The deployment of the British aircraft carrier HMS Invincible in the Adriatic later this week as part of the largest reinforcement of NATO's military capability in the war against Yugoslavia is visible demonstration of NATO's commitment to "completing the job" and forcing President Milosevic to reverse ethnic cleansing, the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, said yesterday. The vessel is expected to arrive off the Italian coast on Thursday and will bring to the conflict its full complement of aircraft, including seven Sea Harrier jets and 10 Sea King helicopters. It will increase the number of Harriers deployed by Britain to 19.
Mr Cook said this latest deployment would "greatly strengthen" the capacity for ground attacks on President Milosevic's Serb forces. Later, in a TV interview, Mr Cook refused to rule out the use of NATO ground troops in Yugoslavia in the event that Serb troops were severely depleted. Reports have suggested NATO would be willing to send in the troops, without President Milosevic's acceptance, if his troops no longer presented a threat. "If there are no troops of the Serbs left in Kosovo and President Milosevic is still refusing to say yes, we will look at that situation," he said. In a live video-link from Tirana, with the Albanian Foreign Minister, Mr Paskal Milmo, he told journalists during the briefing that his country was ready to accept more NATO ground troops and had handed over control of the country's air space, ports and military infrastructure to the Allied forces. He also called for an international protectorate to be established in Kosovo.
Meanwhile, in an article for the news magazine Newsweek, published today the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, robustly defends NATO air strikes and says the world must learn from the "bitter experience" of Hitler's regime in the 1930s that appeasement does not work.