International

SP Member of Parliament and defence spokeswoman Krista van Velzen is “very enthusiastic” over the unexpected turn taken by negotiations, currently taking place in Dublin, on a new treaty governing the use of cluster bombs. Van Velzen, present as an observer at the diplomatic conference where the negotiations are proceeding, says that “many delegations wanted to make the proposed treaty even stronger, although the Netherlands wanted to weaken it somewhat. But after a week and a half of negotiations there was a breakthrough, a sudden realisation that without compromises there would be no treaty at all. Every participating country has now voted for a near-total ban on cluster bombs.”

The parliaments of NATO's member states should be involved in discussion of NATO's new strategic concept. The existing 'strategic concept' was adopted in 1999 and is considered outdated. Speaking at this week's meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Berlin, General Secretary Jaap De Hoop Scheffer and German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel both expressed the view that NATO must work with countries outside the alliance and with other international organisations in a global security structure. SP Senate leader Tiny Kox, who together with SP colleague Senator Arjan Vliegenthart is a member of the Netherlands' delegation, responded.