U.S. seeks NATO support for broader Afghan strategy

Source: Xinhua | 02-21-2009 08:31

by Paul Ames

BRUSSELS, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- At a meeting with his NATO counterparts in the Polish city of Krakow this week, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged his country's allies to send more troops to Afghanistan.

But the response to his call was muted.

Instead of rushing forward with troops of their own, most European allies welcomed U.S. President Barrack Obama's recent decision to deploy an extra 17,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, expanding U.S. presence there to around 55,000.

European troops are now limited to operations in the relatively peaceful north and west of Afghanistan.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, nearing the end of his mandate, was unusually candid in his assessment of the situation in Afghanistan.

"We are frankly not where we had hoped to be by now," he told the ministers on Thursday. "The south and east of Afghanistan are riven by insurgency, while drugs and the lack of effective government contribute to the frustration felt by Afghans at the lack of progress."

De Hoop Scheffer told the European allies that they had to do more to support the stepped up U.S. effort.

"Let me make clear that more forces is not only, of course, leaning back and waiting for our American friends to bring in more forces, but it is very much for the other allies to live up to their commitments and to live up to expectations," he told a news conference.

However, Gates' call for allies to do more did not go entirely unheeded.

Germany confirmed this week that it would send an extra 600 troops, while Italy said it would add an additional 500. Hungary offered a 40-strong rifle platoon to reinforce its 360 troops and Estonia pledged to send instructors to help train Afghan soldiers.

Although European nations cannot match the numbers announced by Obama this week as he seeks to shift the focus of U.S. military muscle from Iraq to Afghanistan, NATO officials said they were confident that European allies would come up with more troops to provide at least temporary security from May until the Afghan presidential elections in August.

Diplomats say they expect more European nations to step forward ahead of NATO's 60th anniversary summit scheduled for early April in Strasbourg and Baden-Baden on the Franco-German border.

According to Gates, up to 20 nations have indicated they will announce some sort of additional military or civilian contribution in the run-up to the summit.