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's commander in Afghanistan urged the government on Thursday to step up its fight against the opium trade, which is increasingly fuelling the insurgency.

"The Afghan government must stand up and say, 'Much of our country is defined by the illegal narcotics business and we are no longer going to stand for it'," U.S. General Dan McNeill said.

The departing American commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Dan K. McNeill, raised concerns on Thursday that Pakistan had not followed through on promises to tackle militancy on its side of the border, and in recent months had even stopped its cooperation with NATO and Afghan counterparts on border issues.

General McNeill said Pakistan’s failure to act against militants in its tribal areas and its decision to hold talks with the militants without putting pressure on them had led to an increase in insurgent attacks against United States and NATO forces in eastern Afghanistan.

The head of NATO forces in Afghanistan, US General Dan McNeill, said Thursday he was optimistic Pakistan would resume operations against militants along its border with Afghanistan.

The three-month-old government in Islamabad has scaled down operations as it pursues peace talks with Taliban in a bid to end a wave of bloody violence. Afghanistan fears this could see more attacks this side of the border.

More than 1,000 soldiers from 25 NATO and partnership countries on Sunday battled imaginary flooding and storms, in the largest international exercise held in Finland.

The five-day drill is aimed at coordinating operations in a crisis between 15 NATO members and 10 Partnership for Peace allies. It included 130 civilian volunteers acting as victims and concerned relatives of people hit by a major storm and floods.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Monday he is deeply concerned over international observers' conclusions that Macedonia elections on Sunday did not meet key international standards.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Observer Mission said in its preliminary conclusions that Macedonian election day was marred by violent incidents, intimidation and ballot stuffing in predominantly ethnic areas.

Morocco agreed Monday to contribute to NATO's anti-terrorism operation in the Mediterranean Sea, the first North African nation to do so.

NATO's Operation Active Endeavor was launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. Under the operation, NATO ships and aircraft monitor and escort shipping across the Mediterranean to deter terrorist activity.

Hungary's Parliament on Monday approved a bill on establishing NATO's strategic logistics airbase in Papa (W Hungary) and stationing related NATO forces on Hungarian soil.

According to the report of Hungarian News Agency, the bill was approved by 363 votes and a single abstention.

Insurgents in a stronghold in southern Afghanistan are fleeing a weeks-old NATO operation, perhaps to sanctuaries across the border, as troops take more ground, the alliance force said Monday.

British troops and US Marines launched late April the operation in Garmser district, a Taliban logistics hub on the southern border with Pakistan and from where rebels are said to move northwards to feed an insurgency.

The outgoing American general in charge of Nato forces in Afghanistan for the past 15 months says the war against the Taleban is "under-resourced".

Gen Dan McNeill hands over command of Nato's International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) to another American, Gen David McKiernan, shortly.

A NATO delegation, led by NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, will visit Ukraine on June 16-17, a representative of the secretariat of Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Grigory Nemyrya reported on Tuesday. Aside from meetings and talks in Kiev, the NATO delegation will visit Dnepropetrovsk, Lvov and Kharkov. Other details of the visit were not made public.