The world was waiting U.S President Barack Obama to outline his strategy for Afghanistan and now that he has given the go ahead for troop reinforcements to Afghanistan amounting to 30,000 U.S personnel, NATO and its member states have also come around and announced that, they will in all commit 5,000 NATO troops to carry on the military operations in currently unstable regions of the newly liberated country.
In a statement., NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has declared that as per his knowledge the troop commitment stands a t 5,000, but he strongly believe that, this figure will rise. According to Mr. Rasmussen,
“Based on my talks with a big number of political leaders, I feel confident that we will see significant increases in the troop contributions. The important thing here is that allies and partners have responded very positively to the speech made by President Obama. There is a broad consensus in the alliance that we must stand together. We are in this together. We will support the United States. It is an alliance mission.”
Once the 30,000 U.S troops reach Afghanistan, the total number of U.S personnel on the ground would come to a staggering 100,000 and with NATO’s addition of troops to the battlefield, the organization’s troop contribution to the Afghan War will come to about 47,000 personnel. The new pledges from NATO member states for additional troops are expected to come to NATO by the end of this week.
British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown has already announced the deployment of an extra 500 soldiers to Afghanistan and has stated that, he will rally the international community for further military contribution and will also work on methods through which Afghanistan’s security that is currently the coalition’s responsibility be transitioned into Afghan hands.
In a statement, Mr. Brown said,
“I call on all our allies to unite behind President Obama’s strategy. Britain will continue to play its full part in persuading other countries to offer troops to the Afghanistan campaign.”
Via CNN.
