Obama to seek NATO support for Afghan plan
Monday, 30 March 2009
WASHINGTON, Mar 29 (Reuters): US President Barack Obama will urge European allies to support his new strategy for Afghanistan, telling NATO partners this week their security could be at risk if the country falls into chaos.
Making his first major foreign trip since taking office on January 20, Obama will discuss the economic crisis at the London Group of Twenty (G20) summit of major economic powers Thursday. He will then attend the NATO summit in Strasbourg, France, Friday and Saturday, marking the alliance's 60th anniversary.
Just ahead of the NATO summit, Obama has unveiled a plan for Afghanistan, where violence is at its highest level since US-led forces toppled the Taliban in 2001 and where the NATO mission has been criticised for disorganisation.
Obama's strategy broadens the US focus to include Pakistan and puts as the highest priority the defeat of al Qaeda militants who he said were plotting new attacks on the United States. He will send 4,000 more US troops to help train the Afghan army and will add more civilian personnel to help tackle problems such as a booming narcotics trade and government corruption.
But Obama emphasised that international cooperation was crucial to the plan's success and promised to take that message to Europe, where the public has grown increasingly impatient with the Afghanistan effort.
"The world cannot afford the price that will come due if Afghanistan slides back into chaos or al Qaeda operates unchecked," Obama said in a speech in Washington last Friday.
"What's at stake now is not just our own security-it is the very idea that free nations can come together on behalf of our common security. That was the founding cause of NATO six decades ago. That must be our common purpose today," he added.
Making his first major foreign trip since taking office on January 20, Obama will discuss the economic crisis at the London Group of Twenty (G20) summit of major economic powers Thursday. He will then attend the NATO summit in Strasbourg, France, Friday and Saturday, marking the alliance's 60th anniversary.
Just ahead of the NATO summit, Obama has unveiled a plan for Afghanistan, where violence is at its highest level since US-led forces toppled the Taliban in 2001 and where the NATO mission has been criticised for disorganisation.
Obama's strategy broadens the US focus to include Pakistan and puts as the highest priority the defeat of al Qaeda militants who he said were plotting new attacks on the United States. He will send 4,000 more US troops to help train the Afghan army and will add more civilian personnel to help tackle problems such as a booming narcotics trade and government corruption.
But Obama emphasised that international cooperation was crucial to the plan's success and promised to take that message to Europe, where the public has grown increasingly impatient with the Afghanistan effort.
"The world cannot afford the price that will come due if Afghanistan slides back into chaos or al Qaeda operates unchecked," Obama said in a speech in Washington last Friday.
"What's at stake now is not just our own security-it is the very idea that free nations can come together on behalf of our common security. That was the founding cause of NATO six decades ago. That must be our common purpose today," he added.