The NATO allies and the wider international
community have pledged to redouble efforts to stabilize and rebuild
Afghanistan, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on
Friday.?
The NATO allies and the wider international community have
pledged to redouble efforts to stabilize and rebuild Afghanistan,
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said on Friday.
Both the NATO members and other international organizations had
reiterated their commitments of more support for the Afghan
government, its national army and police, de Hoop Scheffer said
after a meeting of NATO foreign ministers and a separate meeting of
major role players in Afghanistan at NATO headquarters here.
"The message has been clear: the international community intends
to keep the initiative in Afghanistan," he said.
The meeting on Afghanistan was attended by representatives from
NATO member states, non-NATO contributors to the NATO-led
International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, the
Untied Nations, the World Bank, and the European Union (EU).
"The international community is stepping up its game in
Afghanistan on all fronts to reinforce success," the secretary
general said.
"But we also have to underline that it is a long-term commitment
by the international community, for the implementation of which we
need a comprehensive approach," he said.
The new pledges made by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
at the meeting triggered other nations to do more for Afghanistan,
he said without elaborating.
But he refused to speculate which countries would contribute
more troops to Afghanistan, saying the specifics are to be
discussed when NATO defense ministers hold informal meetings in
Sevilla, Spain, on February 8-9.
"I'm relatively optimistic that more nations will step forward,"
he said.
The Pentagon announced on Thursday it was extending the tours of
3,200 troops in Afghanistan by up to 120 days. Separately, Rice
announced that the Bush administration would ask US Congress for an
extra 8.6 billion US dollars to train and equip the Afghan army and
police, and 2 billion dollars for reconstruction.
The UN-mandated ISAF comprises 32,000 soldiers drawn from 37
nations. The force includes about 12,000 US and about 6,000 British
soldiers. The US has an additional 12,000 military personnel in the
country under separate command as part of Operation Enduring
Freedom.
NATO, which assumed overall command from the United States last
year, is in Afghanistan to help the authorities there provide
security, and to assist with governance and the reconstruction of
facilities such as dams, bridges and roads.
The NATO forces are also training Afghan policemen and soldiers,
who are unable to hold captured areas on their own.
(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2007)
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