German Chancellor Angela Merkel will brave a public backlash in coming weeks and commit more troops to Afghanistan to placate her NATO allies, a step that looks likely to raise Germany’s contingent by nearly a quarter.
US President Barack Obama and NATO have urged Germany to bolster its military presence just as it and other Western allies seek to craft an exit strategy from a country that has become an increasing headache for Merkel at home.
Sending more soldiers to Afghanistan would fly in the face of public opinion and expose the chancellor to increasing opposition on an issue that polls suggest have already dented government support and undermined her authority.
“Merkel has hummed and hawed on this debate from day one,” said Henning Riecke, an analyst at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. “But the government is going to have to send more combat troops, it will just be as few as they can.”
Merkel is expected to give a government declaration on Jan. 27 to outline Germany’s strategy for Afghanistan ahead of an international conference on the mission in London a day later.
Germany has a mandate for 4,500 troops in Afghanistan, the third biggest NATO contingent, though they are based in the north of the country, away from the areas of heaviest fighting.
At the conference, Berlin aimed to outline its plans for improving Afghan governance and security, said Henning Otte, a defense expert in Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats.
NATO first needed to establish clear goals and how they would be met before Germany could consider raising the threshold for its troop strength in Afghanistan, Otte said.
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