The US and its NATO allies are readying plans to pull away from the front lines in Afghanistan next year as US President Barack Obama and fellow leaders try to show that the unpopular war is ending.
Top military and diplomatic officials from the US and NATO allies met yesterday to finalize the combat handover program and a strategy for world support to the weak Afghan government and fledgling military after 2014.
At the same time, the nations that have prosecuted a war against a Taliban-led insurgency are reassuring nervous Afghans they will not be left to fend for themselves. The competing messages aimed at different audiences are both challenged by current events in Afghanistan, where insurgents staged an impressive, coordinated attack last weekend that struck at the heart of the US-backed government and international enclave in Kabul, while Taliban leaders boycott peace talks the US sees as the key to a safe exit.
Photo: EPA
“I expect NATO members and [partner countries] to commit to pay a fair share of the sustainment costs ... after 2014,” NATO Secretary-
General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said yesterday as he arrived for the two-day meeting of defense and foreign ministers.
This week’s sessions are meant to stitch together US and NATO agreements on the pace of US and allied combat withdrawal next year. US and Afghan officials have already said they expect a shift to an Afghan military lead in combat operations by the middle of next year, although the US stresses that it will still have a large number of forces in Afghanistan as backup.
The combat shift parallels the withdrawal in Iraq, where US forces pulled back from lead roles, but remained in harm’s way for months before a scheduled end to the war. US military leaders have not submitted final proposals for how to ease nearly 70,000 troops into the back seat next year but are working against a firm deadline to end the current combat mission by 2015.
The two-day gathering is intended to clear any obstacles ahead of the conference of NATO leaders in Chicago on May 20 and May 21. Ministers also will address the international bill for sustaining the Afghan army and police after NATO’s planned withdrawal at the end of 2014 — one of the top items on the summit agenda.
NATO allies expect other nations with a stake in Afghanistan’s stability — including China and Russia — to pay part of the total costs, estimated at about US$4 billion a year.
“A stable Afghanistan is in the interest of the whole international community, so I urge everyone to play their part,” Fogh Rasmussen said.
Obama also hopes to showcase a long-term security pact with Afghanistan in Chicago. US and Afghan officials said they would like to sign the agreement ahead of the summit, with more specific military agreements to follow.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai raised another condition on Tuesday for that long-awaited deal. He said the accord must spell out the yearly US commitment to pay billions of dollars for the cash-strapped Afghan security forces.
The demand threatens to further delay the key bilateral pact and suggests that Karzai is worried that the US commitment to his country is wavering as the drawdown of foreign forces nears.
The US acknowledges that despite progress, it is not meeting its goal of drawing US$1.3 billion annually from other nations to fund the Afghan armed forces.
The US does claim that the largely US-funded effort to recruit and train qualified Afghan military recruits is on or ahead of schedule, with a goal of 352,000 forces later this year.
The strategic partnership agreement is crucial to the US exit strategy in Afghanistan. US officials hope it will both map the course for US forces after the majority of combat troops leave in 2014 and give the Afghan people confidence they are not about to be abandoned by their most important international ally.
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