Progress Party boss Carl I Hagen thinks Bill Clinton should take over as NATO boss. PHOTO: KNUT FALCH/SCANPIX
Posted on 06/17/2003 3:02:59 PM PDT by yankeedame
Tuesday 17 June 2003 Updated: 16 Jun, 11:17 (GMT+1)
AFTENPOSTEN
(English frontpage)
Hagen wants Clinton to head NATO
One of Norway's most highly profiled and right-wing politicians, Carl I Hagen, is urging the nomination of former US President Bill Clinton as new NATO boss. Norwegian officials have given up hopes that their own defense minister, Kristin Krohn Devold, will get the job.
Progress Party boss Carl I Hagen thinks Bill Clinton should take over as NATO boss. PHOTO: KNUT FALCH/SCANPIX
Hagen, who heads Norway's Progress Party, told newspaper Aftenposten Monday that NATO's new leader should have international authority, respect and experience. He thinks Clinton, therefore, is the perfect choice.
"There are plenty of people who can be leader of a secretariat in Brussels, but that's not what NATO needs right now," Hagen told Aftenposten, adding that he thinks NATO needs a "political heavyweight" to succeed Lord Robertson as general secretary.
"NATO is in a very difficult situation, with a deep conflict between the US and the major EU countries Germany and France," Hagen said. The new general secretary, he said, must be able to bring NATO members together again.
Clinton, he notes, "has good and close contact with many of Europe's leaders, and he enjoys considerable respect. He can be the bridge-builder the alliance needs."
Hagen added that it's especially important for Norway that the conflict within NATO be eased. "Therefore Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik should propose Bill Clinton as a candidate," he said.
Devold's waning prospects He denied his proposal was meant to undermine Bondevik's own efforts to push Norwegian Defense Minister Kristin Krohn Devold's candidacy. "If NATO decides the alliance should have a general secretary who will first and foremost be a secretariat leader, I haven't said she's unqualified," he said.
Hagen also said he thinks it would be difficult for US President George W Bush to oppose Clinton if a majority of European countries want him.
Devold's informal candidacy, meanwhile, doesn't appear to have generated much support from other European leaders. One source told Aftenposten that while Devold is viewed as a having done a good job for Norway, "no one has said, 'yeah, this is the candidate we need.'"
Other strikes against her are her relatively limited international experience and the fact that Norway, while a member of NATO, is not a member of the EU.
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Aftenposten's Norwegian reporter: Ole Mathismoen
Aftenposten English Web Desk: Nina Berglund
BWAHAHAHAHA!
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