British Prime Minister Tony Blair made the startling claim on Wednesday that Britain and other Nato members are “winning” the war in Afghanistan despite increased Taliban activity and a sharply rising death toll.
The prime minister was speaking to the press at the end of a two-day Nato summit in Latvia, which exposed continuing divisions within the 26-member transatlantic organisation over the level of commitment to the Afghanistan venture.
Doubts about the military operation have grown this year as a result of a resurgence in Taliban operations that has left thousands of Afghans dead, as well as Nato troops. Two Nato soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb south of Kabul on Wednesday.
But Blair, who along with United States President George Bush is among the most bullish of the Nato leaders about the prospects for Afghanistan, said: “I think there is a sense that this mission in Afghanistan is not yet won, but it is winnable and, indeed, we are winning.”
Nato members agreed a messy and inconclusive compromise on reinforcements for British, American, Canadian and Dutch troops fighting in the south.
Other members have reluctantly promised to supply reinforcements in the event of “an emergency”, but there was no agreement on a definition of emergency and no new promises of significantly more troops.
Officials predicted that the test of what constitutes an emergency would come when British or other forces face an onslaught similar to this summer’s.
‘Significant progress’
Blair, who had been seeking a promise of 2 000 more troops, admitted that the British government had not secured all he had been hoping for from the summit. Nevertheless, he described the compromise as “significant progress”.
But the Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, who has allied himself closely with Bush and Blair on Afghanistan and Iraq, said: “The summit did not have the character of a major breakthrough. Not all countries showed the same level of determination.”
The Polish government pledged several months ago to send an extra 1 000 troops, due to be deployed in January. The Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Spain and Macedonia announced at the summit that they would also send extra troops, but only modest numbers.
The French President, Jacques Chirac, said that, as a concession, he would allow a unit of French troops to operate outside Kabul. Chirac, who was 74 on Wednesday, an occasion marked by other leaders with the presentation of a birthday cake, will also send planes and two helicopters, but no more troops to Afghanistan.
Contact group
In an attempt to engage Afghanistan’s neighbours, Pakistan and Iran, in trying to establish security, the summit agreed to Chirac’s plan, set out in an article in Britain’s Guardian newspaper on Tuesday, to set up a regional “contact group” to discuss ways of helping with the country’s reconstruction. Nato’s Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, has been given the task of sounding out Iran, Pakistan and other neighbours about joining such a group.
The US, though agreeing in principle, may in the end decide against sitting round the table with the Iranians until they abandon their alleged nuclear weapons programme, or establish the group without an Iranian presence.
De Hoop Scheffer echoed Blair’s upbeat assessment. “There is not the slightest reason for gloom over Afghanistan,” he said. The mission “is winnable, it is being won, but not yet won”.
In a separate development, Nato leaders on Wednesday took the controversial decision to invite Serbia and Bosnia to take the first step towards joining the transatlantic organisation, despite their failure to hand over wanted war criminals. The chief United Nations war-crimes prosecutor, Carla del Ponte, expressed surprise and regret at the move.
Nato leaders also declared that a new, 25 000-member rapid-response force, made up of specialist troops to deal with terrorist attacks, natural disasters and other major incidents, was ready for action after four years of preparation. — Guardian Unlimited Â