US pledges to reinforce Afghan deployment
Foreign Desk Report

BUCHAREST—President George W. Bush pledged at a NATO summit to provide a “significant” number of extra U.S. troops to the alliance mission in Afghanistan at a summit, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday.
Bush told alliance leaders about the expected troop boost when they discussed Afghanistan in the Romanian capital Bucharest on Thursday, Gates told reporters on his plane as he flew out of the summit to the Gulf state of Oman.
“The president indicated that he expected in 2009 that the United States would make a significant additional contribution,” Gates said. Bush leaves office in January 2009. But Gates said the war in Afghanistan against Taliban insurgents enjoyed broad political support in the United States and he expected the next president would honor the pledge.
“I believe this is one area where there is very broad bipartisan support in the United States for being successful and I think that no matter who is elected they will want to be successful in Afghanistan,” Gates said.
“I think this was a pretty safe thing for him to say.” The United States is the biggest contributor to NATO’s 47,000-strong force in Afghanistan, with around 17,000 troops. Gates said it was too soon to put a figure on how many more U.S. troops may deploy to Afghanistan or define their role or likely location.
Earlier on Friday, Russia agreed to let NATO use its land to deliver non-lethal supplies to alliance forces in Afghanistan, but not troops or air transit arrangements initially sought by NATO. The deal was showcased at a summit between alliance leaders and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Bucharest as evidence of cooperation between the former Cold War foes, even though it fell short of NATO hopes. “It’s been done,” a NATO spokeswoman said of the deal with Russia. “It will cover land transit of non-lethal equipment. Air transit is not for today.”
A subsequent statement said an existing NATO-Russian program on training local counter-narcotics officials would be upgraded to a more permanent arrangement. Afghanistan was a major topic of discussion for NATO leaders on Thursday, when several countries pledged to boost their contributions to the alliance’s force there. More details of their contributions emerged on Friday.
Of the nations that announced more forces, France offered the biggest contribution of 700 soldiers. Azerbaijan offered another 45 troops while the Czech Republic said it would provide 120 special forces soldiers in the violent south of the country, according to a source close to the discussion on Afghanistan. Italy, Romania and Greece offered teams of a few dozen troops to train units of Afghan security forces, the source said. NATO says such teams are among its most pressing needs.
Romanian Defense Minister Teodor Melescanu told reporters Romania had not taken a decision on sending additional troops during the summit.
“Romania will show its solidarity and, from our assessment, we think we could boost our military presence in Afghanistan with 120 or 150 soldiers,” he said.
“The president indicated that he expected in 2009 the United States would make a significant additional contribution,” he said.
Gates said bipartisan support for such a move in the United States was strong enough to allow Bush to make the pledge even though he will no longer be president. “I think no matter who is elected president they would want to be successful in Afghanistan. So I think this was a very safe thing for him to say,” Gates told reporters traveling with him. French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced at the summit that France would send an additional battalion, or about 700 troops, to Afghanistan, which would free up US troops already in the country to serve as reinforcements in the volatile south.
Bush has not been specific about the number of US troops that were likely to be sent, or when and where they would go, saying that would depend on conditions at the time.
“I’m still kind of still where I was in December. I don’t want to make significant long-term commitments of additional US forces before giving the allies the opportunity to see what they do,” he said. “Let’s get the French in place, others have talked about increasing by several hundred (troops).” He said it was not linked to a continuing drawdown of US forces from Iraq.
“I put this in front of the president as a possibility as something he ought to be willing to say and do,” he said. “From my perspective, it was to allow him to come in behind President Sarkozy at the dinner and say ‘We’re going to do more, too.’”