West touts success of Libyan mission

BRUSSELS, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- A rapidly changing geopolitical system doesn't mean nations can walk away from their security obligations, the U.S. defense secretary said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told an audience at the Carnegie Europe Center in Brussels that the world community was grappling with economic turmoil that threatened key defense spending. Meanwhile, political upheavals across the Middle East added to the complexity of international challenges.

"But that cannot be an excuse for walking away from our national security responsibilities," he said. "This fiscal environment means that the United States and all nations in NATO must depend on their fellow members even more to share the burden of protecting common interests."

He touted Operation Unified Protector, the NATO-led mission in Libya, as an example of how allied nations could work together to take on tyrannical regimes like Moammar Gadhafi's.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told a ministerial conference at NATO headquarters that the Libyan mission was a success in an ever-changing world.

"Operation Unified Protector has done what we said it would do," he said. "We have kept our commitment to the United Nations, to the region and to the Libyan people."

The U.N. Security Council authorized the NATO mission in Libya in March.