Imami, Haxhinasto at NATO meeting

TIRANA, Oct. 17 – Foreign Minister Edmond Haxhinasto and Defense Minister Arben Imami took part last week at the NATO meeting in Brussels discussing on the new strategy.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and his fellow NATO defence ministers discussed issues in advance of next month’s summit meeting of the alliance’s heads of state in Lisbon, Portugal.
“The work that we have cut out for us in Brussels tomorrow really is about trying to move forward and reach final agreement on a lot of the other aspects of the summit that are important in terms of the future of the alliance,” said Gates.
The participants reached agreement on NATO’s new strategic concept — with assured security and dynamic engagement at its centre
the council also discussed on committing to various “critical capabilities” — among them missile defence, capabilities to counter improvised explosive devices, cyber defence, and aircraft command and control systems.
There’s a proposal to slim down the alliance’s command structure to realize “significant efficiencies.” NATO has 14 agencies and a proposal is on the table to trim that number to three.
some allies are planning defence cuts. Gates said he was worried that any such cuts would cause the alliance to look toward the United States to cover any gaps created, “at a time when we’re facing stringencies of our own, that’s a concern for me.”
A defence ministers’ session of the North Atlantic Council took place to be joined in the afternoon by the alliance’s foreign ministers for a joint session of the council. The foreign ministers also held a separate meeting among themselves after that.