COPENHAGEN : Redesigning NATO

The foreign ministers of the 16 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will meet Thursday and Friday in the Danish capital to discuss the ramifications of the newly proposed “rapid reaction corps.”

This is the new, slimmed-down NATO force, approved by defense ministers in Brussels last week, meant to be deployed quickly in or out of the traditional area covered by the alliance.

The NATO foreign ministers are also expected to discuss President Bush’s new arms control proposals for the Middle East and the length of time that the United States and Britain will have to keep forces stationed in the region to protect the Kurds. The ministers will talk, too, about the newly evolving relationship between NATO, the Soviet Union and the former East European Warsaw Pact countries.