Friday, June 12, 2009
The alliance flotilla operating in the region will sail home at the end of the month. But ministers said they decided to dispatch a follow-on force known as Standing Maritime Force 2.
"Permanent groups from NATO are going to continue to be present ... in this complex challenge to eradicate piracy," Spanish Defense Minister Carme Chacon said.
A NATO flotilla has been stationed off Somalia since last November. It was joined by an EU squadron, a U.S.-led task force, and ships from a number of other nations including China, India, Malaysia and Russia.
The two-day meeting of defense ministers of NATO's 28 member states and 22 partner nations has been dominated by the war in Afghanistan, anti-piracy patrols and the situation in the newly independent nation of Kosovo.
Ministers are expected to approve a proposal to send three or four AWACS airborne radar planes to Afghanistan which will provide air traffic control for the increasing numbers of military jets and helicopters arriving in the theater of operations.
"I am confident that we will have a decision today on sending AWACS machines to Afghanistan to make flight security better," German defense Minister Franz Josef Jung said.
Ministers are also expected to finalize a plan to restructure the NATO command in Kabul to cope with the increasing numbers of troops flowing into the region.
The alliance has nearly doubled its force in Afghanistan — known as ISAF — in the past year to about 60,000 troops. At least 21,000 more U.S. soldiers have started arriving, and 5,000 mostly European soldiers will be deployed to help secure national elections there in August.
Plans call for two new intermediate headquarters to be set up as part of the international command in Kabul to handle day-to-day tactical operations and to oversee the training of Afghanistan's army and police.
"This will free up the ISAF commander to do strategic military activity in the context of more forces on the ground (and) greater engagement with other actors both in Afghanistan and the region," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.
Other items on the crowded agenda of the two-day meeting include setting NATO's budgetary priorities at a time of economic crisis and falling defense budgets, launching work on a new strategic concept for the alliance and restructuring the alliance command structure.
Source: Associated Press, June 12, 2009