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NATO drums up more troops for Afghanistan

NOORDWIJK, Netherlands — NATO’s top diplomat reported progress in drumming up more troops for Afghanistan on Wednesday, after nations leading the battle against the Taliban stepped up pressure on more reluctant European allies.

“I’ve noticed offers from nations, including for the southern part of Afghanistan,” alliance Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told reporters during talks among NATO defense ministers. “We have 90 percent filled of what we need, but ... there are still shortages.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates used the opening session of a two-day meeting in this blustery North Sea resort to press other allies to send more troops to the southern battlefields, where troops from the U.S., Canada and Britain are taking the lead.

NATO commanders also pressed for allies to come up with more teams of training experts to be embedded with Afghan army units. Allied generals see such units as vital for preparing Afghan forces to take the lead in security operations, eventually allowing NATO to start sending soldiers home.

Gates’ call for more troops was backed by the meeting’s host.

“There is no such thing as a free ride to peace and security,” Dutch Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop said in a veiled dig at nations such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain that have refused to send significant numbers of troops to Afghanistan’s dangerous southern region.

“Fair risk and burden sharing has to be a leading principle for NATO,” van Middelkoop told a news conference.

Diplomats said nine of the 26 NATO nations had made new troop offers that are likely to be confirmed next month during a meeting at NATO’s military headquarters in southern Belgium.

They include a pledge from Slovakia to double its contribution to 111 troops, some of whom are expected to serve alongside the Dutch, in the volatile southern province of Uruzgan.

Georgia — which is not in NATO — is reportedly considering sending 200 troops to help the Dutch. Hungary is mulling adding 150 extra soldiers to its contingent of 225, and the Czech Republic is expected to almost double its 225 troops in Afghanistan.

Germany and France said they would be increasing their contribution to NATO’s drive to train the Afghan army.

German Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung told reporters before the meeting his country would triple its contribution to training missions. Germany has 60 army instructors among its contingent of 3,100 troops serving mostly in Afghanistan’s relatively stable north.

French officials said France would add a fifth 50-solider training team. They said the latest team could be deployed to southern Afghanistan.

NATO commanders want to almost double the 26 training units it has embedded with the Afghan army. They regard them as key to preparing local forces to replace international troops. Afghan units in eastern Afghanistan have recently taken the lead in some operations against the Taliban, with U.S. support. However, NATO estimated it would take five to 10 years before the Afghans could stand alone.

Van Middelkoop declined to say whether the extra contributions would be enough for the Netherlands to extend the mission of its 1,600 troops. The Dutch government has warned it may not extend its mandate beyond August, unless its troops get more back up from allies.

“I have some confidence that there will be some progress for the Cabinet decision,” he said. “But still all the options as far as the Dutch government are concerned are still open.”

NATO diplomats are concerned a Dutch pullout could influence the Canadians, who must decide by 2009 whether to extend the mandate of their 1,700 troops in the south.

De Hoop Scheffer floated the idea of setting a rotation system, under which allies would agree to a timetable for taking turns in frontline positions, but he acknowledged “this is not a plan for the immediate future; this is talking about the longer run.”

Later, officials from the United Nations, European Union and World Bank joined the NATO defense ministers for the first time as part of the alliance’s drive to coordinate the Afghan security mission with civilian reconstruction and good governance efforts. Afghanistan’s defense minister also took part.