ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:95080805.POL
DATE:08/08/95
TITLE:PERRY: NATO-PFP EXERCISE DESIGNED TO MAKE EUROPE MORE SECURE

TEXT:
(EUROSEC: NATO military standards will be stressed) (520)
By Jacquelyn S. Porth
USIA Security Affairs Correspondent

Washington -- Defense Secretary Perry says the joint NATO-PFP
(Partnership for Peace) exercise currently underway in the state of
Louisiana is one part of the set of building blocks needed to produce
"a new security structure in Europe."

On hand to launch the "Cooperative Nugget '95" exercise at Fort Polk,
Perry said the combined peacekeeping and humanitarian aid exercise is
"an important part of our efforts" to make Europe "more secure."

It is the first NATO-PFP exercise to take place on American soil, and
Perry noted that "we are working to replace confrontation with
cooperation."

By being partners in peacekeeping operations, Perry said, "we can be
true partners in peace." The participants are learning to work
together "as friends," he explained, "rather than facing each other as
enemies."

The exercise stresses interoperability and the development of common
military standards. It involves 14 PFP nations, 11 observers and the
three NATO nations of Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United
States. The PFP participants are: Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech
Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Kyrgystan, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland,
Romania, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

More than 4,000 soldiers are participating at the Army's Joint
Readiness Training Center, and each participating nation has
contributed a rifle platoon. The platoons have been combined into
rifle companies to support a NATO-PFP battalion.

The secretary said the soldiers will practice coordinating with civil
populations and working with non-governmental organizations like the
International Red Cross.

Also present for the launching of the Cooperative Nugget exercise, Sir
Richard Vincent, chairman of the NATO military committee, said PFP
opportunities such as this one have both "substance" and "practical
merit" because they permit participants to choose the depth and degree
of participation while allowing them to get to know and understand
each other better.

Exercises such as these, he said, will permit NATO-PFP nations to
conduct "efficient multinational" efforts which have never been done
before outside the NATO framework. Perry also noted that PFP is the
vehicle "for bringing about the security integration of Western Europe
with Eastern Europe; (and for) bringing Eastern Europe into the
security architecture of Europe."

Asked why Russia was not participating or observing Cooperative
Nugget, the secretary noted that dozens of NATO-PFP exercises are
planned and that Russia will participate in some of them. No one
country is participating in all of the scheduled exercises, he added.

During Cooperative Nugget, which runs through the end of August,
participants will spend seven days training for tasks such as
peacekeeping patrols and how to conduct convoy operations. Once
trained, they will take part in a national peacekeeping exercise in a
scenario designed to represent a fictional border dispute between two
hypothetical countries.

Cooperative Nugget is being supported by 12 Special Forces coalition
support teams from the 10th Special Forces Group based in Fort Carson,
Colorado. They are providing translation and technical support.
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