Obama Sees NATO Support for Missile Defense

By STEPHEN FIDLER

LISBON—Leaders of the 28-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization met Friday to secure an agreement on expanding a U.S. missile defense system to cover all the alliance's territories in Europe.

They said the accord on missile defense would commit the alliance to expanding the U.S. system to cover all NATO's populations in Europe, including Turkey. But though the initial aim of the project is to deal with potential threats from Iran, the leaders won't name specific countries in their accord.

In a Friday meeting, the leaders agreed to a new strategy that commits it to dealing with developing threats, for example from nuclear proliferation, cyberattacks and ballistic missiles.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the strategy "modernizes the way NATO does defense in the 21st century."

He said the alliance would increase its role in counterinsurgency operations and develop for the first time a modest capacity to deploy civilians on operations.

The strategy backs nuclear disarmament but says the alliance won't get rid of all its nuclear weapons until there are no others in the world. "As long as nuclear weapons exist, NATO will remain a nuclear alliance," the strategy document says.

The meeting of the leaders is followed Saturday by a summit of 49 nations contributing to the NATO mission in Afghanistan, with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Allies are expected to support a U.S. plan to begin the process of handing over responsibility for security in Afghanistan to Afghan forces next year, with the handover of the final province in 2014.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO's secretary-general, said he saw the final handover target as realistic. But he added: "But let me stress we foresee the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan after 2014, but not in a combat role."

The NATO leaders will also meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday, and attempt to improve cooperation on issues such as counterterrorism, counternarcotics and the war in Afghanistan.

Moscow is expected to sign an accord expanding the number of nonlethal products that can be shipped through its territory to Afghanistan, and for the first time allow NATO to ship materials out through Russia. (FONTE: Wall Street Journal)