NATO to Consider Boosting Pacific Ties

[NVMojo]

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - New Zealand is just about as far from the North Atlantic as you can get. Despite the distance, leaders of NATO will next week be discussing how to draw the Pacific nation and other regional democracies further into its orbit.

The idea is simple, say supporters of the NATO global partnership plan - principally the United States and Britain. Asia-Pacific democracies are already helping with troops or funding in Afghanistan. They share the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's ideals and have regional expertise. They boast diplomatic weight or military muscle.

So building political and military cooperation with Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea to tie them to the trans-Atlantic alliance can only boost global security, the thinking goes.

"We all face the same threats and it is in their interests, as well as our own, that we come closer together," NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, a Dutchman, said last week.

more...
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-eur/2006/nov/23/112307577.html

[acmejack]

1. The ramifications of poor knowledge of World geography

[msongs]

2. NATO = north ATLANTIC treaty Organization nt

[Nihil]

3. Maybe they just want to fly South for the winter? (n/t)

:shrug: