Caucaz europenews
01/23/2005

Who’s Who

Robert Simmons [SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE – NATO]

By Marie ANDERSON in Tbilisi
On 18/01/2005

NATO Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia

June 2004. During the summit in Istanbul, NATO Heads of State and Government
decided to create the new position of Special Representative for the
Caucasus and Central Asia. Robert F. Simmons Jr. was appointed to this
position.

Objectives

declared objective : to develop the cooperation with partner countries,
notably by supporting their military reform. To fulfill this objective, a
Partnership Action Plan on Defense Institution Building, also so-called
Democratic institutions, was implemented in those very countries.

In addition, there are also three other programs on NATO’s agenda :
– NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP)
– Planning and Review Process (PARP)
– Individual Partnership Action Plans (IPAP), only for the Central Asia
countries, so as to prepare their Forces for joint military exercises.

Robert Simmons, appointed on September 15th 2004, has his office in Brussels
and should frequently visit the Caucasus and Central Asia countries. For
this mission to be successfull, NATO has also assigned two liaison officers
both in Central Asia and in Caucasus.

First visit as the newly appointed Representative: in October-November 2004,
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and Robert Simmons visited the
partner countries in Central Asia (Kyrghyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan), and in Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan),
so as to meet the regional political leasders, and to demonstrate the
Atlantic Alliance’s willingness to expand its relations with the partner
countries of those two regions.

Political profile

July 2002. During a visit to Washington of NATO sub-committees on
Transatlantic Relations and on the Proliferation of Military Technology,
Robert Simmons, then Deputy Director of the Office of European Security and
Political Affairs at the US Department of State, reminded the concerns
raised among his administration about the countries on the “axis of evil”
(Iran, Iraq, and North Corea). He also mentioned that even if the Iranian
reformers were to have the upper hand in the struggle against the
conservative clerics, Tehran would still try to develop weapons of mass
destruction and missile capabilities.

It is important to remind that, with his new NATO prerogatives, Robert
Simmons occupies a key position as regards the relations between Iran and
the Central Asian, as well as South-Caucasian countries.

Besides, during last November official visit of Jaap de Hoop and Robert
Simmons to Turkmenistan, President Niyazov made a quite diplomatic point as
he stated that« he was not worried about the expansion of NATO », adding
that « in this complex region, by the very presence of Afghanistan and Iran,
[…], NATO has a big role to play. ».

Personal profile

A former US Department of State official, Robert F. Simmons Jr. occupied
several positions where he dealt with Eurasian security and arms control
policy issues.
He then becomes a Senior Advisor to the US Assistant Secretary of State for
European and Eurasian Affairs.

Currently working at NATO International Staff, Robert Simmons serves both as
NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security
Policy, his first position in NATO, and as the Special Representative for
the Caucasus and Central Asia.