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| Afghanistan |
| Netherlands, Slovakia call for flexible troops deployment in Afghanistan |
| 2008-03-15 |
| (Xinhua) -- NATO's deployment in Afghanistan should be more flexible, the Dutch and Slovakian foreign ministers said Thursday. The two officials called for an end to the current deployment arrangement which confines member states to one operation region. Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen and his Slovakian counterpart Jan Kubis said this would help change the current situation where only a handful of countries operate in the most dangerous regions of Afghanistan, according to the NRC Handelsblad newspaper published Thursday in the Netherlands. The two ministers believe that the present method, where the country is divided into five regional commands, should be abandoned, and that commanders on the ground should be able to deploy troops anywhere in the country "on their own authority." At present, the 42 countries taking part in the 43,000-strong NATO-led force in Afghanistan are stationed in five distinct regions. The Netherlands, Britain, Australia and Canada are deployed in the more volatile south of the country, while other countries such as Germany refuse to station their troops in such dangerous areas because they see their mission as mainly a reconstruction one. The two ministers said, "In the next two to three years, while Afghanistan's own security forces gain in strength, we will have to let go of our own 'adopted' provinces and focus on the country as a whole." Leaders of NATO member states will meet in Bucharest in April to discuss military strategy. Verhagen said he will put this matter on the agenda. A couple of weeks ago, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized the NATO countries that have refused to provide troops in the south where the fighting against the Taliban is at its heaviest. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 I think (I'm not sure) that the Dutch and the Slovaks are the good guys in this argument: they want more flexibility so as to force the Germans and French to carry their fair share of the risk. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2008-03-15 12:31 |
| #2 We need to get more flexible in our commitment to nato. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-03-15 09:08 |
| #1 What, they want Yoga classes for the troops? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-03-15 09:00 |