-allies-offer-no-solid-firepower-for-afghan-war-20 09-12-03
Caucasus allies offer little for Afghan war
ISTANBUL – Daily News with wires
Thursday, December 3, 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama won flattering words but little solid
firepower from Caucasus allies for his new Afghanistan strategy as
Georgia and Azerbaijan vowed continued support for the operation but
avoided pledging more forces.
NATO’s chief rallied behind Obama’s plan to send 30,000 more forces to
Afghanistan, promising to send 5,000 more from other NATO members. It
marked the second time in his young presidency that Obama has added to
the American force in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has recently made
significant advances.
When Obama became president last January, there were roughly 34,000
troops on the ground; now, there are 71,000.
Georgian Deputy Defense Minister Nikoloz Vashakidze said Wednesday
that his country would resume its participation in the NATO-led
operation in Afghanistan, adding that the involvement of Georgian
armed forces in the international peacekeeping mission has been
positively received by the country’s allies.
`Through U.S. guidance, the coalition is about to move to a new
strategy. We [will] stick to our usual strategy, implying our active
contribution to building and maintaining stability and security in
Afghanistan through active engagement in the [International Security
Assistance Force, or] ISAF operation,’ Vashakidze said.
The minister also floated the possibility of sending more troops to
Afghanistan next summer, but gave no further details.
`Next summer, [there are plans] to even deploy a battalion under the
U.S. command. Georgian participation is highly appreciated by our
allies, too,’ the Web site defpro.com quoted him as saying.
In June, Georgia said it was planning to send 500 peacekeeping troops
to Afghanistan in 2010 to serve alongside NATO-led forces. The former
Soviet republic is a staunch ally of the United States and aspires to
join NATO.
Russia fiercely opposes any Georgian NATO membership. The two
countries fought a five-day war last August when Russia crushed a
Georgian assault on the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Azerbaijani response
Commenting on the newly announced Afghan strategy, a spokesman for the
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said his country is interested in the
quickest possible restoration of peace and stability in the war-torn
country.
`Azerbaijan is part of the peacekeeping process in Afghanistan,’
Elkhan Polukhov said Wednesday, according to a report by the
Azerbaijani news Web site news.az.
Polukhov also noted that Azerbaijani service personnel are
participating in peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan and are
fulfilling their duties there within the framework of the U.N.
peacekeeping process.
Azerbaijan has already deployed 90 troops to Afghanistan but the Baku
government has no plans to increase its forces in the unpopular war.
Meanwhile, the United States’ temporary plenipotentiary in Azerbaijan,
Donald Lu, said in a written statement that Azerbaijan is playing an
important role in supporting the efforts of the anti-terror coalition
in Afghanistan.
NATO members and other U.S. allies collectively have 38,000 service
members in Afghanistan. With the added reinforcements, the
international forces will grow to more than 140,000 soldiers.
The Afghan military, meanwhile, has about 94,000 troops and is slated
to expand to 134,000. The Afghan police number around 93,000 members.
U.S. and Afghan forces face an estimated 25,000 Taliban insurgents. At
the height of the Soviet Union’s war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, it
had 118,000 troops in the country.
On Wednesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it views Obama’s strategy
`positively’ and urged international cooperation by the U.N. or
regional powers to vanquish Afghanistan’s terrorism and drug
trafficking.
The government in Yerevan, meanwhile, gave no immediate response to
Obama’s new Afghan strategy. In November, it did, however, offer a
small number of troops to assist NATO in Afghanistan.
Robert Simmons, NATO’s special representative to the South Caucasus,
said during a November visit to Yerevan that 30 Armenian soldiers are
expected to be sent to Afghanistan early next year.
Simmons expressed NATO’s `appreciation to Armenia for its strong
contributions’ to alliance missions, which he said began in Kosovo and
will now be repeated in Afghanistan.
The Armenian military and NATO representatives have reportedly been
discussing the deployment for the past two years. Despite not yet
having troops on the ground, Armenia is already listed by NATO as one
of the 43 members that make up the ISAF.