Afghan Seeks Support From NATO Summit

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Afghanistan's defense minister appealed yesterday for the leaders at next week's NATO summit to provide more support for his country's armed forces and said a stronger Afghan army would enable the Western alliance eventually to scale down its military mission there.

Abdul Rahim Wardak said he hoped the April 2–4 summit would reconfirm a long-term commitment to Afghanistan, but added that the faster Afghan forces are built up the sooner NATO will be able to start cutting its 47,000-strong force.

"We're asking the international community and everybody to accelerate the growth of the Afghan National Security Forces," Mr. Wardak said from Kabul. "Eventually, the more we are capable, it will allow the gradual reduction of the NATO forces."

The NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, will adopt a "vision statement" setting out the alliance's long-term aims in Afghanistan and restating a commitment to support the country through the military mission against the Taliban and development funding.

Some NATO countries, such as France, are expected to announce an increase in their contribution to the NATO mission, including more training teams to work with Afghan forces.

Mr. Wardak appealed for NATO not to repeat the mistakes of the 1990s when Western powers cut back their support for Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Soviet troops and the country fell into civil war.

"We will need the help for a transitional period, then I think we can take our traditional responsibility to defend our country by ourselves," he said. "The time of that commitment will directly depend on the amount of support that we will be getting to accelerate the growth of the Afghan National Security Forces."

The Afghan army has around 50,000 troops and NATO is working to a target of training up to an additional 20,000 by the end of this year.