NATO and its allies will order “substantially more forces” into battle in Afghanistan over the next few weeks, the alliance’s secretary-general said on Tuesday.
Speaking in Edinburgh at a NATO parliamentary assembly meeting, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said: “In a few weeks, I expect we will decide, in NATO, on the approach and troop levels needed to take our mission forward.”
US President Barack Obama is expected to make a long-awaited declaration on US troop levels and strategy in the next few days.
But Rasmussen pre-empted the president by predicting the alliance as a whole would pursue a broad counter-insurgency approach, requiring many more soldiers, rather than the narrower focus on counter-terrorism — such as targeting suspected jihadist leaders — advocated by US Vice President Joe Biden.
“I’m confident it will be a counter-insurgency approach, with substantially more forces,” Rasmussen said, promising there would soon be “new momentum” behind NATO’s beleaguered Afghan mission.
His announcement follows a meeting of the North Atlantic Council last week, in which the alliance’s member states broadly endorsed a strategy proposed by the US commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, focused on protecting the civilian population and bolstering the Afghan government.
Gordon Brown said yesterday that 10 NATO member states would be prepared to send extra troops. He has pledged 500 more British soldiers, bringing the UK force to 9,500. Brown said the alliance could send as many as 5,000 alongside the US deployment announced by Obama.
Slovakia said it would raise its troop contribution from 250 to 500 yesterday. The rest of the new forces will come from NATO members such as Turkey and Germany, which is expected to announce the size of its deployment in the new year.
Others will come from NATO’s partners in the International Security Assistance Force. South Korea will send hundreds of troops to create a new “provincial reconstruction team,” probably in Parwan Province, north of Kabul.
Mongolia is also expected to send a significant contingent.
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