NATO: Integrate Afghan Missions, Speed Trainers to Iraq
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
POIANA BRASOV, Romania, Oct. 13, 2004 – Most NATO-member defense ministers
assembled here today agreed to examine how to integrate alliance and U.S.-
coalition missions in Afghanistan and to send more military trainers to Iraq as
quickly as possible.
Near the conclusion of daylong meetings, NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer told reporters there needs to be "a greater degree of coherence"
between the U.S.- and coalition-led Operation Enduring Freedom activities and
alliance-managed International Security Assistance Force operations in
Afghanistan.
Among the options to be considered for improving operations in Afghanistan, he
noted, would be "the possibility of a unified command" under NATO's umbrella.
And, "speed is of the essence," he emphasized, in regard to NATO's decision to
send 300 to 500 more instructors to Iraq to provide training to senior Iraqi
military leaders. A military academy is to be established near Baghdad for this
purpose.
The interim Iraqi government, the secretary-general observed, had asked NATO to
expedite the sending of the trainers. There are already 50 or so NATO-sponsored
military trainers in Iraq.
"We must have the (additional) trainers on the ground –- including the force
protection –- as soon as possible," he said. These added trainers, he noted,
should be deployed to Iraq "this year."
The secretary-general also reported that NATO is also looking to expand
alliance-member-manned provincial reconstruction teams into the western part of
Afghanistan.
De Hoop Scheffer noted that NATO-member defense ministers would meet again in
Nice, France, in February to discuss options of how to integrate security
missions in Afghanistan and other alliance issues.
Defense leaders representing NATO's 26 member countries traveled to this
Transylvania resort town to attend Oct. 13 and 14 fall informal defense
ministerial meetings.
Biography:
NATO Secretary-General
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer
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