Berlin: Germany which is a major
contributor to the NATO force in Afghanistan wants the
forthcoming crucial conference in London to focus on early
exit strategy from the country.
"NATO nations wants the Conference on Afghanistan to
focus on troop deployment. But we want a clear perspective for
the troop withdrawl," the German defence minister
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has said.
He said Berlin wants the conference to work out an
exit strategy for the NATO forces. With nearly 4,500 troops
deployed Germany is a major contributor to these forces.
Germany has been under pressure from the United States
and other NATO partners to send extra forces to Afghanistan
after President Barack Obama announced last month his decision
to send 30,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan and
called upon the NATO partners to make their contributions.
Germany has been very reluctant to reinforce its
military presence in Afghanistan from the present level of
4,500 troops and argued that it would wait for the London
conference on January 28 to take a final decision.
Guttenberg said that the German government wanted the
London conference to work out an exit strategy for the NATO
forces in Afghanistan instead of focusing on reinforcing them.
"No country wants the Afghanistan conference to become
a conference on troop deployment," Guttenberg told a meeting
of his Christian Social Union (CSU) in Bavaria. "We want a
clear perspective for the troop withdrawal."
The Afghanistan mission is highly unpopular among the
German public and Chancellor Angela Merkel?s centre-right
coalition government is divided on this issue.
The German government is reported to be working on its
own concept for the Afghanistan conference in London at the
end of this month to deflect pressure from the United States
and other NATO partners to send additional forces to support a
new US-led offensive against the Taliban.
Moreover, the government is embroiled in a controversy
over its role in a NATO air strike on two oil trucks hijacked
by the Taliban near Kundus, in northern Afghanistan, last
September in which a number of civilians were killed. A
parliamentary inquiry commission is scheduled to open its
investigation into this incident later this month.
Former Labour Minister Franz Josef Jung was forced to
step down over the Kundus incident, which occurred when he was
the defence minister and zu Guttenberg, who succeeded him, was
fiercely criticised by his political opponents for defending
the air strike as "militarily appropriate", a statement which
he retracted afterwards.
He reiterated the German government?s view that a
stable future for Afghanistan cannot be achieved by military
means alone. Germany wants to continue to focus its efforts on
the training of Afghan security forces and promoting economic
and social reconstruction.
PTI
