Sir, - The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr David Andrews, has recently announced that he wants an open discussion on the possibility of Ireland joining the Partnership for Peace (PfP). In this spirit of open discussion, AFrI wishes to make two points concerning any such move.
First, according to NATO's Assistant Secretary General, Gebhardt Von Moltke, in an article which he wrote following the Madrid Summit in July 1998: "the new PfP is now welded to the new NATO." NATO maintains a huge nuclear arsenal and retains a policy of first use of nuclear weapons in a conflict situation. Is it appropriate for the Irish government to "weld" itself to such a policy?
Second, in the field of conventional weapons, NATO members include six of the world's top 10 arms exporters, with weapons sold to regimes such as those of Indonesia and Saudi Arabia. Ambassador Von Moltke goes on to say that "participation in such activities as armaments co-operation. . . will expand to meet the new mission requirements, effectively bringing all of NATO's committees into the PfP process." Is it appropriate for the Irish Government to "co-operate" in armaments policies with states which fuel world conflict and repression by selling weapons to dictators?
AFrI looks forward to a full and open discussion of these and other matters. - Yours, etc., Joe Murray,
AFrI Co-ordinator, Grand Canal House, Lower Rathmines Road, Dublin 6.