NOORDWIJK, Netherlands (AFP) – The United States was to press its European allies Wednesday to provide more troops and equipment to combat the insurgency in Afghanistan, at NATO defence ministers’ talks in the Netherlands.
At a two-day meeting in the coastal town of Noordwijk, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates was expected to buttonhole the allies for reinforcements, with the US military increasingly stretched by fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Thirty-seven nations are contributing around 40,000 troops to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, which is battling to extend the rule of the weak central government across the country.
ISAF commanders have requested more combat troops, helicopters and aircraft, as well as trainers to help bring fledgling Afghan soldiers up to a standard where they can provide security on their own. But countries doing the lion’s share of the fighting — the US, Britain and Canada — feel let down that their allied partners are still unwilling to deploy troops to the volatile south and east of Afghanistan.
“We expect NATO allies and EU partners to meet their responsibility in sharing the risks and costs of collective action,” British Defence Secretary Des Browne told parliament last week. “The contribution of some European nations is quite disappointing,” he said.
In a sign of growing US exasperation, Gates has even let speculation mount that Washington might withdraw its 1,800 troops from Kosovo, in Europe’s backyard, after next summer to plug holes in Afghanistan. Yet the importance of NATO’s mission in Afghanistan — its biggest and most ambitious operation ever — cannot be overstated.
The strife-torn country’s mountainous border area with Pakistan has proved a training ground for extremists — including Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network — and a platform for launching attacks around the world. And under pressure from drug lords, not to mention Taliban rebels desperate for money to buy weapons, Afghan farmers are producing around 90 percent of the opium that reaches Europe’s streets in the form of heroin.
But four years into NATO’s mission — the alliance took over ISAF in 2003 — mounting troop and civilian casualties, the latter often caused by air strikes used when soldiers have been lacking, are turning public opinion.
A survey in Canada in August showed that solid majorities of people in Britain, France, Germany and Italy thought the ISAF-mission was a failure, while almost one in two Canadians agreed. The Netherlands is expected to renew in coming weeks the mandate of some 1,500 Dutch troops deployed in the southern province of Oruzgan but surveys suggest the majority of Dutch people are against an extension.
In an interview broadcast Tuesday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said he thought ISAF should focus more on training Afghan security forces and strengthening domestic institutions. Karzai also told Channel 4 News he was concerned about reports that neighbouring Iran was helping to arm the Islamist Taliban militia and would discuss the issue with Iranian officials.
“The answer to the difficulty in Afghanistan is the strengthening of the Afghan institutions, not adding more troops, from any country to Afghanistan,” Karzai told Britain’s Channel 4 news. “We need NATO to train more Afghan forces, we need NATO to train more Afghan police, we need NATO to, or the countries of NATO, to concentrate on enhancing the abilities of the Afghan government, the civil services.
“The strengthening of Afghan institutions, and for Afghans shouldering more of the responsibility, is the way forward,” he said.