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia. US
Sec. of State, Warren Christopher and chief mediator Richard Holbrooke
manage to keep the parties talking for over 3 weeks to reach this
agreement to end three and a-half years of ethnic fighting in
Bosnia-Herzegovina. One year deployment of 20,000 US troops as
one-third of a NATO peace keeping force was estimated to cost about
$1.5 bil. The US also planned to contribute $600 mil over three years
to help rebuild Bosnia.
(WSJ, 11/22/95, p.A1,3)(SFC, 10/6/00, p.A19)(AP,
11/21/00)
1995 Dec 20, In
Bosnia-Herzegovina, NATO began its peacekeeping mission, taking over
from the United Nations.
(AP, 12/20/00)
1995 Libya declared jihad against
NATO, but no concrete action was taken.
(WSJ, 10/10/01, p.A10)
1996 Jun 4, NATO foreign ministers
approved plans to shift focus toward intervention in small regional
conflicts and away from containing Russia, its primary focus for 47
years.
(WSJ, 6/4/96, p.A1)
1996 Sep 25, NATO generals were
ordered to prepare plans for an extension of allied military force in
Bosnia beyond the Dec. 20 deadline.
(SFC, 9/26/96, p.A12)
1996 Dec 10, NATO took formal
steps to expand and reassured Russia that it had no plans to move
nuclear weapons into the territory of new members.
(SFC, 12/11/96, p.C1)
1997 Jun 11, Pres. Clinton
announced that the US would only support Poland, Hungary and the Czech
Republic for NATO membership for now.
(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A14)
1997 Jun 13, The leaders of
France, Germany and Canada insisted that Romania and Slove-nia be
allowed to join NATO next month.
(SFC, 6/14/97, p.A12)
1997 Jul 10, In Operation Tango
NATO forces captured Milan Kovacevic, a physician who was the 2nd
ranking officer in the Prijedor City Hall during the war. An attempt to
capture Simo Drljaca, a leader of local “ethnic cleansing” led to a
shootout and his death.
(SFC, 7/11/97, p.A17)
1998 Apr 30, The US Senate
approved the expansion of NATO to include Poland, Hungary and the Czech
Republic.
(SFC, 5/1/98, p.A3)
1998 May 27, Nato Ministers agreed
to help Albania and Macedonia strengthen their border patrols.
(SFC, 5/29/98, p.A16)
1998 Aug 6, NATO set exercises in
Albania for Aug 17-22 to show force against the Serb of-fensive in
Kosovo.
(WSJ, 8/7/98, p.A1)
1998 Aug 17, NATO forces began a
5-day exercise in Albania as a threat to Serbia.
(WSJ, 8/18/98, p.A1)
1998 Dec 23, In Belgium the top
court convicted former NATO chief Willy Claes, French aerospace tycoon
Serge Dessault and 2 ex-aides of corruption. All got suspended
sentences.
(WSJ, 12/24/98, p.A1)
1999 Jan 20, NATO moved forces
within striking distance of Yugoslavia and warned Belgrade to stop its
repression in Kosovo.
(WSJ, 1/21/99, p.A15)
1999 Mar 12, Poland, Hungary and
the Czech Republic formally joined NATO in a ceremony at Independence,
Mo., where Pres. Truman announced in 1949 the formation of the Atlantic
al-liance for defense against the Soviet bloc.
(SFC, 3/11/99, p.C14)
1999 Mar 23, NATO
Secretary-General Javier Solana gave the formal go-ahead for airstrikes
against Serbian targets following the failure of Kosovo peace talks.
(AP, 3/23/00)
1999 Mar 24, In Serbia NATO forces
sent a broad wave of air attacks against Yugoslav forces in an attempt
to halt the Serbian offensive in Kosovo. Cruise missiles and planes
targeted mili-tary sites near Belgrade and some 40 sites in total.
Initial reports said 10 people were killed and 38 wounded in the
bombing. The airstrikes marked the first time in its 50-year existence
that NATO had ever attacked a sovereign country. NATO’s 78-day bombing
ended on June 10.
(SFC, 3/25/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 3/25/99, p.A1)(SFC,
3/26/99, p.A6)(AP, 3/24/00)(Econ, 5/23/09, p.51)
1999 Mar 25, NATO forces struck
Serbian air defenses and other sites for a second night as Serb forces
stepped up their efforts to crush resistance in Kosovo. The village of
Goden was burned by Serb forces and 174 residents were forced to leave.
20 men were kept back and presumed killed.
(SFC, 3/26/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 4/4/99, p.A1,8)(AP,
3/25/00)
1999 Mar 26, NATO forces attacked
Yugoslavia for a 3rd day and 2 MiG-29 fighters were shot down as
Serbian troops continued to sweep ethnic Albanian villages in Kosovo.
(SFC, 3/27/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 27, NATO expanded its air
assault on Yugoslavia in the fourth straight day of at-tacks. A $42
million US F-117A stealth fighter was downed over Yugoslavia during
continued NATO airstrikes. The downed American pilot was rescued by US
forces. The wreckage was later believed to have been sold.
(SFEC, 3/28/99, p.A1,16)(SFC, 9/17/99, p.A10)(AP,
3/27/00)
1999 Mar 28, UN officials reported
that some 500,000 ethnic Albanians had fled Kosovo. NATO officials
raised the possibility of using ground troops in Yugoslavia as
low-level strikes against tanks began. It was feared that anger over
the war would spill over to Bosnia.
(SFC, 3/29/99, p.A1,10)
1999 Mar 29, Albania and Macedonia
appealed for help as thousands of refugees fled Kosovo on the 6th day
of bombing. NATO said Serbs were targeting ethnic Albanian leadership
for exe-cutions and the US accused Milosevic of "crimes against
humanity."
(WSJ, 3/30/99, p.A1)
1999 Mar 30, In Serbia Pres.
Milosevic said in a meeting with Premier Primakov of Russia that he
would resume peace talks if allied bombing stops. The US called the
offer "woefully in-adequate." NATO moved to step up the air war and
Serbian forces continued unopposed in Kosovo as refugees streamed out.
(WSJ, 3/31/99, p.A1)
1999 Apr 4, NATO dropped more
bombs on downtown Belgrade and said that it would send some 8,000
troops into Albania to help Kosovo refugees. The Freedom Bridge over
the Danube at Novi Sad was destroyed. The US announced that it would
send 24 Apache helicopter gun-ships to attack Serbian troops and tanks
in Kosovo. Some 30,000 refugees crossed into Alba-nia in the last
24-hour period. Shipping on the Danube was not fully restored until
2002.
(SFEC, 4/4/99, p.A1,12)(SFC, 4/5/99, p.A1,10)(SSFC,
2/3/02, Par p.7)
1999 Apr 13, NATO bombs were
dropped on Pristina. Yugoslav infantry troops crossed into northeastern
Albania for a short time and clashed with Albanian border police.
Refugees in Al-bania reported gang-rapes and murders by Serbian
soldiers.
(SFC, 4/14/99, p.A1,13)
1999 Apr 23, On the first day of a
50th anniversary NATO summit in Washington, Western leaders pledged to
intensify military strikes against Yugoslavia and vowed "no compromise"
on demands that Slobodan Milosevic withdraw his troops from Kosovo.
(SFC, 4/24/99, p.A1)(AP, 4/23/00)
1999 Apr 23, NATO forces bombed
Nis and a broad swath of Yugoslavia on the 31st day of attacks. 16
civilians were killed and 16 others injured during the attack on the
headquarters and studios of Radio Television Serbia in central
Belgrade. In 2009 Amnesty International de-manded that NATO be held
accountable for civilian casualties in the bombing.
(SFC, 4/24/99, p.A11)(AP, 4/23/09)
1999 Apr 24, NATO approved a new
strategic concept in Washington that allowed the use of military force
to prevent the abuse of human rights anywhere in Europe.
(SFEC, 4/25/99, p.A1)
1999 May 6, Russia joined NATO to
back a framework for ending the conflict in Kosovo that included an
international security presence to enforce peace.
(SFC, 5/7/99, p.A1)
1999 May 7, NATO bombs hit a
residential area in Nis and at least 15 people were killed and 60
wounded. NATO bombs hit the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade and 3 people
were killed and [20] 21 injured. An outdated map was blamed for the
embassy bombing. The British Observor later reported that NATO bombed
the Embassy because it was being used to transmit Yugoslav military
communications. British, NATO and US officials denied the story. In
2000 the US CIA fired one officer and reprimanded 6 others for the
bombing. President Clinton called the attack a "tragic mistake."
(SFC, 5/8/99, p.A1,10)(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A1)(WSJ,
10/18/99, p.A1)(SFEC, 4/9/00, p.A1,15)(AP, 5/7/00)
1999 May 8, In China protestors
attacked US diplomatic mission in demonstrations against the NATO
bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. Many of the demonstrations
were or-ganized by the government-controlled Beijing Students Assoc.
NATO expressed regret for a mistaken attack on the Chinese Embassy in
Belgrade, but pledged to pursue the bombing campaign.
(SFEC, 5/9/99, p.A1)(SFC, 5/10/99, p.A8)(AP, 5/8/00)
1999 May 25, NATO approved plans
for 50,000 ground soldiers to move into Kosovo.
(SFC, 5/26/99, p.A10)
1999 May 26, NATO military
commanders won political approval to strike at the civilian tele-phone
and computer networks of Yugoslavia. Warplanes carried out a record 650
sorties with 284 bombing attacks.
(SFC, 5/27/99, p.C18)
1999 May 26, Serbian military
fired over 30 missiles at NATO warplanes which had begun fly-ing at
lower altitudes to strike tanks, artillery and ground troops.
(WSJ, 5/28/99, p.A15)
1999 Jun 4, NATO commanders met
with Yugoslav army officers in Macedonia to arrange for the withdrawal
of some 40,000 Serbian troops from Kosovo.
(SFC, 6/5/99, p.A1)
1999 Jun 21, NATO finalized an
agreement with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) to demili-tarize.
(SFC, 6/21/99, p.A1)
1999 Jul 16, A NATO memorandum
warned soldiers and workers of a “possible toxic threat” from the use
depleted uranium ordnance used by the US during the air campaign across
Yugo-slavia.
(SFC, 1/8/01, p.A9)
1999 Jul 23, Russia ended a
4-month boycott on contacts with NATO.
(SFC, 7/24/99, p.C1)
1999 Jul 28, Defense Sec. William
Cohen announced that NATO commander Army Gen'l. Wesley Clark would be
replaced by Air Force Gen'l. Joseph Ralston.
(SFC, 7/29/99, p.A3)
1999 Aug 4, George Robertson,
British Defense Minister, was chosen as the new secretary general of
NATO.
(SFC, 8/5/99, p.A10)
2000 Feb 16, Russia and NATO
announced a resumption of contacts that were broken in Mar 1999 due to
NATO bombing in Yugoslavia.
(SFC, 2/17/00, p.D3)
2000 Mar 21, NATO acknowledged
that depleted uranium rounds were used during the 1999 Kosovo war
whenever American A-10 ground attack aircraft engaged armored vehicles.
(SFC, 3/22/00, p.A14)
2001 Jan 6, A Nato meeting was
scheduled in Italy on the use of ammunition with depleted uranium
following the deaths from cancer of 6 Italian soldiers following duty
in the Balkans. 5 Balkan veterans from Belgium along with peacekeepers
from Spain, Portugal and the Czech Republic had died of cancer.
(WSJ, 1/04/01, p.A1)(SFC, 1/6/01, p.A7)
2001 Mar 12, Yugoslavia and Nato
agreed to use their forces to squeeze Albanian rebels from separate
flanks as the rebels signed a cease-fire.
(SFC, 3/13/01, p.A15)
2001 Mar 19, Nato asked for
additional troops in Kosovo to help stop Albanian guerrillas from
crossing into Macedonia.
(SFC, 3/20/01, p.A10)
2001 Apr 19, In Kosovo Nato troops
broke up Serb roadblocks set up to protest UN tax collec-tions on goods
from elsewhere in Yugoslavia.
(WSJ, 4/20/01, p.A1)
2001 Jun 13, Pres. Bush held his
1st meeting with Nato leaders and pitched his missile shield plan with
mixed response.
(SFC, 6/14/01, p.A1)
2001 Sep 25, Nato agreed to keep
troops in Macedonia beyond the Sep 26 expiration of its mission.
(WSJ, 9/26/01, p.A1)
2001 Oct 2, The US gave Nato
“clear and compelling” evidence that Osama bin Laden or-chestrated the
Sep 11 terrorist attacks.
(SFC, 10/3/01, p.A4)
2001 Oct 3, Pres. Putin said
Russia is ready to reconsider its opposition to Nato expansion if the
alliance assumes a broader political identity in which Moscow can be
involved.
(SFC, 10/4/01, p.A10)
2001 Oct 24, A NATO spokesman said
peacekeepers in Bosnia had disrupted a Bosnian ter-rorist network.
(SFC, 10/25/01, p.A14)
2001 Nov 22, Talks on Russia-Nato
relations began in Moscow. A plan was proposed that would give Russia
equal status with the 19 permanent members.
(SFC, 11/23/01, p.A1)
2001 Dec 7, Russia and Nato
proclaimed a commitment “to forge a new relationship” follow-ing a
meeting in Brussels.
(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A5)
2002 Feb 25, NATO offered Russia a
modified membership, with no veto power over political or military
policies.
(SFC, 2/26/02, p.A7)
2002 May 14, Nato agreed with
Russia on an new framework that would include Russia on a handful of
agreed-on issues.
(SFC, 5/15/02, p.A1)
2002 May 28, Russia signed an
agreement with NATO leaders in Rome for participation in NATO
discussions on a fixed variety of subjects, but no veto power.
(SFC, 5/29/02, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/29/02, p.A1)
2002 Jul 9, NATO troops arrested
Radovan Stankovic (33), a former member of an elite Serb paramilitary
unit, for allegedly running a house where women and girls were raped
during Bos-nia's 1992-1995 war.
(AP, 7/9/02)(SFC, 7/10/02, p.A8)
2002 Sep 26, NATO planned to
issued invitations in November to Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Expansion would commit the current 19
members to defend the borders of the new members.
(SFC, 9/26/02, p.A1)
2002 Oct 3, NATO and European
Union called on Croatia to cooperate with the U.N. War Crimes Tribunal,
urging the government to hand over indicted war crimes suspect Gen.
Janko Bobetko.
(AP, 10/3/02)
2002 Nov 20, On the eve of a NATO
summit in the Czech Republic, President Bush, recalling Europe's grim
history of "excusing aggression," challenged skeptical allies to stand
firm against Saddam Hussein.
(WSJ, 11/20/02, p.A1)(AP, 11/20/03)
2002 Nov 21, The 19 NATO leaders
demanded that Iraq "fully and immediately" comply with a UN resolution
to disarm. It was at the NATO Summit in Prague that the NATO
Response Force initiative was announced together with the other major
military transformation initiatives, the Prague Capabilities Commitment
and the fundamental revision of the NATO military command structure.
The NRF concept was approved by Ministers of Defense in June 2003 in
Brussels.
(AP,
11/21/02)(http://www.nato.int/issues/nrf/index.html)
2002 Nov 21, The Baltic nations of
Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania joined former communist states Bulgaria,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia as the next wave of NATO states.
(AP, 11/21/02)
2002 Nov 22, At the NATO summit in
Prague, Russian President Vladimir Putin told President Bush the United
States should not wage war alone against Iraq, and questioned whether
Paki-stan and Saudi Arabia were doing enough to fight terrorism.
(AP, 11/22/03)
2002
(Econ, 3/28/09, p.70)
2003 Jan 21, Nato blocked a US
request to begin preparations for a military backup in the event of war
with Iraq.
(WSJ, 1/23/03, p.A1)
2003 Feb 10, France, Germany and
Belgium blocked NATO efforts to begin planning for pos-sible Iraqi
attacks against Turkey.
(AP, 2/10/03)
2003 Feb 16, The 19-member
NATO alliance turned to its Defense Planning Committee, which Paris
withdrew from in 1966, to negotiate an end to the month-long NATO
deadlock over Iraq. NATO agreed to supply Turkey with defense equipment
in the event of war with Iraq.
(AP, 2/16/03)(SFC, 2/17/03, A1)
2003 Feb 19, NATO approved
the deployment of defense equipment to Turkey in the event of a war in
Iraq. Turkey and the US failed again to agree on the size of an
economic aid package.
(AP, 2/19/03)
2003 Mar 26, NATO officially
signed up 7 eastern European nations to become members: Bulgaria,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
(AP, 3/27/03)
2003 Apr 11, NATO-led peacekeepers
in Bosnia arrested Naser Oric (35), a Bosnian Muslim wanted by the
Yugoslav war crimes tribunal and flew him to The Hague. He was the
wartime army commander in the eastern Bosnian town of Srebrenica.
(AP, 4/11/03)
2003 Apr 16, NATO agreed to take
command of the UN peacekeeping mission in Afghani-stan. The NATO
stabilization force soon started in Kabul and then spread across the
country.
(AP, 4/16/03)(Econ, 3/28/09, p.69)
2003 May 21, NATO's 19 nations
agreed unanimously to start planning to help Poland lead a
multinational peacekeeping force in Iraq.
(AP, 5/21/03)
2003 Sep 22, NATO selected Dutch
Foreign Minister Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as the alliance's new secretary
general.
(AP, 9/22/03)
2003 Oct 13, The UN Security
Council approved a resolution expanding the NATO-led peace-keeping
force in Afghanistan.
(AP, 10/13/04)
2003 Oct 15, NATO launched its
elite rapid-reaction force, a prototype unit that will eventually
become a 20,000-member force able to deploy in short notice anywhere in
the world.
(AP, 10/15/03)
2003 Dec 17, NATO's Secretary
General Lord Robertson ended a tumultuous four-year term.
(AP, 12/17/03)
2004 Jan 5, Dutchman Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer took over as NATO's top official.
(AP, 1/5/04)
2004 Mar 29, Pres. Bush hosted a
White House ceremony to welcome Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia,
Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.
(WSJ, 3/30/04, p.A1)
2004 Apr 2, In Brussel an official
ceremony welcomed Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania,
Slovakia and Slovenia into the NATO alliance.
(SFC, 4/3/04, p.A11)
2004 Jun 27, Over 40 thousand
Turks chanting anti-Bush slogans demonstrated against the president's
visit to their country and a NATO summit. NATO leaders closed ranks on
a pledge to take a bigger military role in Iraq; Pres. Bush declared
that the alliance was poised to "meet the threats of the 21st century."
Pres. Bush called on the EU to admit Turkey as a member.
(AP, 6/27/04)(Econ, 9/11/04, p.50)(AP, 6/27/05)
2004 Jun 28, NATO leaders agreed
to help train Iraq's armed forces just hours after the new government
in Baghdad took over sovereignty from the U.S.-led administration.
(AP, 6/28/04)
2005 Feb 22, In Belgium a Nato
summit announced a 12-year program to destroy Soviet-era weapons in
Ukraine. Ukraine’s Pres. Viktor Yushchenko attended.
(WSJ, 2/22/05, p.A1)
2005 Apr 1, Australia and NATO
signed an agreement to cooperate in the fight against inter-national
terrorism, weapons proliferation and other global military threats.
(AP, 4/1/05)
2005 May 24, NATO Secretary
General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said NATO will offer airlift, training
and other logistics support to African Union (AU) forces struggling to
end the civil war in Sudan's Darfur region.
(AP, 5/24/05)
2005 May 31, NATO troops took
command of security and reconstruction efforts in western Afghanistan
from US forces under a plan that will likely soon put NATO forces into
insurgent hot spots.
(AP, 5/31/05)
2005 Sep 4, European Union and
NATO said the US has asked for emergency assistance, requesting
blankets, first aid kits, water trucks and food for the victims of
Hurricane Katrina.
(AP, 9/4/05)
2005 Oct 24, NATO pledged to help
Ukraine push through military reforms seen as essential to prepare the
country for membership in the Western alliance, a prospect viewed with
concern in Russia.
(AP, 10/24/05)
2005 Nov 23, A NATO official said
Uzbekistan has told NATO allies they can no longer use its territory or
airspace to support peacekeeping missions in neighboring Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/23/05)
2005 Dec 8, NATO foreign ministers
approved plans to send up to 6,000 troops into southern Afghanistan, a
major expansion of the alliance's peacekeeping mission into some of the
most dangerous parts of the country.
(AP, 12/08/05)
2005 Dec 22, The Dutch government
said it planned to send up to 1,400 additional troops to Afghanistan
for expanded NATO peacekeeping.
(AP, 12/22/05)
2006 Jan 31, NATO ended its
earthquake relief operation in Pakistan, the first big disaster mission
involving ground troops outside an alliance country.
(AP, 1/31/06)
2006 Feb 10, In Sicily NATO
defense ministers sought to calm Islamic anger over cartoons of the
Prophet Muhammad at a counterterrorism meeting with Arab countries
including Israel, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Jordan and
Mauritania.
(AP, 2/10/06)
2006 Apr 28, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai urged Taliban militants to end the violence rag-ing across
the country and join forces with the new government to help
Afghanistan's recon-struction. NATO foreign ministers reaffirmed the
alliance's readiness to nearly double its peace-keeping operations in
Afghanistan, where violence is increasing.
(AP, 4/28/06)
2006 Aug 20, In Afghanistan
militants ambushed a police patrol in western Farah province, sparking
a gunbattle that left one officer and 2 attackers dead. In Helmand
province a clash with insurgents left one British soldier dead and
three others wounded. A NATO airstrike killed nine militants including
a local insurgent leader in Helmand province. A roadside bomb killed
three Afghan policemen traveling on the main highway linking Murja and
Lashkar Gah districts. Two roadside bombs targeting border police in
southeastern Khost province killed two officers and wounded five
others. Tens of thousands of health workers fanned out across
Afghanistan in a polio vaccination campaign to immunize more than 7
million children under age 5.
(AP, 8/20/06)(AP, 8/21/06)(AP, 8/22/06)
2006 Sep 3, NATO and Afghan forces
hit the Taliban with air strikes and artillery in Operation Medusa in
southern Afghanistan. Four NATO soldiers, including 3 Canadians, and
more than 200 insurgents were killed in the first two days of a major
anti-Taliban operation under way in the Panjwayi district, about 10
miles from the city of Kandahar.
(AFP, 9/3/06)
2006 Oct 31, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb killed 3 NATO soldiers. A suicide bombing
in southern Ghazni province's Taliban-dominated Ander district killed
one policeman.
(AFP, 10/31/06)
2006 Nov 28, President Bush, in
Latvia to attend a NATO summit, said he will not be per-suaded by any
calls to withdraw American troops from Iraq before the country is
stabilized. Bush also enlisted renewed commitments from the NATO allies
that have deployed 32,000 troops to Afghanistan.
(AP, 11/28/06)
2006 Nov 29, NATO leaders finished
a two-day summit without agreement on some mem-bers' refusal to send
troops into combat in Afghanistan's most dangerous regions. NATO vowed
to give its troubled mission in Afghanistan the "forces, resources and
flexibility needed" to tackle increasingly ferocious Taliban fighters.
Leaders invited Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina to join a
program considered a first step toward eventual membership, but urged
Serbia and Bosnia to fully cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal.
(AP, 11/29/06)(AFP, 11/29/06)
2006 Dec 13, NATO said there were
some Taliban casualties in southern Afghanistan when NATO troops
launched a "precision air strike against a known Taliban command post"
in an iso-lated area of the Panjwayi district of Kandahar province.
(AP, 12/14/06)
2007 Feb 4, Gen. Dan McNeill, the
highest-ranking US general to lead troops in Afghanistan, took command
of 35,500 strong NATO-led force, putting an American face on the
international mission after nine months of British command under Gen.
David Richards. A NATO airstrike killed a senior Taliban leader riding
in a car near Musa Qala.
(AP, 2/4/07)
2007 Apr 20, In southern
Afghanistan separate explosions killed two NATO soldiers. A Dutch
soldier was killed in one explosion, the first fatality from hostile
action among Dutch troops serv-ing with NATO forces in the country.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2007 Apr 30, The presidents of
Afghanistan and Pakistan, a meeting arranged by Turkish leaders, agreed
to share intelligence on extremist groups to bolster efforts to deny
sanctuary, training and financing to terrorists in both countries.
NATO-led troops killed 75 suspected insur-gents on the first day of an
operation against Taliban militants in a valley in southern Helmand
province. Hundreds of people demonstrated in the Shindand district of
the western province of Herat, after coalition and Afghan operations
there on April 27 and 29, insisting that civilians were among the
victims. Police the next day said at least 30 civilians, including
women and children, were among those killed in Shindand's fighting.
(AP, 4/30/07)(AP, 5/1/07)(AFP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 3, Russia lashed out at
the EU and NATO for supporting Estonia in its row with Moscow over the
relocation of a Soviet war monument.
(AP, 5/3/07)
2007 May 8, In southern
Afghanistan suspected Taliban militants ambushed a NATO convoy, and a
gunshot victim said soldiers fleeing the scene shot him and killed a
man in a bakery.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 8, NATO Secretary General
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and President Pervez Mushar-raf agreed to
strengthen security along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to contain
the Taliban insurgency.
(AP, 5/8/07)
2007 May 10, Talks in Brussels
between NATO's top generals and their Russian counterpart failed to
narrow the gap between Moscow and the West over missile defense and
arms control in Europe.
(AP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 20, President Bush
welcomed NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to his Crawford,
Texas, ranch, to review strategy on a flurry of issues.
(AP, 5/20/08)
2007 Jul 14, Russia suspended its
participation in a key European arms control treaty that governs
deployment of troops on the continent. Under the moratorium, Russia
will halt inspec-tions and verifications of its military sites by NATO
countries and will no longer limit the number of its conventional
weapons. The treaty, between Russian and NATO members, was signed in
1990 and amended in 1999 to reflect changes since the breakup of the
Soviet Union, adding the requirement that Moscow withdraw troops from
the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia. Russia has ratified
the amended version, but the United States and other NATO members have
refused to do so until Russia completely withdraws.
(AP, 7/14/07)
2007 Jul 27, Afghan and NATO
troops over the last 24 hours clashed with Taliban insurgents and
called in airstrikes, killing at least 50 suspected militants and
dozens of civilians.
(AP, 7/27/07)
2007 Sep 6, Afghan and US-led
coalition forces killed "more than 20" insurgents in an eight-hour
battle that saw coalition aircraft bombing and strafing enemy positions
in Kandahar prov-ince. Two NATO soldiers were killed in two
separate bomb blasts in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/7/07)
2007 Nov 14, NATO defense chiefs
chose Italian Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola as head of the alliance's
military committee.
(AP, 11/14/07)
2007 Nov 16, In western
Afghanistan a suicide attacker blew up a car bomb near an Italian
military convoy killing only himself. 4 police officers were killed
when their vehicle was hit by a remotely detonated bomb as they
traveled to work in the southern province of Kandahar. The UN said
profits from opium fuel the Taliban insurgency, in a new call on NATO
to tackle Af-ghanistan's burgeoning drugs trade.
(AP, 11/16/07)(Reuters, 11/16/07)
2007 Dec 7, NATO ministers pledged
to keep their KFOR peace force in Kosovo at current strength as the
Serbian province heads towards independence and to make more troops
avail-able as necessary to deal with any violence.
(AP, 12/7/07)
2007 Dec 9, In southern
Afghanistan Afghan, British and US troops closed in on Musa Qala, a
Taliban-held town. A second NATO soldier was killed in the operation.
This was the first mis-sion in which British forces have participated
with the Afghan army as the main fighting force. Afghan and NATO forces
killed 30 Taliban fighters in Kandahar's Panjwayi district.
(AP, 12/9/07)(AFP, 12/9/07)
2008 Jan 10, Russia’s President
Vladimir Putin named a prominent nationalist politician as ambassador
to NATO at a time of severely strained ties between the two.
(AP, 1/10/08)
2008 Jan 25, A World Trade
Organization (WTO) accession committee approved Ukraine's membership
bid, clearing the way for the former Soviet republic to join the body.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Jan 25, Russia's lower house
of parliament annulled an agreement with Ukraine on us-ing Soviet-built
military radars, citing Kiev's bid to join NATO.
(AP, 1/25/08)
2008 Feb 7, NATO defense ministers
held talks on Afghanistan in Lithuania. France agreed to help Canada in
fighting the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.
(AP, 2/8/08)
2008 Mar 5, A NATO official said
that Uzbekistan has allowed some members of the alliance, including the
US, to use an air base on its territory in a signal of thawing
relations with the West.
(AP, 3/5/08)
2008 Mar 31, A clash in southern
Afghanistan killed a Danish soldier and wounded two oth-ers. A separate
attack on a NATO patrol killed two British troops. an airstrike killed
three men ir-rigating land close to a road in Kandahar province. The
men may have been mistaken for mili-tants planting roadside bombs. In
Helmand province police arrested Mullah Naqibullah, a senior Taliban
commander who has escaped twice from Afghan prisons. Naqibullah was
nabbed dur-ing a clash that left three insurgents dead.
(AP, 3/31/08)(AP, 4/1/08)
2008 Apr 4, Russian President
Vladimir Putin strongly criticized NATO's eastward expansion plans but
ruled out chances of a new Cold War, insisting that Moscow wants to be
friends with the Western military alliance.
(AP, 4/4/08)
2008 Apr 5, Afghan and NATO forces
killed 15 Taliban insurgents in separate raids in south-ern
Afghanistan, where police also captured Abdul Jabar, a senior Taliban
commander.
(AFP, 4/6/08)
2008 Apr 5, In Croatia President
Bush celebrated NATO's expansion into former communist territory and
urged further enlargement, highlighting differences with Moscow hours
before final talks with outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 11, Foreign Minister
Bernard Kouchner said France will boost its contribution to NATO forces
fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan to some 3,000 troops,
around double the present level.
(AP, 4/11/08)
2008 Apr 16, In southern
Afghanistan 2 NATO soldiers were killed and two others were wounded in
an explosion.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 May 22, In western
Afghanistan gunfire broke out in Ghor province at a protest against a
US sniper in Iraq who used a Quran for target practice. Two civilians
were slain and seven oth-ers were wounded. Officials said a NATO
soldier was killed.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 Jun 6, Russia's new Pres.
Medvedev met with leaders of a fractious alliance of ex-Soviet
republics, warning Ukraine and Georgia not to lead their countries into
NATO.
(AP, 6/6/08)
2008 Jun 13, In southern
Afghanistan a suicide bomber hit a NATO military convoy, causing
casualties. A Romanian soldier was killed and three others injured in
Qalat, the capital of southern Zabul province. In south-central Uruzgan
province, Afghan and NATO-led forces killed 17 Taliban. In eastern
Paktia province, an operation by US-led coalition forces resulted in
the deaths of a woman and a number of militants. In Ghazni province a
coalition air strike killed seven Taliban militants.
(AFP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 19, Afghan officials said
a swift offensive by Afghan and NATO forces drove Taliban militants
from a strategic group of villages outside Kandahar and killed 56
insurgents. The mili-tants had planted hundreds of land mines in the
area before fleeing.
(AP, 6/19/08)
2008 Jul 8, In eastern Afghanistan
a roadside bomb blast killed one NATO soldier and wounded four others.
a provincial police chief said five insurgents and two policemen died
dur-ing a clash in central Ghazni province.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 12, In central
Afghanistan Taliban militants executed two women just outside Ghazni
city after accusing them of working as prostitutes on a US base. A
soldier serving with ISAF died of wounds caused by an explosion in
northern Afghanistan. NATO troops killed Bismullah Akhund, an insurgent
leader in Helmand's Naw Zad district.
(AP, 7/13/08)(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 12, NATO said a recent
border clash that wounded several Pakistani and Afghan security
personnel was sparked by insurgents in Afghanistan who fired at targets
in both coun-tries, apparently to stoke cross-border tensions.
(AP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 26, In southern
Afghanistan NATO-led soldiers killed four civilians after opening fire
on a car that did not stop at a checkpoint.
(AP, 7/26/08)
2008 Jul 28, NATO said its troops
killed two children in southern Afghanistan by opening fire on a car
that they feared was about to attack their convoy.
(AP, 7/28/08)
2008 Aug 11, An Afghan police
officer was killed and two others were injured in a roadside bomb
explosion on the southeastern outskirts of Kabul. 3 civilians were
killed and 15 people were wounded, including three NATO troops, when a
suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a NATO military convoy in
Kabul. In the northern province of Maimana meanwhile a Latvian ISAF
soldier was killed and three others wounded when their vehicle hit a
roadside bomb.
(AFP, 8/11/08)
2008 Aug 19, In Afghanistan a team
of suicide bombers tried unsuccessfully to storm a US base near the
Afghanistan-Pakistan border. NATO said 3 suicide bombers detonated
their vests and 3 more were shot dead and that 7 attackers in total
were killed.
(AP, 8/19/08)
2008 Aug 20, A top Russian general
said 64 of the country's soldiers were killed and 323 wounded in this
month's fighting with Georgia. Russia informed Norway that it plans to
suspend all military ties with NATO, a day after the military alliance
urged Moscow to withdraw its forces from Georgia.
(AP, 8/20/08)(AP, 8/21/08)
2008 Aug 24, Taliban militants
attacked a patrol of US-led coalition troops in northern Af-ghanistan,
while insurgents came under fire by NATO aircraft after attacking an
Afghan army outpost in the south. At least 10 militants were killed in
the fighting. In eastern Kunar province, a civilian Mi-8 supply
helicopter contracted by NATO-led troops crashed shortly after takeoff,
kill-ing one person on board and wounding three others.
(AP, 8/24/08)
2008 Sep 3, Pakistan's government
says a cross-border raid involving US-led or NATO forces killed several
civilians. Women and children were among at least 20 people reportedly
killed in the attack in Musa Nika village in South Waziristan near the
border with Afghanistan.
(AP, 9/3/08)(SFC, 9/4/08, p.A8)
2008 Sep 9, A NATO bomb missed its
target by more than 1 1/2 miles and hit a house, killing two Afghan
civilians and wounding 10 at a time of rising tension between the
Afghan govern-ment and international troops over the use of airstrikes.
(AP, 9/9/08)
2008 Oct 3, NATO launched an
airstrike near the Afghan border with Pakistan. A jet fighter bombed
two houses in different parts of Datta Khel. Intelligence officials in
the region said 2 women and one child were killed and 5 men wounded. A
militant attack on a US patrol in east-ern Kunar province killed an
Afghan civilian and wounded four others.
(Reuters, 10/3/08)(AP, 10/3/08)
2008 Oct 9, NATO joined a growing
international force to protect vessels off Somalia's peril-ous coast,
sending military ships to the treacherous waters where pirates are
negotiating the re-lease of an arms-laden tanker.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 10, NATO defense
ministers authorized their troops in Afghanistan to attack drug barons
blamed for pumping up to US$100 million (euro74 million) a year into
the coffers of re-surgent Taliban fighters.
(AP, 10/10/08)
2008 Oct 14, In eastern
Afghanistan a roadside bomb blast killed three NATO soldiers. In the
south, a bomb attack apparently intended for NATO troops exploded
against an Afghan minivan in Uruzgan province, killing nine civilians.
Dost Mohammad Arighistani, head of the govern-ment's labor and social
affairs department for the southern province of Kandahar, was killed in
his car with his bodyguard as he traveled to work.
(AP, 10/14/08)(AFP, 10/14/08)
2008 Nov 5, Russia will deploy
missiles near NATO member Poland in response to US missile defense
plans, President Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday in his first state of
the nation speech.
(AP, 11/5/08)
2008 Nov 9, A Taliban suicide
attacker rammed a bomb-filled minivan into a NATO military convoy in
Afghanistan, killing two Spanish soldiers and critically wounding
another. Officials said US coalition forces killed 14 militants who
fired on them in Khost province. The province's governor, Arsallah
Jamal, said the 14 men were civilian construction workers and were not
mili-tants.
(AFP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 29, In Afghanistan a
soldier with the NATO-led force shot and killed an Afghan po-liceman in
a car in Lashkar Gah that was driving toward a NATO patrol at high
speed.
(AP, 11/30/08)
2008 Dec 1, Militants in
northwestern Pakistan attacked trucks ferrying supplies to NATO and US
forces in Afghanistan, killing two people and destroying a dozen
vehicles. A suicide attack on a security checkpoint in the Swat
Valley killed 8 people and wounded 40.
(AP, 12/1/08)
2008 Dec 3, NATO foreign ministers
affirmed their support for US plans to install anti-missile defenses in
Europe despite Russia's strong opposition. NATO foreign ministers said
they ex-pected Albania and Croatia to become the alliance's newest
members by April.
(AP, 12/3/08)
2008 Dec 7, Gunmen blasted their
way into two transport terminals in Pakistan and torched more than 160
vehicles, including 790 Humvees, destined for US-led troops in
Afghanistan, in the biggest assault yet on a vital military supply
line. The losses possibly exceeded $10 million.
(AP, 12/7/08)
2008 Dec 8, In Pakistan armed
militants launched a second raid in as many days on NATO depots,
torching nearly 100 more vehicles destined for the alliance's forces in
Afghanistan.
(AFP, 12/8/08)
2008 Dec 12, In central
Afghanistan NATO troops fired on a civilian bus that refused warnings
to stop, killing four passengers in Wardak province.
(AP, 12/12/08)
2008 Dec 15, In Afghanistan a
5-day joint Afghan-NATO operation in Helmand province left 40 militants
dead, including the Taliban's leader in that region.
(AP, 12/15/08)
2008 Dec 24, In Afghanistan a
soldier with the NATO-led force was killed in an insurgent at-tack in
the east of the country.
(AFP, 12/24/08)
2008 NATO set up a research center
in cyberdefence in Tallinn, Estonia. It was scheduled to be formally
inaugurated in 2009.
(Econ, 12/6/08, TQ p.21)
2009 Jan 1, A suicide car bomb
exploded near an Afghan and NATO military convoy in the western
province of Herat and killed an Afghan policeman. 2 UN staff of the
World Food Pro-gram and 4 others were kidnapped in Nimroz province by
alleged Taliban militants. The 2 UN workers were freed on Jan 27.
(AP, 1/1/09)(AFP, 1/28/09)
2009 Jan 12, In Pakistan the
bodies of two men killed by Taliban militants for allegedly spying for
the US were found in the North Waziristan tribal region to the south of
Mohmand. The two were abducted a week ago as they attempted to flee
with their families. Trucks and other vehi-cles blocked the main
Quetta-Chaman highway, forcing about 100 trucks carrying NATO sup-plies
to park.
(AP, 1/12/09)
2009 Jan 14, Pakistan reopened a
supply route for NATO and US forces in Afghanistan after tribesmen
ended a three-day blockade. Thousands of people protested in Quetta
after four po-lice officers were shot dead in what an official said was
a sectarian attack against Shiites.
(AP, 1/14/09)
2009 Jan 22, NATO's Secretary
General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said President Barack Obama's plan to
nearly double American troop numbers in Afghanistan needs to be matched
by a similar surge in development workers and aid funding.
(AP, 1/22/09)
2009 Jan 31, An Afghan tribal
leader from southeastern Paktika province was fatally shot by a NATO
patrol after the vehicle he was in failed to stop in response to
signals from soldiers. A second Afghan was wounded.
(AP, 2/1/09)
2009 Feb 10, In Afghanistan a bomb
struck a NATO convoy, killing two soldiers and wounding one. Police
spokesman Wazir Pacha said the attack in Khost province was carried out
by a sui-cide bomber in a vehicle. But a NATO spokesman blamed the
attack on a roadside bomb.
(AP, 2/10/09)
2009 Feb 17, NATO warned that
Pakistan risked creating a safe haven for Islamist extremists after it
struck a deal to impose Islamic law and suspend a military offensive in
the former tourist haven of Swat.
(AP, 2/17/09)
2009 Feb 19, US Defense Sec.
Robert Gates, in Europe for NATO talks, signed a new military
cooperation agreement with Poland.
(WSJ, 2/20/09, p.A12)
2009 Feb 23, In Afghanistan a NATO
air strike killed up to 16 militants overnight in Badghis province. In
Nimrod province a twin suicide attack killed a policeman outside the
counter-narcotics office of the provincial capital of Zaranj. Lt.
General Jim Dutton, the deputy NATO force commander, said around 17,000
extra US troops earmarked for Afghanistan will deploy as fast as
possible and thousands more are requested for August elections.
(AFP, 2/23/09)
2009 Mar 5, NATO foreign ministers
agreed to resume high-level formal ties with Russia, suspended last
year after Moscow's military thrust into Georgia.
(AP, 3/5/09)
2009 Mar 11, French Pres. Sarkozy
announced that France will return as full-fledged member of the
26-naqtion NATO alliance.
(SFC, 3/12/09, p.A2)
2009 Mar 16, In Pakistan the
Zardari government relented in a major confrontation with the
opposition, agreeing to reinstate Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, the fired
Supreme Court chief justice, whose fate had sparked street fights and
raised fears of political instability. The gov-ernment said Chaudhry
would be sworn back in on March 21. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza
Gi-lani's announcement also promised the restoration of a handful of
other judges who had re-mained off the bench since former President
Pervez Musharraf sacked them in 2007. Up to 50 militants attacked a
terminal for trucks carrying supplies to US and NATO troops in
Afghanistan, in the second such assault in northwest Pakistan in two
days.
(AP, 3/16/09)
2009 Mar 17, Russia's defense
minister charged that the US and NATO were beefing up their military
presence near Russia's borders in a bid for natural resources that
could ignite new con-flicts.
(AP, 3/17/09)
2009 Mar 20, Afghanistan's top
Muslim clerics urged President Hamid Karzai to push ahead with a
proposal for talks with the Taliban that would be mediated by Saudi
Arabia's King Abdul-lah. In northern Afghanistan 9 policemen and a
district chief were killed in heavy fighting with Taliban insurgents. 4
Canadian troops and a local interpreter were killed in two separate
explo-sions. Another NATO soldier was killed in a "hostile incident" in
the south.
(AP, 3/20/09)(AFP, 3/20/09)(Reuters, 3/21/09)
2009 Mar 23, US envoy Richard
Holbrooke outlined to NATO new plans to beat insurgents in Afghanistan.
Taliban fighters ambushed a police patrol in southern Kandahar
province's Spin Boldak district, killing eight officers and wounding
another. Afghan police and intelligence agents detained five Taliban
militants in Oruzgan, including the group's senior commander for the
province, Mullah Azizullah.
(AFP, 3/23/09)(AP, 3/23/09)
2009 Mar 24, NATO troops on a foot
patrol shot and killed an Afghan civilian south of Kabul after he
ignored their signals to stop as he sped toward them in a car.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Apr 3, NATO began its 2-day
60th anniversary summit in France and Germany.
(AP, 4/3/09)
2009 Apr 4, France and Germany
fully endorsed President Barack Obama's new Afghan war strategy but
firmly resisted sending more combat troops in a rift that overshadowed
symbols of unity at NATO 60th-anniversary summit. NATO's European
leaders pledged a significant in-crease in troops for the US-led war in
Afghanistan at their summit, but the alliance seemed sure to arouse
hostility in the Muslim world by choosing the controversial Danish PM
Anders Fogh Rasmussen as the alliance's new secretary general. All 28
NATO leaders unanimously ap-proved Rasmussen as the new civilian leader
of the alliance. Black-clad protesters attacked po-lice and set a hotel
and a customs station ablaze near a bridge linking France and Germany
that served hours earlier as the backdrop for a show of unity by NATO
leaders.
(AP, 4/4/09)
2009 Apr 13, Afghan officials said
an overnight NATO-led airstrike on a remote village killed six
civilians, including two children. Western forces said they had
targeted armed militants.
(Reuters, 4/13/09)
2009 Apr 18, In central
Afghanistan NATO-led forces and Afghan troops killed 3 suspected
militants during a raid in Logar province, where insurgent attacks have
spiked this year. At least two other suspected militants died in an
airstrike in southern Kandahar province. A roadside bomb targeting a
police vehicle in Kandahar city killed a woman and wounded five other
people including three civilians.
(AP, 4/18/09)
2009 Apr 29, NATO and Russia
resumed formal contacts eight months after they were sus-pended because
of last year's war with Georgia.
(AP, 4/29/09)
2009 Apr 30, Belgium stripped the
credentials of 2 high-ranking members of Russia’s permanent mission to
NATO and expelled them on accusations of espionage.
(SFC, 5/1/09, p.A2)
2009 May 6, NATO launched military
exercises in former Soviet Georgia after heavy criticism from
neighboring Russia and a brief mutiny in the Georgian military.
(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 6, Russia said it is
expelling two Moscow-based NATO employees who are Cana-dian diplomats
in retaliation for NATO's recent expulsion of two Russian envoys from
its head-quarters in Belgium.
(AP, 5/6/09)
2009 May 13, In Pakistan troops
secured footholds in Swat valley overrun by the Taliban, kill-ing 11
militants and discovering 5 headless corpses near Mingora, the region's
main town. Dozens of assailants stormed a transport depot handling
supplies for NATO troops in neighbor-ing Afghanistan and torched eight
trucks before escaping.
(AP, 5/13/09)
2009 May 14, Russia said it was
proposing a new version of a key European arms-control treaty it
suspended more than a year ago, and could once again honor the
agreement if the US and its NATO allies accept the changes.
(AP, 5/14/09)
2009 May 15, In eastern
Afghanistan 2 NATO were killed in fighting with insurgents. In
south-ern Helmand province 22 Taliban militants, including three
regional commanders, were killed in overnight fighting.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 19, In Afghanistan an
airstrike by NATO-led forces killed eight Afghan civilians fol-lowing a
battle with militants in southern Helmand province, where Afghan troops
also killed 25 militants.
(AP, 5/20/09)
2009 May 31, Afghan and NATO
troops killed 18 Taliban militants after insurgents attacked a joint
patrol in Farah province.
(AP, 5/31/09)
2009 Jun 11, In eastern
Afghanistan NATO mortar rounds killed two Afghan civilians during a
clash with insurgents. Two died later of their injuries while
undergoing treatment. A bomb blast killed a British soldier near
Kandahar. Four other Afghan civilians died in Kunar when a truck
collided with a NATO vehicle.
(AP, 6/12/09)
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Subject = NATO
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