NATO agrees to expand Afghan mission
Associated Press
Nice, France, February 11, 2005, 2005
NATO defence ministers agreed on a major expansion of the alliance's peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan by sending troops to the west of the country, a key step in a plan to extend NATO's mission across the whole country.
Ministers also on Thursday narrowed differences that have stalled the allied training mission in Iraq, with several nations offering to contribute instructors operating either inside or outside the country.
Agreement on the Afghan mission came after Italy, Spain and Lithuania committed hundreds of troops to support US forces that will switch to NATO command. The deal ends months of delay while allied military planners sought the extra forces.
"NATO will now proceed to further expand the International Security Assistance Force into the west," said alliance Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. "We have the resources we need to expand."
The western deployment will double the area of Afghanistan under NATO's command, to cover just over half the country. De Hoop Scheffer told a news conference 900 troops would deploy to Herat and three other western cities, including 500 fresh troops and 400 deploying from elsewhere in Afghanistan. NATO currently operates only in Kabul, and the north with 8,400 troops. French Lt. Gen. Jean-Louis Py, who commands the NATO force, said the move to the west should be completed at least one month before nationwide Afghan elections expected by July.
De Hoop Scheffer said there was a broad agreement that NATO's mission would gradually cover the whole country, integrating with the separate, US-led mission currently fighting remnants of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Allied military experts hope that could be completed by early 2006.
Washington has long sought such a fusion, hoping to free up the thousands of front-line troops it still has in Afghanistan. However the US will keep some units in Afghanistan, serving with NATO or hunting Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders believed hiding along the mountainous Afghan-Pakistani border.
Several allies offered to contribute more to NATO's training mission for Iraq's armed forces, which has been held up by a lack of instructors.
De Hoop Scheffer said he wants to announce that all 26 were participating in that operation - either by training inside or outside the country, or by funding - by Feb. 22 when US President George W Bush joins other NATO leaders for a summit in Brussels.
The goal is to turn out 1,000 Iraqi officers a year. France, Germany, Spain and other governments that opposed the Iraq war have refused to send troops to Iraq for the training mission but will train Iraqi security forces outside the country.
On Wednesday, France repeated an offer to train Iraqi military police in Qatar, and Spain said it would invite Iraqi officers for training at a de-mining center outside Madrid. Germany is already training Iraqi soldiers in the United Arab Emirates.
NATO currently has 110 instructors from 10 countries in Baghdad and is hoping to increase that to 160, backed by around 200 support staff by the end of the month. Diplomats said tentative offers to help either inside or outside Iraq had come from Greece, Canada, Norway, Luxembourg, Bulgaria and Romania.
The progress in both Iraq and Afghanistan comes amid a drive by the new Bush administration to rebuild relations still smarting from Iraq war divisions. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld welcomed the allied moves and expressed understanding that some countries did not want to sent troops to Iraq.
"There are 26 countries, one has to expect there'll be different perspectives," he told a news conference after the meeting. "Everyone does not have to do everything."
Despite the improved atmosphere at the meeting, some differences remained. French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie stressed France's training offer for Iraq was "bilateral" rather than being part of NATO's efforts. And she insisted further expansions of NATO's mission in Afghanistan should go gradually.
"Some want to go quickly, others take account of the realities on the ground," she told a news conference.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.