France and Germany oppose US on Afghanistan plan

France and Germany have rejected a US
proposal to put NATO in charge of the military and
reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan.

France and Germany have turned down a US
proposal to integrate NATO’s peacekeepers with the
American combat mission in Afghanistan. The US plan
seeks to combine the two missions under a NATO
commander as of 2005. However, the defence ministers of
France and Germany have declared at a two-day informal
NATO meeting in Romania that they remain opposed to the
idea. At the same time, they said that NATO will
continue to support reconstruction missions in
Afghanistan. 

Currently, NATO has a 9,000-strong
mission in Afghanistan. Known as the International
Security Assistance Force, it   is under
French command. The US’s Operation Enduring Freedom
force in the country is
18,000-strong.  

France and Germany believe that a
unified command could amount to a step towards merging
the two forces, which in turn could increase military
dangers for their soldiers. Furthermore, Paris and
Berlin suspect that the US would use a merger as a
cover for troop withdrawals. Meanwhile, Britain remains
confident that the military could come up with a plan
that will enable closer ties while also respecting the
French and German reservations.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer said that the “option” of a unified
command would still be presented to the alliance’s
next summit which is due to take place in Nice in
February 2005. “Certainly, ministers will then
have to choose and to make the political decision
formally of what they want, but certainly this will be
an option,” Hoop Scheffer said. 

Meanwhile, Spain has announced that it
will pull its 500 troops out of Afghanistan. Madrid is
opposed to extending NATO’s troop deployment in
order to show respect for Afghanistan’s
sovereignty. 

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