NATO expected to bolster commitment to Afghanistan
Posted: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 11:39 AM
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On Assignment
By John Yang, NBC News' White House Correspondent
KIEV, Ukraine – During the
NATO alliance summit later this week in Bucharest, Romania, Bush administration officials say they anticipate that NATO allies will commit "upwards of several thousand" more troops to the group’s forces in Afghanistan.
The biggest contributors are likely to be France and Poland, with other nations kicking in relatively small numbers. In addition, officials say, countries such as Spain may be making their first troop contributions to the effort.
The additional troops would allow the U.S. to shift some of its forces to the south, where most of the fighting is, in order to address the concerns of the Canadians, who are in the lead there. Canada had threatened to withdraw troops unless another ally sent at least 1,000 more troops to the south.
In addition, the alliance is expected to agree on a "vision statement" for the Afghan mission that European leaders could use to try to persuade their constituents of the importance of the effort.
The statement will emphasize both the threat of terrorism to Europe – an attempt to convince Europeans that they have a stake in combating a resurgent Taliban – and the efforts to build Afghan civil society, in order to argue that the Afghan mission is about more than killing suspected terrorists.
The official votes on these matters are expected come Thursday during the official summit meetings, although the member nations' positions should become clear at a leaders' dinner Wednesday night.
