Bratislava - NATO defence ministers meeting in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava Friday found common ground on a new approach to stabilizing Afghanistan, but did not agree on new troop commitments or other details of such a plan. They also were described as generally welcoming of a new US missile shield plan to protect against attacks from rogue states.
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, said there was a "general shared view" on the major issues concerning Afghanistan: dealing with the insurgency, the need to invest in a transition to an Afghan-run country, and insisting on a credible and more effective government in Kabul.
US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates echoed Rasmussen's view, saying, "I came away with the impression of broad allied support for our new approach."
But both officials said that numbers weren't a part of the discussion.
"We did not discuss exact numbers, but there is a broad agreemeent that the long-term goal is to hand over responsibilitry to the Afghans themselves," Rasmussen said.
While Rasmussen has repeatedly stressed the need of alliance members to do more, Gates paid tribute to the commitments that many had already made. "Other nations have put more than 35,000 troops on the ground, and their views are important," he said. He added that the "US has no intention of pulling out of Afghanistan."
Gates deflected questions about reported disagreements within the US administration about whether adoption of a new Afghanistan policy should await new presidential elections in that country. And he suggested he hadn't come to Bratislava to lobby for a particular strategy.
"I'm here mainly in a listening mode," he said.
There are currently some 71,420 troops contributing to the International Security Assistance Froce in Afghanistan, according to NATO figures. Gates noted that, while the US has doubled its contribution of troops in the past 15 months, so too have the allies.
A report on future strategy for Afghanistan by US General Stanley A McChrystal has been at the centre of recent NATO discussions. It reportedly calls for an additional 40,000 troops to handle training for an expanded Afghan army and police force.
Rasmussen said that the new missile shield plan for Europe, which would replace a Bush-era project, was seen positively by allies because of what he called its "NATO context."
Gates said the new system would allow better integration with member states' radar systems. He also suggested that Moscow's collaboration would be possible, noting that a radar in southern Russian could prove an asset.
Even as the two military officials skirted question of troop commitments and numbers, saying they weren't on the meeting's agenda, Rasmussen made yet another pitch for the allies and the international community to do more.
"What we agreed allows the military to scope out what needs to be done, to get us closer to the point where transition can begin," he said. "But this won't happen just because of a good plan. It will also need resources, people and money."
He noted that the long-term outlay would be less if more were invested now, saying that it costs 50 times more to support a NATO soldier than an Afghan one.
