The EU is expected to confirm next week plans to double the size of its police mission in Afghanistan to some 400 personnel, diplomats and a document said on Friday.
“EU foreign ministers at their meeting in Brussels will want to show their determination to boost cooperation” ahead of a June 12 international aid conference in Paris, a European diplomat said.
A draft statement prepared by ambassadors ahead of tomorrow’s talks said: “The EU will commit itself to substantially increase its efforts, with the aim of doubling” the police contingent.
The so-called EUPOL Afghanistan mission is expected be “double the size over the next 12 months,” another diplomat confirmed.
On March 10, the foreign ministers said they intended to boost the police training operation, amid US-led calls for thousands of instructors to be sent to the conflict-torn country.
The EU “expresses its readiness to consider further enhancement of EU engagement, particularly in the field of police and wider rule of law,” they said at the time.
But the ministers are expected to go into more detail tomorrow, even if their final declaration will not contain any numbers.
The EU’s police mission had been due to rise to around 230 police, law enforcement and justice experts, as well as administrative staff, deployed throughout the country, and not just Kabul as originally planned.
Its aim is to help build the Afghan police force, as well as mentor and advise interior ministry officials.
However the mission has come in for criticism, notably from NATO and the US.
In September, NATO’s civilian representative to Afghanistan criticized the lack of EU efforts, stressing that Afghan police remained widely corrupt and inefficient, aiding drug-trafficking.
Meanwhile, five Taliban militants were killed when their own bomb blew up as they embedded it in a road regularly used by international troops in southern Afghanistan, police said on Friday.
The militants were planting the device near the town of Musa Qala in the southern province of Helmand, provincial police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal said.
NATO and Afghan troops often travel on the same road in their operations in the troubled area, he said. A British soldier was killed a week ago in a similar explosion near Musa Qala.
The blast tore the bodies of four of the militants to pieces, Andiwal said.
Musa Qala was a key Taliban base for 10 months until last December when mainly Afghan, British and US troops reclaimed control after an offensive lasting several days.
The southern town was also a key drugs producing center — Helmand accounts for most of Afghanistan’s vast opium and heroin output, a US$4 billion a year trade from which the Taliban profit.
Meanwhile, the head of a leading European security organization is seeking money from the Bush administration to help tighten the border between Afghanistan and Central Asian countries.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s secretary-general, Marc Perrin de Brichambaut, met with US administration officials this week on proposals to help Afghanistan tighten what he calls “a completely open border.”
The organization hopes to set up a training center in Tajikistan.
De Brichambaut said on Friday the organization wants up to US$20 million to set up programs that would train border monitors, customs officials and anti-trafficking police in Afghanistan and Central Asia.
He hopes to begin the projects within months.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
RSS