Bratislava, October 22: NATO defense ministers will meet here Thursday to discuss the war in Afghanistan and the growing support for President Barack Obama’s plans for a new missile defense system in Europe.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the informal two-day meeting of defense ministers from the 28 NATO member countries will focus mainly on the 8-year-old war in Afghanistan. A runoff presidential election is set there for Nov. 7, and Obama is considering whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, where the Taliban insurgency has been making strides.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to brief allies in Bratislava about progress in a review of recommendations by American Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan. McChrystal has called for more troops, and Fogh Rasmussen has said he hopes NATO members can endorse that recommendation.
But that could be difficult in the many European countries where the war is unpopular.
NATO currently has about 68,000 troops in Afghanistan, of which 32,000 are Americans. The U.S. military also has about 36,000 additional soldiers serving outside NATO under a separate command.
Fogh Rasmussen said that in light of Afghanistan’s disputed election results — which led to the agreement to hold the runoff — it makes sense to delay any final decision about additional troops for now.
“I hope that we will have a clarification of the political situation in Afghanistan, because time is not on our side,” he said Monday.
Two senior Western diplomats at NATO headquarters in Brussels told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the NATO ministers will discuss McChrystal’s strategy review but make no new commitments on troops until Washington decides whether to follow McChrystal’s recommendation for a troop increase. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity, in keeping with the regulations of their jobs.
Jaroslav Baska, the Slovak defense minister and the conference’s host, said his country was waiting on McChrystal’s assessment to see what kind of financial impact it will have and underlined that Slovakia was unlikely to increase its military spending.
“The Slovak military budget has been cut by 25 percent in the last year, and we would like to preserve that,” he said.
The meeting in Bratislava comes as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visits Central Europe, with stops in Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic. He is discussing the new U.S. missile defense plan and reassuring the strongly pro-American countries that Washington still supports them, even though it scrapped the Bush-era missile defense plan for sites in Poland and the Czech Republic. Russia strongly opposed Bush’s plan and has welcomed Obama’s shift away from it, creating some nervousness in Warsaw and Prague.
Baska said he expects Gates to explain changes in the policy and how it would affect NATO.
“Any kind of defense that can secure Europe is welcome. If this becomes part of NATO’s own missile defense then it is doubly welcome,” he said.
On Wednesday, Biden secured Poland’s willingness to participate in Obama’s reconfigured missile defense system for Europe.
Fogh Rasmussen also has praised Obama’s shift in thinking on missile defense and said he sees a greater role in it for NATO.
–Agencies