NATO Ministers Chart Course on Ukraine, Afghanistan

Brussels: NATO Foreign Ministers met in Brussels today aiming to plot a new course after a "year of aggression" from Ukraine to the Middle East and the end of the alliance's combat mission in Afghanistan.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said as he arrived that US Secretary of State John Kerry and other ministers from the 28-nation group would discuss how to "drive our alliance forward in a changing world."

"NATO must be strong today and strong tomorrow to deal with any challenges from the east or from the south," said the Norwegian, who took over from Denmark's Anders Fogh Rasmussen on October 1.

Stoltenberg said he expected four outcomes from the meeting: an agreement on boosting forces in the east to counter a rising Russia; a deal on an interim NATO quick reaction force; more support for Ukraine; and to sign off a deal on a support mission in Afghanistan.

He insisted NATO would continue to back Ukraine and pressed Russia to live up to its commitments after it backed a ceasefire and peace plan agreed between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels in the Belarus capital Minsk in September.

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"The challenge is that the separatists and Russia are not respecting" the Minsk accords, he said as he arrived for the meeting at NATO's Brussels HQ.

Speaking on Monday, Stoltenberg had described 2014 as "a year of aggression, crisis and conflict."

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'Spearhead' force

The NATO ministers' agenda will be topped by an interim rapid-reaction force capable of meeting the new and more unpredictable threats that the transatlantic alliance faces.

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Accustomed to long-term threats, NATO's 28 leaders agreed at a September summit to launch a "spearhead" force of around 4,000 troops by 2016 in response to new challenges of hybrid warfare and political upheaval.

But today they will discuss an even faster, smaller force to be operational by early 2015, with Germany and the Netherlands willing to contribute troops.

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Ministers will also review NATO efforts to reassure eastern members such as the Baltic states and Poland- once ruled from Moscow- by rotating aircraft, ships and troops through the region to demonstrate its commitment to their defence.

For Ukraine itself, the foreign ministers are expected to approve four trust funds to finance its military modernization as government forces battle the rebels in a conflict which has claimed more than 4,000 lives.

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However, the question of NATO membership for Ukraine will be strictly off limits, diplomatic sources said.

Kiev's new government wants to restart the membership process interrupted by ousted leader Viktor Yanukovych- but President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly warned such a move would be an unacceptable threat to Russia's security.

"We want to avoid talking about that," one source told AFP, adding: "Nobody thinks it is a good idea; it risks making things worse rather than calming them down."

The US Ambassador to NATO, Douglas Lute, said separately on Monday that the alliance did not solicit new members and it was first of all up to an individual country to apply for membership, setting in train a lengthy admission process.

Anti-IS meeting

Ministers close the meeting Tuesday in the presence of new Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah as the alliance's longest ever combat operation ends in a few weeks.

NATO will replace it with a training and advisory force of some 12,500 troops, mostly US, compared with its peak combat presence of 130,000.

Ghani told Stoltenberg on Monday that this new partnership was based on a shared interest and that Europe and North America had been made safer by the war against the Taliban, who were ousted in 2001 by US-led forces after the 9/11 terror attacks.

Many of the foreign ministers return again on Wednesday to NATO headquarters in Brussels but this time with Kerry in the chair for a meeting of the 60-strong US-led coalition against IS.