NATO chief spurs European allies to greater Afghan efforts

THE STANS

Albania, Croatia set to join NATO: US
Croatia and Albania are set to formally join NATO later this week now that Slovenia has filed documents with the United States endorsing the two countries as members, a US official said Monday. Slovenia took the action on Croatia's behalf at the State Department on Monday after doing the same for Albania on March 3, Gordon Duguid, a department spokesman, told reporters. "The deposit of Slovenia's instrument of ratification completed the individual ratification process of all 26 NATO allies needed for the admission of Albania and Croatia into NATO," Duguid said. NATO Secretry General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer "will now issue official invitations to Albania and Croatia to join NATO," he said. Croatia and Albania will "take their seats as members of the alliance" at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's 60th anniversary summit at the end of the week, he added. In Ljubljana on Friday, Slovenian President Danilo Turk officially ratified Croatia's accession to NATO, after a referendum that threatened to hold up the process failed to materialize. The two neighbors are involved in a long-standing border dispute that has already stalled Croatia's EU accession process. But Slovenia insisted that the row did not effect Zagreb's NATO bid. After Greece ratified Croatia's accession in mid-February, Slovenia was the last of the 26 NATO members not to have handed the alliance its signature.

US to help Georgia rebuild military: top general
The United States will "work hard" to help Georgia retrain its armed forces and obtain new military hardware after the ex-Soviet republic's war with Russia last year, a top US general said Monday. "The United States remains committed ... to providing training and other assistance to the Georgian military in support of their reform efforts," the vice chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, General James Cartwright, said at a joint press conference in Tbilisi with President Mikheil Saakashvili. "We will start on the training, that is the core and the foundation of the activity," he said. "We will work hard to get both the skill levels that are necessary ... and work as partners on the equipment necessary." Saakashvili said Georgia was committed to rebuilding its military amid continued tensions with Russia. "In conditions where 20 percent of the country is occupied, when risk is high and provocations continue, when the situation in the region is difficult, Georgia will continue creating a modern, high-level, much stronger armed forces, increasing personnel and armaments, and most importantly increasing the level of preparation and defence," he said. US military planners are working with Georgia to revamp its military and redesign its military strategy following its defeat during last year's brief war with Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Russia has repeatedly criticised significant US military assistance to Georgia, straining relations between Washington and Moscow. Russia sent troops and tanks deep into Georgia last August in response to a Georgian military attempt to retake South Ossetia, which broke away from Tbilisi's control in the early 1990s and had received extensive backing from Moscow for years. Russian forces occupied swathes of territory and bombed targets across Georgia before mostly withdrawing to within South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia, which Moscow recognised as independent states.

by Staff Writers
Brussels (AFP) March 30, 2009
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer warned European allies Monday not to complain about "Americanisation" of the mission in Afghanistan if they failed to match US contributions there.

"This is not President (Barack) Obama's war," Scheffer told reporters

"The allies need to ensure that they all do their part," he warned. "No complaints about Americanisation of this mission, if the other allies do not play their role."

Scheffer was speaking ahead of a two-day alliance summit starting Friday and in the wake of the new strategy unveiled by the US leader to tackle the Taliban-led insurgency and foster reconstruction.

Obama's plan includes sending in 4,000 more US troops and tripling US aid to Pakistan to 7.5 billion dollars over five years while sifting moderate Taliban from hard-core fighters and leading a global "civilian surge".

He has also set benchmarks for the United States, its allies and Pakistan, whose shaky government requires international help and encouragement to combat Taliban militants in its lawless tribal areas neighbouring Afghanistan.

The deployment of a further 17,000 US troops had already been announced.

"I think the Obama plan is realistic about what can be achieved and in what timelines. That means, we will not be able to turn Afghanistan into Switzerland in a few years' time," Scheffer said.

But he conceded that other allies could not match US military muscle, and urged them to contribute on the civilian side, with aid or with police training.

"The NATO allies cannot match the figures presented by the US, that is not under discussion," he said. Everyone had to play their part, he added, urging countries to "put more resources into the mission."

Since 2003, NATO nations have been trying to help spread the influence of Afghanistan's weak central government across the conflict-torn country, but its efforts have been stymied by a Taliban-led insurgency.

NATO chief seeks 2 bln dollars for Afghan forces: FT
NATO is seeking two billion dollars (1.5 billion euros) a year from the international community to help support Afghanistan's security forces, the Financial Times reported Monday.

Secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer told the paper that Tuesday's conference on Afghanistan in The Hague was an opportunity to ask for pledges from outside the 26-member military alliance to help keep the country stable.

"The potential major donor states -- Japan, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states -- will all be in The Hague," he said.

"I am not saying funding should come exclusively from those circles.

"But it is difficult to see how NATO allies -- given the enormous amounts they are spending keeping forces there -- can bring in two billion dollars a year. It's impossible for them."

So far the NATO fund required to sustain the 134,000 troops of the Afghan army contained only 25 million dollars, the FT reported him as saying.

The conference, to be opened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and hosted by the Netherlands, the United Nations and Afghanistan, will be attended by representatives of almost 90 nations, groups and observers including Iran.

De Hoop Scheffer said the meeting "will deliver a powerful message that it is not only NATO, the United Nations and the European Union that are engaged in Afghanistan, but that a larger community is committed to its future".

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THE STANS

Wave of Pakistan attacks imperil future of state

Karachi (AFP) March 30, 2009
Monday's assault on a police school and a wave of spectacular attacks underlines Pakistan's weakness and the danger posed by militants to the future of the nuclear-armed nation, analysts said.

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