Nato - New chief

Anders Fogh Rasmussen takes over as head of Nato military alliance

Article published on the 2009-08-03 Latest update 2009-08-03 17:02 TU

Former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen at the alliance headquarters in Brussels, 3 August 200.
(Photo: Reuters/Yves Herman)

The new chief of the Western military alliance, Nato said that Afghanistan is the organisation's priority. On his first day at work, the former Danish prime minister said that the alliance is not in a hurry to leave. 

He stressed however that Nato would ultimately want to transfer security responsibilty to the Afghan government .

Succeeding Dutch diplomat Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the new secretary general inherits a daunting task with about 90,000 Nato troops battling a raging Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

He will also have to help thaw chilled relations with Russia, and ensure that thousands of Nato troops leave Kosovo without re-igniting the ethnic tinder-box between Serbs and Albanian Kosovars.

Work needs to be done also on the Nato-Russia Council, the forum where Moscow and the alliance cooperate and air their many differences. That body took a knock over the war in Georgia a year ago.

On the diplomatic side, Rasmussen has to earn the trust of the Muslim world after Turkey initially objected to his candidacy following the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in the Danish press. Ankara will insist he make good on a pledge to develop a dialogue with the Muslim world during his four-year tenure as Nato's top civilian official.

There are divisions within Nato itself, setting a further challenge for Rasmussen. France and Germany notably are opposed to the US-backed Nato candidacies of former Soviet Georgia and Ukraine.