Increasing Afghan challenges for Nato

Nato allies spurn US troops plea
By Jan Cienski in Krakow and Isabel Gorst in Moscow

Published: February 19 2009 17:52 | Last updated: February 19 2009 17:52

US hopes of securing more troops for Afghanistan from its Nato allies were disappointed on Thursday as European countries refused to offer up many more soldiers despite pleas from Robert Gates, US defence secretary.

At a two-day meeting of Nato defence ministers in the Polish city of Krakow, Mr Gates said the new US administration “is prepared to make additional commitments to Afghanistan. But there clearly will be expectations that the allies must do more as well”.

In a tangible sign of the importance the administration of Barack Obama, the US president, is placing on Afghanistan, Washington has said it will send an additional 17,000 soldiers to boost the 38,000 troops already there.

However, other Nato allies, which have about 30,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, were prepared to offer only several hundred more to help secure the country during forthcoming elections, while Poland, host of the meeting, said it had no plans to increase its forces above the 1,600 already in theatre.

The lacklustre response to US hopes for a more robust commitment from the allies came as the parliament in Kyrgyzstan voted overwhelmingly to evict the US from a military base that is a crucial transit hub for its forces in Afghanistan.

The step led Washington to accuse Moscow of hindering the war effort in Afghanistan by backing the closure of Manas, the only US military base in former Soviet central Asia. Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Kyrgyzstan’s president, announced plans to shut the base this month during a visit to Moscow, where he accepted a $2.1bn (€1.7bn, £1.5bn) Russian aid package.

Mr Gates accused Russia of “trying to have it both ways” by offering to support Nato efforts in Afghanistan while opposing the US base in Kyrgyzstan.

Russia has offered to open its territory to Nato as a transit route for non-lethal goods bound for Afghanistan. The offer, matched by Russia’s central Asian allies, could provide a crucial alternative to the so-called southern route into Afghanistan from Pakistan, where military convoys are coming under attack from rebels.

Despite the blow in Kyrgyzstan, a Nato spokesman said 80 per cent of the alliance’s supplies in Afghanistan arrived via Pakistan, and that Nato had the flexibility to replace Manas.

Afghanistan, and the related issue of Pakistan, dominated discussions in Krakow, with Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato’s secretary-general, saying that the fight in central Asia would last for years, and that western allies would have to provide development assistance to Afghanistan “for generations”. The key to reducing the western effort there would be training the Afghan army and police to take on more of the fighting, he said.

Militants fighting Nato forces in Afghanistan were also trying to destabilise Pakistan, and the alliance should therefore take a more regional approach to the Afghan conflict. “We should increase military-to-military engagement in Pakistan and deepen the political dialogue,” the Nato chief said.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
Reports from the Informal Meeting of NATO Defence Ministers, Cracow, Poland, 19-20 February 2009. Nato defence ministers skated their way over many of the difficulties surrounding the alliance's mission in Afghanistan.

• Primary Source

NATO: Issues: Operations: Afghanistan http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/topics_8189.htm

NATO: Press Release, 19.2.09: Defence Ministers discuss key priorities in Afghanistan http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_50934.htm

NATO: Informal Meeting of NATO Defence Ministers, Cracow, Poland, 19-20 February 2009 http://www.nato.int/docu/comm/2009/0902-krakow/0902-krakow.htm

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