NATO chief urges for financing Afghan forces

PanARMENIAN.Net - NATO's top official said Friday, February 3 that the alliance expects regional powers to contribute to a multibillion dollar fund to finance the Afghan army and police after they assume full responsibility for the war in 2014, AP reported.

Since Afghanistan - one of the world's poorest nations - cannot foot the estimated $6 billion (euro4.6 billion) annual bill, NATO nations will have to pay the bulk of it. But austerity measures and budgetary cuts caused by the financial crisis in the United States and Europe are making it difficult to raise the money within the alliance.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was appealing to the entire international community to help finance the force.

Asked whether he was specifically referring to China, India and Russia, he replied: "It's a call on the whole of the international community to contribute to financing the Afghan security forces because I think it is also in the interest of countries in the region to see a stable and secure Afghanistan."

"So my call on the international community also includes countries in the region," he said. Fogh Rasmussen said defense ministers had also discussed the "sustainable size" of the future Afghan army and police, but that a final decision will be left to the NATO summit in Chicago next May.

The two-day meeting in Brussels of ministers from NATO's 28 nations and 22 other countries taking part in the war in Afghanistan is meant to pave the way for the Chicago summit.

The Afghan army and police are scheduled to grow to more than 350,000 members by 2014. But some have projected that the force can be safely reduced in order to reduce its costs.

"A reasonable number would be 230,000," French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said after the meeting. The Taliban insurgents are estimated to have about 20,000 armed men.