Romania could send another 600 military to Afganistan
Date: 23-11-2009
The US is in an advanced level of negotiations with NATO for the coordinated supplement of military to Afganistan, and Romania is among the countries selected to send another 600 military, American officials say, quoted by Wall Street Journal. Turkey who took over the command of NATO forces at the beginning of November in Kabul, and Romania are selected for supplementary contributions of about 600 military each, according to the officials quoted by WSJ. A Turkish official stated that the government in Ankara did not take a decision regarding the level of military sent and a Romanian official did not answer to the request addressed by Wall Street Journal to comment on the information. The American estimate and the European ones regarding the supplementary military vary among 3,000 and 6,000 military, to be added to the troops to be sent to Afganistan.
According to WSJ the arrangements were not finalized yet, but the coordinated announcement of the two countries could be made by the end of November, before the reunion of defence ministers in the NATO countries programmed for 3 December. The general secretary NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen “ started a series of consultations with the European allies” the spokesperson of the Alliance, James Appathurai said. « He thinks that it is very important to keep an equilibrium of the burden in the mission and the consultations are included in the context of offering more military to be announced by the US » he added.
Over the last weeks, the American officials required the opinion of the allies in connection to the strategy for Afganistan and made pressure to make them to announce supplementary troops. As a whole, the US aim at six European allies, hoping to obtain new military from Germany, Italy and the UK.
