http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/526a1d82-dd13-11de-ad60-00144feabdc0.html
Financial Times November 29, 2009 French and Germans face Afghan pressure By James Blitz in London France and Germany are poised to come under intense pressure from other Nato nations to step up troop deployments in Afghanistan after Barack Obama’s announcement on Tuesday of a US troop increase. As the president prepares to announce about 30,000 extra US troops for Afghanistan, European diplomats say Washington is looking to the rest of Nato to provide 5,000-7,000 more troops for the campaign. Nato looks poised to announce next month that it has found about 3,000 additional troops for deployment in Afghanistan, including pledges from non-Nato states such as Georgia and South Korea. “However, there is still a gap of between 3,000 and 4,000 to be met,” said a senior European official, “and the pressure is going to be on France and Germany to help make up the gap.” One of the main reasons for the pressure on those two countries is that most of the other European Union states are set to increase troop numbers in response to the new US increase. “Britain will confirm an additional 500 troops this week and the indications are that Italy, Spain and Poland could come up with similar increases,” said one senior diplomat. “That will put pressure on Paris and Berlin to respond.” At Nato there are growing hopes that Angela Merkel, German chancellor, will announce an increase of at least 1,000 troops in the new year, over and above Germany’s current deployment of 4,365. “However, there are sensitivities about timing in Germany,” said an official from a Nato state. “The German Bundestag must vote in December to reconfirm its existing deployment, so Chancellor Merkel wants that done and dusted before they move on to anything else.” The diplomat said Germany’s extra contribution could be announced at an international conference in London on Afghanistan, which the UK government said at the weekend would be held on January 28. “We could be looking at a four-figure number from Germany,” the diplomat added. But persuading France to send more troops could be a problem. Paris has 3,100 deployed in Afghanistan but Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, vowed this year that he would send “not one soldier more” to the country. “It would be fascinating to be a fly on the wall at the next Obama-Sarkozy encounter,” said a British official. “The French stance on troop numbers is not going down at all well in Washington, especially given all Sarkozy has said about the importance of the transatlanic partnership. Frankly, France’s current deployment is too small for a country with that big an army.” Gordon Brown, Britain’s prime minister, announced at the weekend that the London conference would see Nato governments agreeing timelines with President Hamid Karzai for improvements in Afghan governance and security. Mr Karzai would be expected to make commitments on training up Afghan troops and tackling corruption at the conference, he said. .... ========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato Blog site: http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/ To subscribe, send an e-mail to: [email protected] or [email protected] Daily digest option available. ==============================
