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NATO Afghan troop surge unlikely

* Report says most European leaders either against sending more troops, or increasing personnel in hundreds

Daily Times monitor

LAHORE: While the US is counting on its NATO allies for greater military contributions in Afghanistan, most European leaders have either ruled out sending more troops or talked about increasing that number only in the hundreds, a Bloomberg report reveals.

A series of international meetings, starting later this week at the annual Munich Conference on Security Policy, will spotlight the NATO role in the Afghan effort.

The discussion will continue at meetings of NATO defence ministers in Krakow, Poland, later this month and alliance foreign ministers in Brussels early next month. It will culminate in April at a summit of NATO heads of government in Strasbourg, France, marking the 60th anniversary of the alliance.

In a January 22 letter to NATO members, US President Barack Obama said NATO had “much to be proud of, but also much work to do” in the Afghan war. Some US officials say they are hopeful that Obama’s international popularity will result in new troop contributions that European leaders were unwilling to make during the Bush presidency. Defence Secretary Robert Gates last week told the Senate Armed Services Committee, “My sense is ... that some leaders ... in Europe, ... are prepared to be asked and ... prepared to do something.”

On January 20, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a TV interviewer, “Nothing will change in the short term for Germany because we’ve really embraced our responsibilities in the past.”

French Defence Minister Herve Morin also ruled out more troops in a January 21 interview with Europe1 Radio. A British Defence Ministry spokesman said on January 30 that while the UK may bolster its Afghan force when its mission in Iraq ends later this year, it would not be a one-for-one swap.

Italy, according to NATO, agreed last month to add 300 troops and Poland is considering another 400.

Gates said in his Senate testimony there were other ways for NATO members to contribute. One, he said, would be for countries to lift restrictions on how their forces can be deployed. Another would be to send civilian specialists in economic development, governance and drug control. Yet another would be to help meet the estimated $17 billion cost of expanding Afghan security forces.

But such initiatives represent only a face-saving compromise, says Shada Islam, an analyst at the European Policy Centre in Brussels. “Nobody wants the NATO summit in Strasbourg in April to turn into a shouting match,” Islam says. “So these are the kinds of things that are being considered and may be announced there.”

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