Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Financial Times
February 8, 2008 By Fidelius Schmid, Jon Boone and Stephen Fidler
France yesterday eased simmering tensions within Nato over Afghanistan when its defence minister said it would send troops to the violent south of the country to help Canadian forces there.
Canada has threatened to pull its 2,500 troops out of Kandahar province unless its Nato allies sent 1,000 more troops. After a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Vilnius, Hervé Morin, France's defence minister, said: "I've said we'll help the Canadians."
Tensions within the alliance have been heightened by the unwillingness of some countries, including Germany, Italy and Spain, to commit fighting troops to the south of Afghanistan.
The tensions follow a request by Nato's military commander in Afghanistan for 7,000 extra combat troops.
The French offer, details of which have still to be settled, will cover only a minority of the requirement. The US has said it will send 3,200 more marines, but only for a single, seven-month tour, and expects to see other Nato partners finding forces to replace them.
The Vilnius meeting took place as Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, and David Miliband, her British counterpart, made an unannounced visit to Kandahar before flying to Kabul, the Afghan capital, for talks with President Hamid Karzai.
Ms Rice denied the UK and the US were trying to embarrass European countries that have refused to send troops to the south. But she said almost 25 years of war in Afghanistan meant the international effort to stabilise the country would not be "completed overnight".
In a hint of recent tensions in relations between Kabul and London, Mr Miliband pointedly reminded Mr Karzai of the responsibility the president has for cleaning up his own government.
He told Mr Karzai that much of the progress made on education and healthcare could not have been achieved without the support of the international community.
Afghanistan and its western backers had "mutual responsibilities that we have to support each other".
"I am here to talk about what the British government can do [to support Afghanistan] and the responsibilities of the British effort, and about the way we look forward to the work your government is going to do - at national, regional and local level - to help build the structure of clean and effective government, that the Afghans have the right to see."
Robert Gates, US defence secretary, told the Senate armed services committee on Wednesday that he was concerned about "the alliance evolving into a two-tiered alliance, in which you have some allies willing to fight and die to protect people's security, and others who are not". He added: "It puts a cloud over the future of the alliance if this is to endure and perhaps get even worse."
Yesterday he called on allies to make further commitments to the mission and to consider what he called "more creative contributions". He said: "If somebody cannot send combat soldiers to a certain area then perhaps they could pay for helicopters or give helicopters to somebody who could."
Mr Gates's comments were reinforced by others yesterday in Vilnius. Yet Berlin indicated its reluctance to provide more troops. "I think we are making our contribution to Afghanistan," Franz Josef Jung, German defence minister, said. Germany has 3,300 troops in the north of the country.
According to diplomats, Mr Morin will be briefed by military staff next week on several options for the south. Diplomats said they expected a "significant" French deployment to the region to reinforce President Nicolas Sarkozy's efforts to move closer to the US and re-enter Nato's military command, from which it withdrew four decades ago.
February 8, 2008 By Fidelius Schmid, Jon Boone and Stephen Fidler
France yesterday eased simmering tensions within Nato over Afghanistan when its defence minister said it would send troops to the violent south of the country to help Canadian forces there.
Canada has threatened to pull its 2,500 troops out of Kandahar province unless its Nato allies sent 1,000 more troops. After a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Vilnius, Hervé Morin, France's defence minister, said: "I've said we'll help the Canadians."
Tensions within the alliance have been heightened by the unwillingness of some countries, including Germany, Italy and Spain, to commit fighting troops to the south of Afghanistan.
The tensions follow a request by Nato's military commander in Afghanistan for 7,000 extra combat troops.
The French offer, details of which have still to be settled, will cover only a minority of the requirement. The US has said it will send 3,200 more marines, but only for a single, seven-month tour, and expects to see other Nato partners finding forces to replace them.
The Vilnius meeting took place as Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, and David Miliband, her British counterpart, made an unannounced visit to Kandahar before flying to Kabul, the Afghan capital, for talks with President Hamid Karzai.
Ms Rice denied the UK and the US were trying to embarrass European countries that have refused to send troops to the south. But she said almost 25 years of war in Afghanistan meant the international effort to stabilise the country would not be "completed overnight".
In a hint of recent tensions in relations between Kabul and London, Mr Miliband pointedly reminded Mr Karzai of the responsibility the president has for cleaning up his own government.
He told Mr Karzai that much of the progress made on education and healthcare could not have been achieved without the support of the international community.
Afghanistan and its western backers had "mutual responsibilities that we have to support each other".
"I am here to talk about what the British government can do [to support Afghanistan] and the responsibilities of the British effort, and about the way we look forward to the work your government is going to do - at national, regional and local level - to help build the structure of clean and effective government, that the Afghans have the right to see."
Robert Gates, US defence secretary, told the Senate armed services committee on Wednesday that he was concerned about "the alliance evolving into a two-tiered alliance, in which you have some allies willing to fight and die to protect people's security, and others who are not". He added: "It puts a cloud over the future of the alliance if this is to endure and perhaps get even worse."
Yesterday he called on allies to make further commitments to the mission and to consider what he called "more creative contributions". He said: "If somebody cannot send combat soldiers to a certain area then perhaps they could pay for helicopters or give helicopters to somebody who could."
Mr Gates's comments were reinforced by others yesterday in Vilnius. Yet Berlin indicated its reluctance to provide more troops. "I think we are making our contribution to Afghanistan," Franz Josef Jung, German defence minister, said. Germany has 3,300 troops in the north of the country.
According to diplomats, Mr Morin will be briefed by military staff next week on several options for the south. Diplomats said they expected a "significant" French deployment to the region to reinforce President Nicolas Sarkozy's efforts to move closer to the US and re-enter Nato's military command, from which it withdrew four decades ago.