Nato goals reduced as Afghan woes grow

By Daniel Dombey and Stephen Fidler in London

Published: November 23 2006 22:02 Last updated: November 23 2006 22:02


Nato’s difficulties in Afghanistan have forced the alliance to scale down its ambitions for a showpiece summit next week and raised questions about its ability to get to grips with the insurgency in the country.

The summit in Riga, Latvia, was intended to focus on the 26-nation alliance’s “transformation” into a 21st century political and military organisation, with more deployable forces and global reach.

A classified document obtained by the Financial Times, and due to be endorsed by leaders, maps out new ambitions for the next 15 years, including development of the ability to carry out more than one big operation at once.

But the meeting will now be overshadowed by Afghanistan, where more than 30,000 troops are under Nato command. It is Nato’s biggest mission and the first in which it has been involved in ground conflict.

Tony Blair, British prime minister, said this week that “the future in the early 21st century of the world” was at stake in the conflict in Afghanistan. But in spite of appeals to Nato solidarity and months of US-UK efforts to persuade more countries to send troops to the country’s turbulent south, Nato officials say the Riga summit is highly unlikely to provide a big new commitment.

A senior Nato official said: “Are we magically going to get big new news against the artificial deadline of the summit? I don’t think so. For a number of those heads at the table, they have not invested as much in Afghanistan as others. This is a wake-up call for everybody that it’s a long term mission.”

Hundreds of government and Nato officials are travelling to Latvia but the agenda for the meeting, the first full summit for two years, has been cut back to two working sessions spanning less than 24 hours.

Nicholas Burns, US under-secretary of state, last month urged Germany and France to help Dutch, British, Canadian and US soldiers fighting in the south. But Angela Merkel, German chancellor, this week ruled out sending German troops.

Nato is dogged by differences among allies over the alliance’s future, with the US seeking a significantly wider brief and countries such as France worried about over-extension. Countries such as Germany have political difficulties over deploying combat-ready troops.

Gen James Jones, Nato’s military chief, in September called for up to 2,500 more personnel to be sent to Afghanistan by the winter. But he said this week that he still only had 85 per cent of the troops and material he wanted – the same figure he quoted in September.

Nato officials said on Thursday they were hopeful of some new troop commitments by the time of the summit but that they would not be “dramatic”.

Other plans the summit was intended to showcase, such as enhanced partnerships with Australia and Japan, have also been scaled down.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

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