---

NATO should develop further its capacity to train security forces in global hotspots, but is “woefully underfunded” to accomplish that and other priorities, said Ambassador Victoria Nuland, the United States permanent representative to NATO, in her first public address in Brussels.   Speaking on September 22 at GMF’s Transatlantic Center to a combined crowd of the NATO and EU communities — including diplomats, journalists, scholars, and businesspeople — Nuland also advocated working on broadening NATO partnerships in the Middle East, in North Africa, and with countries like Australia and Japan. She also laid out the U.S. priorities for the next two NATO summits, in 2006 and 2008. The first of these, she said, should be focused on NATO working on its existing structure, and the second would consider possible enlargement.   Nuland said one key component of NATO’s future lay in training troops, as it has done in Iraq and Africa. “We think NATO has huge untapped potential as a security trainer,” she said. “How much better is it to train others to manage their own security than to have to send troops in a crisis?”   NATO’s role in Afghanistan highlights this desire, but also points to the danger of underfunding that and other missions, she said, calling out for increased funding from Alliance members. “The good news is that we have a real and growing ambition to handle security in one of the most dangerous places in the world — Afghanistan. But are we prepared to match that level of ambition with what it takes?”   Nuland spoke as part of an ongoing Distinguished Speakers’ Series hosted by the Transatlantic Center. A full text of her remarks is available here.