By Rick Rozoff - BLN Contributing Writer

On August 4 the chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Italian Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, concluded an official visit to Australia during which he met with the nation’s acting Chief of Defence and
officials from the Department of Defence. The North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, despite its name, has strayed far from its point of origin
61 years ago, extending its grasp from North America and Western Europe
to Asia and the South Pacific.

Di Paola’s deliberations with his Australian counterparts centered on “the need for NATO to work together with strategic partners like Australia, given that Euro-Atlantic security is more and more
interconnected to Euro-Asian and Asian-Pacific regions.”

Australia is the largest troop contributor among non-NATO states to the Alliance’s war effort in South Asia, providing 1,550 troops for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

In an address he delivered at the Australian National University in Canberra, the head of NATO’s top military body (whose first head was General Omar Bradley) spoke on the bloc’s “New Strategic Concept and the
relationship with Global Partners”:

“In this new context, because of the vulnerabilities created by globalization and the rapid pace at which it occurred, it is all the more essential for us to maintain global connectivity if we are to
successfully tackle 21st Century challenges and trends.” [1]

NATO, the world’s only and history’s first international military bloc, now counts among its members and global partners at least 70 nations on five continents, and has troops from seven Asia-Pacific
nations (Australia, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Singapore, South
Korea and Tonga) serving under its command in Afghanistan.

It has expanded from the northern Atlantic Ocean region over the equator to the Antipodes and the reach of its operations extends from the Arctic Ocean to the Antarctic, from Africa’s Gulf of Guinea to the
Gulf of Mexico, the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden.

As Admiral Di Paola maintains, securing the safety of Washington and Brussels requires the expansion of a U.S.-dominated military alliance into “the Euro-Asian and Asian-Pacific regions.” Having subdued and
subordinated almost all of Europe through membership and partnership
expansion over the last eleven years, at its Lisbon summit this November
NATO will formalize its 21st century Strategic Concept in respect to
placing the European continent under a U.S.-controlled interceptor
missile system and expanding military partnerships into those corners of
the planet so far left unincorporated into the network of the global,
expeditionary military formation among other initiatives.

NATO troop deployments, utilization and upgrading of bases, armed combat operations, air patrols, naval surveillance and interdiction, armed forces training programs and regular military exercises now occur
on the borders and off the coasts of China (Afghanistan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Tajikistan), Iran (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan,
Bahrain, Iraq, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United Arab
Emirates) and Russia (Azerbaijan, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine). There are no longer buffer states
between the Western military alliance and major non-NATO nations in
Eurasia.

At the same time the Pentagon is escalating at an unparalleled pace military provocations near China – the recently concluded Invincible Spirit war games in the Sea of Japan with the nuclear-powered
supercarrier USS George Washington, the same aircraft carrier docking in
central Vietnam along with the guided missile destroyer USS John S.
McCain on August 8 for unprecedented naval exercises in the South China
Sea, the Pentagon announcing that the George Washington will soon enter
the Yellow Sea near China’s coastline – and leading the largest-ever
Khaan Quest military exercises in Mongolia with the participation of,
for the first time, troops from fellow NATO nations Germany and Canada
along with France, as well as four Asian NATO candidates that were
included in Khaan Quest 2009: India, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
Mongolia shares borders with China and Russia.

Russia, China and Iran are the only major nations outside Latin America that serve as serious barriers to American worldwide military expansion and dominance. By driving into former Soviet territory in the
Caspian Sea basin and Central Asia, the Pentagon and NATO are completing
their military advance on all three nations. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are situated in a
compact zone between China, Iran and Russia, and all but Uzbekistan
border one or more of the three nations.

Notwithstanding the deadly upheavals in Kyrgyzstan this April and June, the U.S. and NATO have substantially increased the deployment of troops – at least 50,000 a month – and equipment through the nation for
the West’s 150,000-troop, nine-year war in Afghanistan. Washington and
Brussels have activated the Northern Distribution Network to transport
supplies to the Afghan war front from ports on the Baltic, Black and
Caspian Seas through the Caucasus and Central Asia, pulling Azerbaijan
and the five Central Asian states deeper into the Western military
phalanx.

This year leading Pentagon, State Department and NATO officials have paid visits to Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, including the first trip by a U.S. secretary of defense in
five years and a secretary of state in eighteen years to the first-named
state. In April President Obama secured military overflight and transit
rights from his Kazakh opposite number, President Nursultan Nazarbayev,
in a nation adjoining China and Russia.

U.S. ambassador-designate to Azerbaijan, preeminent post-Soviet space hand Matthew Bryza, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on July 20 that his future host country, “located at the crossroads of Europe,
the Middle East, and Central Asia, and bordering Iran,” immediately
after September 11, 2001 “offered us unlimited overflights…for our
military aircraft.”

He added: “Today, Azerbaijan continues to provide valuable overflight, refueling, and landing rights for U.S. and coalition aircraft bound for Afghanistan.

“Azerbaijan has also contributed troops to U.S. and coalition military operations in Afghanistan, as well as Kosovo and Iraq….Azerbaijan has also remained a steadfast supporter of Israel.” [2]

At the same hearing the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, connected the war in Afghanistan and beyond with America’s trans-Eurasian energy campaign against Russia and
Iran: Troops and military equipment go to the east and oil and natural
gas to the west by the same route.

“I am concerned that the continuing absence of a Senate-confirmed US representative there [Azerbaijan] could impede progress toward several US national security goals. Our Committee has worked closely with our
Envoy for Eurasian Energy, Ambassador Richard Morningstar, to promote
the expansion of the Nabucco pipeline, the key element of a southern
energy corridor that would stretch from the Caspian region to Europe.

“Progress on this measure will allow our allies to diversify energy supplies, while providing nations in the region with a focus for closer cooperation. The Nabucco pipeline’s commercial and political viability
will depend on both Azerbaijan’s commitment of its indigenous resources
and its willingness to serve as a transport hub for Central Asian energy
across the Caspian from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and possibly other
countries.

“A close partnership with Azerbaijan and other nations in the South Caucasus will also be essential to ensure the transit of supplies to our troops in the Middle East and to resolve complex disputes concerning
the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave.” [3]

Reinhard Mitschek, managing director of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH in charge of the Western natural gas project from Kazakhstan to Europe, underscored Lugar’s point this June in stating
“Europe is interested in the purchasing of natural gas from Azerbaijan,
Egypt, Iraq and Turkmenistan via the Nabucco pipeline. We came into
agreement. Iran’s participation in this project is not a point at
issue.” [4]

In the same month Agence France-Presse quoted the U.S. ambassador to Tajikistan, Ken Gross, confirming that the Pentagon plans to construct a new military facility in the Central Asian nation: “The plan [includes]
almost $10 million to build [a] national training center for the Tajik
armed forces.” The new base is to be called the Karatag National
Training Center and, according to Gross, could house U.S. military
personnel. [5]

The August 7 edition of the Washington Post substantiated earlier reports that the U.S. plans to establish a comparable base in Kyrgyzstan, which like Tajikistan borders China.

The article revealed that “The United States is planning to move ahead with construction of a $10 million military training base in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, the site of a bloody uprising in June….Called the Osh
Polygon, the base was first proposed under former Kyrgyz president
Kurmanbek Bakiyev as a facility to train Kyrgyz troops for
counterterrorism operations. After the ouster of Bakiyev…discussions
continued under the new Kyrgyz president, Roza Otunbayeva, with whose
government Washington is trying to broaden relationships…Osh Polygon
will consist of a secure garrison compound with officers’ quarters and
barracks for enlisted personnel, plus range facilities, firing pistols,
rifles, crew-served weapons and explosive ordnance….” [6]

Earlier this month the EurasiaNet website posted a feature titled “Is the U.S. Violating Turkmenistan’s Neutrality with the NDN?” Quoting a Russian source, the piece describes the role of the U.S. and NATO
Northern Distribution Network (NDN) in the Turkmen capital: “U.S.
freight transited through Ashgabat is in fact military in nature and
even constitutes criminal contraband. Airport employees claim they saw
armored vehicles, combat helicopters and crates of ammunition. These
reports challenge both the notion of Turkmen neutrality and the supposed
nature of the bilateral agreement between Turkmenistan and the U.S.”

Turkmenistan is a member of the NATO Partnership for Peace program, but its government doesn’t acknowledge supporting U.S. war efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, not to mention those being prepared against Iran,
its neighbor to the north.

However, “The U.S. has gained access to use almost all the military airfields of Turkmenistan, including the airport in Nebit-Dag near the Iranian border, which was reconstructed at American expense. In
September 2004, at the Mary-2 airfield, U.S. military experts appeared
and began reconstructing the facility with the help of Arab construction
companies, which provoked the protest of Moscow….An American military
contingent is located in Ashgabat to oversee the operations related to
refueling of military airplanes. NATO is also trying to open up a land
corridor to bring freight by road and rail….” [7]

With regards to Uzbekistan, where German NATO troops remain at the Termez airbase although the U.S. military was ousted in 2005, Leonid Gusev of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations was cited
last month maintaining that “The U.S. is interested in close
cooperation with Uzbekistan, as the Central Asian country is
strategically important for the U.S.” and that “Uzbek authorities have
recently strengthened cooperation with the U.S. and other Western
countries.”

Gusev added: “Now non-military goods are delivered through Uzbekistan to Afghanistan for NATO troops.

“There is a free industrial and economic zone, ‘Navoi,’ in Uzbekistan on the border with Afghanistan. It is the main transit point for shipments of goods to Afghanistan.

“This zone may soon be transformed into a transcontinental forwarding air point, which will link the Far East, South-East Asia, South Asia and Europe….[T]he U.S. plans to build a new military base near the Uzbek
border to turn Uzbekistan into an important transit point for access to
Afghanistan….It is planned to build an operational center, living accommodation, [a]
tactical operations center, warehouses, [a] training complex, logistics
center…etc. within this project.” [8]

Last week Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hosted Afghan and Tajik presidents Hamid Karzai and Emomali Rahmon in Tehran and, according to a Reuters report, “Iran’s president told the leaders of
Afghanistan and Tajikistan…that the three neighbors could provide a
counterweight to NATO in Asia once foreign troops quit the region.”
Advice that China and Russia would also be wise to heed.

Ahmadinejad was quoted during a meeting with his counterparts stating “The Europeans and NATO are not interested in the progress of our three countries. Those who put pressure from abroad are unwanted guests [and]
should leave, sooner or later.” [9]

With the announcement of new U.S. military bases in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in addition to the indefinite maintenance of those in the latter country, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and with American and NATO
military strength in Afghanistan at a record 150,000 troops, there is no
indication that the Pentagon and the North Atlantic military bloc
intend to leave the strategic arc that begins in the South Caucasus and
ends at the Chinese border. [10]

1) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
August 5, 2010
2) Azeri Press Agency, July 22, 2010
3) Ibid
4) Azeri Press Agency, June 23, 2010
5) Agence France-Presse, June 26, 2010
6) Walter Pincus, U.S. base in Kyrgyzstan remains on track despite tensions
Washington Post, August 7, 2010
7) EurasiaNet, August 1, 2010
8) Trend News Agency, July 15, 2010
9) Reuters, August 5, 2010
10) NATO Pulls Pakistan Into Its Global Network

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/07/23/nato-pulls-pakistan-into...

Afghan War: Petraeus Expands U.S. Military Presence Throughout Eurasia

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/afghan-war-petraeus-expa...

Pentagon Chief In Azerbaijan: Afghan War Arc Stretches To Caspian And
Caucasus

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/1761/

Kazakhstan: U.S., NATO Seek Military Outpost Between Russia And China

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/kazakhstan-u-s-nato-seek...

Kyrgyzstan And The Battle For Central Asia

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/04/08/kyrgyzstan-and-the-battl...

Mongolia: Pentagon Trojan Horse Wedged Between China And Russia

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/mongolia-pentagon-trojan...

NATO’s Role In The Military Encirclement Of Iran

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2010/02/10/natos-role-in-the-milita...

Broader Strategy: West’s Afghan War Targets Russia, China, Iran

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/broader-strategy-wests-a...

West’s Afghan War And Drive Into Caspian Sea Basin

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/wests-afghan-war-and-dri...

Azerbaijan And The Caspian: NATO’s War For The World’s Heartland

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/azerbaijan-and-the-caspi...

Mr. Simmons’ Mission: NATO Bases From Balkans To Chinese Border

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/mr-simmons-mission-nato-...