Sir, - I strongly recommend that Andy Storey (Opinion, April 9th) and those who agree with his bizarre arguments recently expressed in your pages find themselves a copy of the Hague Convention which lays down precisely what neutrality is in terms of rights and responsibilities.
Ireland's detachment from the arms trade has nothing to do with our neutrality. Indeed, there are several Irish and Irish-based international companies which supply technological and other components to the armaments industry. Sweden, one of the leading European neutrals, has a massive armaments industry. Finland has the ability to call up one quarter of its population to its army if necessary. Indeed, a strong arms industry would be a natural development of a real neutrality under the Hague convention where a country claiming neutrality in peacetime is expected to be able to defend itself and not rely on external forces (or alliances which it has shunned) to do so. This is international law.
The Kosovo crisis, according to Mr Storey, must lead us to question the Partnership for Peace. How so? Several subscribers to Partnership for Peace are opposed to NATO's actions. One in particular, Russia, appears to be leading assistance to Serbia. If anything, the Kosovo crisis completely disproves the nonsense that PfP is an integral part of NATO. Austria has refused its air space to NATO as a neutral. How has PfP affected this position of neutrality? Yet Ireland, which is not a PfP subscriber, has taken no position on Kosovo.
How then does PfP relate to the actions in Kosovo? The fact of the matter is it has had no effect on the political positions taken by the various PfP subscribers. However, one effect of PfP membership will be the co-ordination of any peacekeeping force which inevitably follows the current situation and the swift humanitarian action to date compared with previous shambolic UN responses. The ability and interoperability of PfP subscribers in this situation will be of immense benefit in the resettlement of Kosovo. Unfortunately it will be an ability that Ireland has chosen to opt out of heretofore. - Yours, etc., Michael McLoughlin,
The Maltings, Island Street, Dublin 8.