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

It is good that NATO admits the threat of a missile attack and it is planning to participate in the U.S. missile defense shield in Europe, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said on Monday.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said during a meeting hosted by the Czech Foreign Ministry that the Alliance is now looking into the possibilities of interconnecting the U.S. system with NATO's and with national systems.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has warned that more nations may follow the examples of Iran and North Korea and work to develop nuclear weapons.

He said Monday that the possibility that Syria could be building a weapons-capable nuclear reactor showed that NATO must find an answer to ballistic missile threats.

NATO isn't battling Taliban militants in Afghanistan as aggressively as U.S. forces did after the 2001 invasion and toppling of the Islamist regime, according to two provincial governors from the country's mountainous east.

Hampered by self-imposed restrictions, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been slower to coordinate a response to the Taliban, Lutfallah Mashal, governor of Laghman province, told reporters today in Berlin.

Russia is playing a game of cat-and-mouse with neighboring Georgia that, if everyone is not a lot more careful, could quickly turn deadly.

The Kremlin has never been happy with Georgia’s pro-Western preferences and was infuriated by its push for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Because of Moscow’s fierce objections, the Atlantic alliance decided last month to postpone membership talks with Georgia. Instead of calming down, Moscow saw that as confirmation that its bullying and threats work — and decided to bully and threaten even more.

A poll released Tuesday showed a solid majority of Ukrainians opposed to the idea of their country joining the NATO alliance.

The survey by FOM-Ukraina said 54.9 percent of the country was against joining NATO compared to 22.3 percent who thought it was a good idea.

NATO has launched a two-year program to help safety and security at Afghan munitions depots.

The program is expected to cost around €6 million (US$9 million).

Belgium, Canada and Luxembourg will act as lead nations for the project focusing on the Afghan military's two main munitions depots.

Iran accused NATO on Wednesday of being indifferent towards Afghanistan's growing drugs problem and called on European states to help Tehran fight smuggling of heroin and other narcotics from its neighbour.

Iran is on a heroin smuggling route to the West from the opium fields of Afghanistan, the world's number one producer of the opium poppy, which is processed to make heroin.

The German government violated the constitution in sending soldiers on a mission in Turkey without parliament's approval immediately before the U.S. invaded Iraq, Germany's top constitutional court ruled.

The German soldiers, serving on AWACS military planes under North Atlantic Treaty Organization command, were engaged in surveillance operations in Turkish airspace. The mission was linked to the war in Iraq, and therefore required parliamentary approval, the Karlsruhe-based Federal Constitutional Court said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reiterated Wednesday that the United States supports full NATO membership for Macedonia as soon as possible.Greece last month blocked Macedonia's entry into the alliance because of the dispute over Macedonia's name.

U.S. officials were deeply disappointed that Greece and Macedonia failed to resolve the name issue before last month's NATO summit in Bucharest, prompting the Greek veto of Macedonia's membership bid.