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Summary
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen opened a meeting of the alliance's defence ministers in Bratislava on Friday to discuss Afghanistan, a day after he urged member states to step up efforts to train and equip Afghan forces.In his opening remarks to the 28 defence ministers gathered, Rasmussen said we will stay as long as it takes in order to succeed. But in order to succeed, we must help Afghanistan to become sufficiently strong to resist the insurgents because that's the only way to counter terrorism which will not only hit the Afghan people but our countries overall, he added.U.S. President Barack Obama is still considering a call from the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, for tens of thousands more soldiers, so no decisions on troop levels were expected at the ministers' meeting. Obama said on Wednesday he could reach a decision on his new Afghan war strategy before the outcome of an Afghan election run-off on November 7. Afghan President Hamid Karzai removed a stumbling block to Obama's decision when he agreed on Tuesday (October 20) to a second round of voting after many of his votes in the August presidential election were thrown out as fraudulent. Diplomats say most European NATO states remain reluctant to send more troops because of public worries about rising casualties, and that Washington would have to contribute heavily to an increase, despite the fact that support in the United States is also waning.
