NATO begins monitoring the Afghan airspace with AWACS aircraft - without German participation. First, now take on Great Britain and France, the important task. The rapid start, the federal government is under pressure to act. Kabul - The reaction seems almost defiantly: The NATO Council has decided that the Allianz VRST from the perspective of much-needed AWACS mission over Afghanistan without Germany to start.Probably later this month British and French want to start the project for a better control of air space above the Hindu Kush with the flying radar stations. First, the two countries do the job for 90 days, it was said at the weekend in German government circles. By AWACS jets should be something more order in the chaotic skies over Afghanistan are brought.
The Jets had provided not only guidance for military jets, but also for civilian aircraft. The military alliance formally asked Germany several weeks ago, with 100 soldiers to participate in the monitoring mission. The request was turned down, however. The Foreign Office and the Defense Department signaled NATO that Germany will focus on training Afghan security forces and therefore could provide no further capacity for additional staff.
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle reiterated this stance on Sunday during his brief visit to the Afghan capital Kabul. "We have communicated this vote early and NATO. The dismissive attitude that he himself had discussed with the commander of NATO troops in Afghanistan, this was by no means a surprise.
The decision of NATO is a signal to the recalcitrant government. Internally, it means that one would push the Berlin alone for 90 days, but still participate in the mission. Specifically, NATO had requested from Germany of 25 soldiers for the aircraft and another 75 men for the ground stations.
Now we hope that the launch of Operation Berlin express again to think. In Brussels it was said that the Germans could at any time to the mission. The "no fear of new talk from Berlin is mainly the fear of a new debate about the whole Afghanistan mission due. During the ongoing debate on the new mandate for the Bundeswehr, the coming week will be decided by the Cabinet and then must pass through the parliament, the government did not want to fight with another mandate.
Although the Bundestag had already in 2009 decided such, then came the mission but not for lack of overflight rights for the Jets to pass. In the view of Berlin, the request of NATO came just now, as in all NATO countries about the timing and conditions for a reduction and ultimately a withdrawal of troops is running at the wrong time.
Whether the government for the AWACS mission would have needed a new mandate, is legally disputed. Maybe you could take the soldiers and from the current mandate, is a legal interpretation. Nevertheless, the government feared in such conditions an outcry from the opposition. This would have immediately called the Federal Constitutional Court, the hypothesis, as it took me the first go so well its own mandate.
Fearing disruptive in the already intricate debate about the Afghanistan mission, Berlin had already intervened in the far upstream in the NATO. When the Germans had received unofficially in November wind of the plans, the Foreign Ministry sent the Afghanistan Special Representative Michael Steiner to Kabul.
There, Steiner said the U.S. commander of NATO units, the German view of things. In Kabul, General David Petraeus Steiner asked urgently to send best not even a request to Germany, it was full with the required training of the Afghan people busy. On the subsequent NATO summit in Lisbon, the subject was not mentioned then.
NATO will not accept No, but nevertheless went a few weeks later an official request in Berlin, Berlin then delayed a decision with the remark that the NATO Council should deal with the matter. The current decision clearly shows that NATO does not want to accept the cancellation of Berlin.
Chancellor's Office, Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence must now discuss how to deal with the Cause. First, however, should the standard be adopted in Afghanistan mandate, it said in Berlin government circles. Then you could be dealing again with the AWACS question. The Bundeswehr is about one-third of the AWACS crews of the NATO fleet.
The aircraft are unarmed. You can choose from a height of 9000 meters, one each of more than 300,000 square kilometers - monitor and be refueled in the air - such as the area of Poland. The flying radar stations belong to NATO and stationed in North Rhine-Westphalia Geilenkirchen. On the ground are thus assist in any case, the new German military mission over the Hindu Kush.
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