McCain suggests 'new global order' for democracies

Washington (AP): Senator John McCain suggested that the trans-Atlantic alliance join with democracies around the world including India to forge "a new global order of peace" that would last throughout the 21st century.

The Republican candidate for the US presidency said the process should begin at the alliance's April summit meeting in Bucharest, Romania. Stepping up the NATO commitment to Afghanistan is one priority, he said, but that must lead to greater change around the world.

McCain expressed his views in a statement distributed by his campaign on the occasion of the 44th annual Munich Conference on Security Policy in Germany. He traditionally has spoken at the conference but stayed home this year to campaign.

He said NATO is building in Afghanistan "a global alliance of democracies that can act as force for freedom and grater prosperity across the globe for decades to come."

Part of that will come through its enlargement, he said, which will continue at the April summit with the addition of Albania, Croatia and Macedonia. Others should come later, he said.

Still, he said, "the future of NATO lies not only in expanding its membership, transforming its mission and deepening its commitments. It lies also in cooperating with states far from our shores," such as Japan, Australia and India.

"They are proud, powerful and progressive nations committed to the values that have given our alliance such enduring strength," McCain said. In this way, NATO can become "the basis for a new global order of peace, one that will last not just for a decade but for the rest of this century."

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/00 ... 100321.htm