India and China are rising stars of 21st century : NATO chief

Lalit K Jha
Washington, Feb 23 (PTI) Describing India and China as
two "rising stars" of this century, a top NATO official has
said that is a need for the alliance to reach out to the Asian
giants.
"I believe we should reach out to the rising stars of
this century, such as China and India, where we have common
security interests," NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen
said on Monday in his address to the Center for New American
Security – a Washington-based think tank at the Georgetown
University.
"We are pushing ahead with the transformation of our
military forces to make them more flexible and more usable,"
he said.
Rasmussen said a group of strategic experts, led by
former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, is working on the
new security guidelines for the next 10 years, which is
expected to be ready by the end of April.
"Their report will provide the baseline for NATO's
internal deliberations. At our next summit in Lisbon in
November, we will publish the new strategic concept. The
development of our new strategy is the most open and inclusive
process ever in the history of the alliance," he said.
On the NATO operation in Afghanistan, Rasmussen said the
troops have succeeded in reducing the number of civilian
casualties significantly in the recent year.
"We have to continue with our efforts to minimize the
number of civilian casualties," he said.
The NATO chief called Taliban as the "enemies of
Afghanistan" and blamed them for the civilian casualities.
"And it's not just me saying this. I base this on
statistics from the United Nations," he said.
"A huge majority of civilian casualties are caused by the
Taliban and we also know that the Taliban use or misuse women
and children, innocent civilians, as a human shield on roofs,
in windows and otherwise. So they don't care and we have to
take that into consideration as well," the NATO chief said.
Rassmussen hailed Europe and North America as "unique"
when it came to open rules-based trade between like-minded
democracies.
"Now, like-mindedness, shared values and economic
interdependence are certainly good things. But do they also
translate into common security policies? I believe that they
do," he said.
"Afghanistan is the best demonstration. All 28 allies are
in this mission together. Many have taken serious casualties.
The five nations with the highest casualty figures per capita
are Denmark, Estonia, the UK, Canada and the United States,
and in that order," Rasmussen said. PTI LKJ