The spokesman's perspective:

Continuing our new series of video commentary, NATO Spokesman James Appathurai gives his personal perspective on recent articles discussing NATO. He invites you to write in with your own comments and opinions, which could be featured in the next installment.

E-mail comments to: press@hq.nato.int

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Wednesday expressed concern over Russia's actions to establish legal links with the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

NATO allies, at their recent summit in Bucharest, reiterated their support for the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Georgia. The Russian steps undermine that sovereignty," said de Hoop Scheffer in a statement.

NATO admitted on Thursday that a helicopter mistakenly dropped military supplies in the wrong place in southern Afghanistan and that they had subsequently disappeared.

Afghan media said the ammunition including rocket-propelled grenades as well as food and water was seized by Taliban militants, but NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) did not say who took the supplies.

At the NATO summit meetings held earlier this month in Bucharest, Romania, the Canadian delegation was quick to claim it had successfully achieved its objectives. Those goals had been outlined in the report tabled by the independent panel on Afghanistan which was headed by former deputy prime minister John Manley. It had been the Manley report's conclusion that Canada's military commitment to Afghanistan was entirely dependant upon our NATO allies contributing a 1,000-strong reinforcement to Kandahar, and upon our own military being able to somehow acquire medium-lift helicopters before February 2009.

NATO is beginning a new era in relations with Iraq, the bloc's Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday.

"This is the start of a new era in the relationship between Iraq and NATO," de Hoop Scheffer told reporters, referring to the visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki urged NATO on Thursday to provide more equipment and training to aid his troops in their war against extremists.

"We feel there is a need for more efforts in equipping and training," Maliki said during an unprecedented visit by an Iraqi premier to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation headquarters.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday sent a letter to his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Gruevski extending his country's support of Macedonia's accession to NATO, news reaching here from Skopje reported.

"Britain remains convinced of Macedonia's rightful place as a full member of NATO and will continue to work to that end," Brown told Gruevski in his letter.