OAS Nations Activate Mutual Defense Treaty

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 20, 2001; Page A18

The Organization of American States agreed yesterday to activate a hemispheric mutual defense treaty in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Activation of the treaty was agreed by acclamation in a special meeting of OAS ambassadors in Washington despite reservations by some members, including Mexico. The 1947 accord obligates signatories to consider an attack from outside the region against any member nation to be an attack against all, and to come to one another's defense.

A separate resolution called for foreign ministers of the 34 member nations to meet here Friday to consider new anti-terrorism measures. Within that meeting, the 23 pact signatories will discuss the form their defense cooperation will take.

Formally known as the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, the pact is commonly called the Rio Treaty. Its collective security commitment is nearly identical to that in a NATO defense agreement invoked last week. A similar provision has also been activated in a defense treaty among the United States, Australia and New Zealand.

The Bush administration has not yet revealed its plans for striking back at those it will ultimately hold responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But administration officials said that Rio Treaty members would not be asked for military assistance.

"This is a gesture of solidarity, not a fighting coalition," said one U.S. official. Instead, the United States is likely to ask for increased intelligence-sharing and closer cooperation in border control.

Yesterday's agreement headed off a brewing diplomatic battle between the United States and Mexico, which was in the forefront of a minority group with reservations about activating the accord.

During a visit here in early September, Mexican President Vicente Fox said the treaty, originally designed to defend against communist threats to the hemisphere, was "obsolete and useless" and that his nation was likely to withdraw from it. The Bush administration agreed the accord needed revamping to address current security threats, including drug trafficking and corrosive effects of poverty.

But the events of Sept. 11 brought an immediate change of administration position about the treaty's utility. Seeking worldwide condemnation of the terrorist attacks, unlimited cooperation in finding the perpetrators and support for retaliation, the U.S. government moved to activate all existing defense agreements.

In Mexico, where long-standing foreign policy and public opinion oppose any engagement outside its borders, that posed a dilemma for Fox. Mexican press commentary over the last week has ridiculed the possibility he would now agree to activation of an accord he had previously trashed.

On Tuesday night, as OAS ambassadors prepared for yesterday's meeting, the administration was "absolutely stunned," according to one senior official, when Fox issued a statement saying the treaty was "not the ideal mechanism" to confront the current threat. Mexico has noted that most Caribbean nations, which became independent years after the treaty was drawn up, are not signatories. Neither is Canada, a NATO member.

Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda said yesterday that he had assured Secretary of State Colin L. Powell last Saturday that "If this [treaty] is important to you, despite the fact that we do not like it, and we do not think it is the proper way to go, we will go along with it."

In his statement yesterday thanking OAS members for their solidarity, U.S. Ambassador Roger Noriega did not mention Mexico. Instead, he congratulated Brazil, which introduced the treaty resolution and promoted it behind the scenes, for its "bold and visionary leadership" and said it had shown "that a genuine global power and moral leader demonstrates what it is by what it does."

Correspondent Kevin Sullivan contributed to this report from Mexico City.