NATO urged Russia to consider sending equipment and offering training for Afghanistan’s army, to help the alliance hand over more of the war to local forces.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen used the eighth anniversary of the U.S. attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan to float ideas for greater support from Russia, which was bloodied by the Soviet Union’s failed occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
“Russia could provide equipment for the Afghan security forces,” Rasmussen told reporters at North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters in Brussels today. “Russia could provide training. We could explore in a joint effort how we could further Russian engagement.”
The call for increased Russian assistance reflects pressure on Western governments to show progress in the war as the Taliban insurgency makes headway and public support ebbs in the U.S. and Europe.
In Washington, President Barack Obama meets today with top foreign policy aides to discuss the war. Obama is weighing whether to add as many as 40,000 more American troops, with leading Republicans such as Senator John McCain calling for a quick decision. Democrats back Obama’s approach of settling on a strategy first.
While Russia has ruled out sending troops to Afghanistan, it has allowed NATO to ship military cargoes on land and air routes across its territory and has signaled an interest in closer cooperation as East-West ties thaw.
Russians to Kabul
Russia is prepared to send advisers to Kabul to help train Afghan counter-narcotics officers as part of an agreement signed with Afghanistan today to cooperate against drug trafficking, RIA Novosti news service reported, citing Viktor Ivanov, head of the federal anti-narcotics service.
Igor Frolov-Lyakin, a Russia Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a phone interview that Russia has already been providing training to Afghan counter-narcotics and customs agents at a center south of Moscow. Several hundred officials have passed through the training course.
“We may consider training other security forces,” Frolov- Lyakin said.
NATO plans to build up Afghanistan’s 94,000-man army to 134,000 by the end of 2010. Estimates of the local forces needed to pacify the economically backward, tribalized country range as high as 400,000.
War Advisers
In a Sept. 2 interview, Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s ambassador to NATO, called for a role for Russian advisers in setting the political, military and intelligence strategy for the war. NATO hasn’t taken up that offer.
Discussions over a potential Russian role in providing equipment or training local forces have only just begun and there are no concrete plans, a NATO official said after Rasmussen’s press briefing on condition of anonymity.
With the U.S. gripped by a public debate over whether to send more troops on top of the 21,000 ordered to Afghanistan by President Obama since January, Rasmussen repeated calls for European governments to step up their commitments.
Obama’s deployment boosted U.S. force levels to 68,000. NATO allies now field 36,000, only 4,000 more than when Obama came into office with a plea for a stronger European commitment to Afghanistan.
‘Damaging’
“If the United States do not see that now, I’m afraid many in the U.S. will wonder about Europe as a real partner in security and that would be damaging over the long term for NATO and for the trans-Atlantic relations,” Rasmussen said.
Europe needs to focus on sending more trainers and financing for the Afghan army, he said.
Rasmussen recalled that as Danish prime minister until taking the NATO post in August, he regarded the European Union’s failure to meet a target for police trainers as “a bit embarrassing.”
The NATO chief said he would “regret” any pullout of the 2,200 Dutch troops in Afghanistan after 2010, as backed by the parliament in the Netherlands yesterday.
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