NATO to endorse Afghan exit plan, seeks routes out

[Toramana]

(Reuters) - NATO leaders will endorse plans to hand over combat command in Afghanistan by mid-2013 on Monday and seek practical progress in opening routes to bring an international army of more than 130,000 back home from an unpopular, resource-draining war.

The strategy for a gradual exit from Afghanistan is aimed at holding together the multinational force and maintaining security in spite of France's decision to withdraw its troops earlier than scheduled.

At a summit in Chicago, leaders of the 28-nation alliance will endorse plans for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to hand over command of all combat missions to Afghan forces by the middle of 2013 and for the withdrawal of most of the 130,000 foreign troops by the end of 2014.

NATO diplomats said thinking had moved to the logistical challenge of getting a multinational army that size out of the Afghan mountains and deserts and back home - safely and with their equipment.

They said the aim was to sign a framework agreement with Afghanistan's northern neighbor, Uzbekistan, to allow "reverse transit" of NA...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/21/us-nato-summit-idUSBRE84K05V20120521

[Toramana]

NATO sets "irreversible" but risky course to end Afghan war

(Reuters) - NATO set an "irreversible" course out of Afghanistan on Monday but President Barack Obama admitted the Western alliance's plan to end the deeply unpopular war in 2014 was fraught with peril.

A landmark NATO summit in Chicago endorsed an exit strategy that calls for handing control of Afghanistan to its own security forces by the middle of next year but left questions unanswered about how to prevent a slide into chaos and a Taliban resurgence after allied troops are gone.

The two-day meeting of the 28-nation military bloc marked a major milestone in a war sparked by the September 11 attacks that has spanned three U.S. presidential terms and even outlasted al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Obama and NATO partners sought to show their war-weary voters the end is in sight in Afghanistan - a conflict that has strained Western budgets as well as patience - while at the same time trying to reassure Afghans that they will not be abandoned.

"We are now unified behind a plan to responsibly wind down the war in Afghanistan," Obama told the summit's closing news conference.

"Are there risks involved? Absolutely," Obama conceded, saying the Taliban remained a "robust enemy" and NATO's gains on the ground were fragile. But he insisted the overall strategy, which offered few specifics on the pace of withdrawal, was sound.

Even in NATO's outward show of solidarity, it was clear that differences remained after nearly 11 years of military engagement that has failed to defeat Taliban Islamists.

Alliance leaders acquiesced to new French President Francois Hollande's insistence on sticking to his campaign pledge to withdraw France's 3,400 troops by December 31, two years ahead of NATO's timetable. While there was no sign this would send others rushing for the exits, leaders could face pressures at home.

But despite a face-to-face encounter with Pakistan's president, Obama failed to resolve a dispute overhanging the summit - Islamabad's refusal to reopen supply routes to NATO in Afghanistan seen as vital to an orderly withdrawal.

The summit's final communiqué ratified plans for the NATO-led army to hand over command of all combat missions to Afghan forces by the middle of 2013 and for the withdrawal of most of the 130,000 foreign troops by the end of the following year.

The statement deemed it an "irreversible" transition to full security responsibility for fledgling Afghan troops, and said NATO's mission in 2014 would shift to a training and advisory role. "This will not be a combat mission," it said.

Doubts remain, however, whether Afghan forces can stand up against a still-potent Taliban insurgency and whether President Hamid Karzai's government, widely criticized for rampant corruption, will be up to the task.

Obama, who has narrowed his goals in Afghanistan since taking office, said: "We can achieve a stable Afghanistan that won't be perfect ... and we can begin rebuilding America."

With an eye to the November presidential election, Obama has made ending the Iraq war and winding down the Afghan war a campaign theme his aides hope will help ease voter anguish over a slow U.S. economic recovery and stubbornly high unemployment.

For NATO as a whole, the long, messy Afghan conflict seems to have created its own "Vietnam Syndrome," causing it to shy away from deep on-the-ground engagement in faraway places. NATO already limited itself to an air assault in Libya last year, and has shown no stomach for military intervention in Syria.

"GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES"

The NATO plan offered no guarantees on the future of Afghanistan, known over the centuries as the "graveyard of empires" for its ill treatment of foreign armies.

While Obama insisted Afghanistan should never again be used to plot attacks on other nations, a senior British official said: "It is unrealistic to assume that Afghanistan is going to be completely secure and there is no possibility of a terrorist threat re-emerging."

Underscoring the prospects that other allies may be tempted to follow France's lead and depart early, New Zealand announced on Monday it would pull out its 140 troops in 2013, a year ahead of schedule, saying their work was done.

Amid a growing sense of finality surrounding the NATO mission, veteran diplomatic trouble-shooter Ryan Crocker will soon step down as Obama's envoy to Afghanistan. He could leave as early as this month, sources familiar with the matter said.

At the summit's end, Obama spoke of "diligent progress" but no breakthrough with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on the supply lines issue after they talked briefly on the sidelines.

Frustrated NATO officials have also been trying to persuade Pakistan to reopen its territory to NATO supplies, which Islamabad has blocked since NATO forces killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in a cross-border incident last year.

With Europe's debt crisis hanging over the summit and many member-governments limited by austerity budgets, Obama also struggled to pin down final commitments from allies for the $4.1 billion a year needed to support Afghan security forces.

The funding - which will undergird Afghan's capacity to fight the Taliban and is considered vital to a smooth NATO departure - was not thought to have been fully realized at the summit. But alliance officials believe it will eventually be provided.

NATO diplomats said thinking had moved to the logistical challenge of getting a large multinational army out of the Afghan mountains and deserts and back home safely.

As Zardari, an uneasy U.S. partner, sat with other leaders around a circular table, Obama pointedly thanked Afghanistan's neighbors who have allowed expanded shipments of war supplies since Pakistan closed off ground routes to NATO truck convoys.

NATO is seeking to compensate in the meantime with a framework agreement with Afghanistan's northern neighbor, Uzbekistan, to allow "reverse transit" of NATO supplies from Afghanistan.

Friction remains between NATO and Pakistan over Taliban guerrillas who are still finding sanctuary in Pakistan, in spite of Islamabad's professed support for the alliance's mission.

Long-term funding for the Afghan police and army, which has steadily improved its performance but is still plagued by problems, was also a focus of the summit.

The United States is unwilling to foot the entire annual bill to maintain the forces after 2014 and has been seeking pledges from allies of $1.3 billion, despite austerity measures brought on by Europe's financial crisis.

Many of the leaders in Chicago came directly from a Camp David summit of the Group of Eight wealthy nations that vowed to take all necessary measures to contain the euro-zone contagion.

Afghan funding commitments so far include $100 million annually from Britain, $120 million from Italy, $110 million from Canada, $100 million from Australia and $20 million from Turkey. Zardari told a NATO partners meeting Pakistan would also contribute $20 million.

Obama has sought to dispel Americans' concerns that shaky allies will leave U.S. troops to finish the fight alone.

Despite pressure from some NATO members to reconsider, Hollande vowed to hold to his election pledge withdraw French troops by the year's end but said France would keep some trainers in the country for Afghan soldiers and police.

A French defense official said the United States appeared to be asking France for more financing to offset Paris' decision to exit early. "The Americans are asking for between $200-$250 million," the official said. "It's a way of compensating."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/21/us-nato-summit-idUSBRE84J02C20120521

[Toramana]

NATO seeks unity on Afghan war despite French exit plan

(Reuters) - NATO leaders charting a path out of Afghanistan sought on Sunday to dispel fears of a rush for the exits in the unpopular war even as France's new president vowed to stick by his pledge to withdraw French troops by year's end.

President Barack Obama, who once called the Afghan conflict a "war of necessity" but is now looking for an orderly way out, hosted the NATO summit in his home town, Chicago, a day after major industrialized nations tackled a European debt crisis that threatens the global economy.

The shadow cast by fiscal pressures in Europe and elsewhere followed leaders from Obama's presidential retreat in Maryland to the talks on Afghanistan, an unwelcome weight on countries mindful of growing public opposition to a costly war that has failed to defeat the Taliban in nearly 11 years of fighting.

Obama, hoping an Afghan exit strategy will help shore up his re-election chances in November, urged NATO leaders to ratify a "broad consensus" on a gradual troop drawdown in Afghanistan.

The alliance will formally embrace a pivot in the NATO mission, putting Afghan soldiers in charge of combat operations by mid- or late 2013, on the way to pulling out most of the 130,000 NATO troops by the end of 2014, U.S. officials said.

But the Chicago talks faced undercurrents of division, especially with France's new President Francois Hollande now planning to remove its troops by the end of 2012, two years before the alliance's timetable.

On the summit sidelines, the French socialist made clear he had no intention of backtracking on a campaign promise that helped him win the presidency from Nicolas Sarkozy this month. A poll in January showed 84 percent of the French public wanted a pullout this year. France has about 3,400 troops in Afghanistan.

While insisting he remained committed to NATO, Hollande told reporters he would "ensure our soldiers come back before the end of 2012."

Hollande's comments underscored the challenge for Obama, who has steadily narrowed his goals in Afghanistan, in plotting a more gradual withdrawal that will not open the way for a Taliban resurgence.

Seeking to paper over differences, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen expressed confidence the alliance would "maintain solidarity" despite France's decision. "There will be no rush for the exits," Rasmussen told reporters.

But signaling tensions over the issue, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters: "We went into Afghanistan together, we want to leave Afghanistan together."

Obama, meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the margins of the summit, said the conference would agree on a "vision post-2014 in which we have ended our combat role, the Afghan war as we understand it is over, but our commitment to friendship and partnership with Afghanistan continues."

Standing next to Obama, Karzai thanked Americans for "your taxpayer money" and said his country looked forward to the day it is "no longer a burden" on the international community. Karzai's government has been widely criticized for rampant corruption.

Karzai's comments alluded to the political bind that Obama and other Western leaders face in underwriting a unpopular war effort and the build-up of Afghan forces during a time of budget austerity at home.

With heavy security in place for the Chicago summit, police in riot gear clashed with protesters at the end of an anti-NATO rally by thousands of demonstrators. Baton-wielding officers hit black-clad anarchists, some with bandanas over their faces. Several people were injured.

TALIBAN WEIGHS IN

Trying to inject itself into the NATO proceedings, the Taliban urged countries fighting in Afghanistan to follow France's lead and pull their forces out.

"The people of nations allied with America have also shown their opposition to the occupation of Afghanistan," the Islamist insurgent group said in an emailed statement.

"So the NATO member countries who claim to be the elected representatives of its people and consider their government the people's government, by the people, for the people: how will they answer the call of their people in this summit?"

At the summit's opening session, Obama told his peers: "Just as we have sacrificed together for our common security, we will stand together united in our determination to complete this mission."

Hollande has pledged to coordinate his pullout of "combat troops" with NATO allies and though he has been vague on the details, he has said a very limited number of soldiers would remain to train Afghan forces and bring back equipment beyond 2012.

Essentially conceding Hollande was unlikely to be dissuaded, General John Allen, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, played down the impact, saying "we have the capacity, using our current force structure, to ensure there is no degradation in security."

Careful French comments on the issue illustrated the balance NATO leaders must strike as they seek to avoid the appearance of splits with NATO partners without alienating voters who want to see a swift exit.

Alliance leaders were walking a cautious line in discussions this weekend on long-term funding for the Afghan police and army, whose ability to battle the Taliban is at the core of NATO strategy for leaving Afghanistan smoothly.

The Obama administration, unwilling to be solely on the hook for the $4.1 billion annual price tag, has been seeking promises from its allies to give $1.3 billion a year for Afghan forces.

While there are few doubts allies will eventually provide support, NATO appeared unlikely to meet that goal by the end of the meeting. ID:nL1E8GIERC]

SHADOW OF FISCAL WOES

A last-minute addition to the list of leaders at the carefully choreographed meeting was President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan, whose western tribal areas provide shelter to militants attacking Karzai's government and NATO forces.

Zardari was likely to encounter friction in interactions with NATO leaders who have been pressing Islamabad to reopen routes used to supply NATO soldiers in Afghanistan. Pakistan closed those routes in protest when U.S. aircraft killed 24 Pakistani soldiers along the Afghan border in November.

It was seemed increasingly doubtful an agreement on those routes would be reached this weekend as U.S. officials had hoped. Allen told Reuters he was confident a deal would eventually be struck but "whether it's in days or weeks, I don't know."

Zardari, in talks with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, pressed for a "permanent solution" to U.S. drone strikes that have fueled tensions between the two uneasy allies.

After the first day of the summit, NATO announced a milestone in the effort to provide a pan-European missile defense system, saying it had reached "interim capability." Russia is adamantly opposed to the missile shield, seeing it as a security threat despite U.S. insistence it is meant to defend against Iranian missiles.

Fiscal demands, including plans for major cuts to defense spending in Europe and the United States, were sure to color the talks in Chicago, as they did those between G8 leaders.

The overarching message from that G8 summit reflected Obama's own concerns that euro-zone contagion, which threatens the future of Europe's 17-country single currency bloc, could hurt a fragile U.S. recovery and his re-election chances.

Austerity has played a role in NATO leaders' efforts to make progress on "smart defense" - making resources go further by encouraging NATO allies to share key capabilities.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/20/us-nato-summit-idUSBRE84J02C20120520

[Toramana]

(Reuters) - Western leaders gathering this weekend to define their path out of Afghanistan will announce a pivot in the NATO mission next year, formally putting Afghan soldiers in charge of combat operations acro

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/20/us-nato-summit-troops-idUSBRE84J0C720120520

[Toramana]

The document below is very important for NATO-US exit strategy from Afghanistan.

http://cips.uottawa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/CIPS_PolicyBrief_Coll_March2012.pdf

[asad71]

"ZK: What can you share about America’s military agendas in light of recent geopolitical developments?

Official: US officials recently held strategic meetings in Islamabad in which they told Taliban spokespersons that they are willing to give them recognition to which the Afghan Taliban scorned and said it is us, not you, who get to decide your exit. We have no conditions, just pick up your bags and get out of here as soon as possible. The Obama Administration is doing all this to increase their vote bank as Presidential Elections are fast approaching. Obama wants to show the world that he held successful negotiations with the Taliban which India also supports. However, talks have failed.

Marc Grossman came to request re-opening of the NATO supply routes. He said that if Obama apologizes over the Salala attack, his votes will considerably decline.Those talks too, failed. Gen. Kayani promptly denied any such request and Grossman had to return in dismay."

[Toramana]

Afghan exit: Nato bypasses Pakistan

Brussels Nato has concluded agreements with central Asian nations allowing it to evacuate vehicles and other military equipment from Afghanistan and completely bypass Pakistan, which once provided the main supply route for coalition forces.
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Monday that Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan had agreed to allow the reverse transport of alliance equipment. Since Nato already has an agreement with Russia, the deal will allow it to ship back to Europe tens of thousands of vehicles, containers and other items through the overland route when the evacuation picks up pace later this year.
Pakistan shut down the southern supply routes six months ago after US airstrikes accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at two border posts, forcing Nato to switch almost completely to the so-called Northern Distribution Network.
After months of stalemate, Pakistani leaders last month signalled that negotiations on the supply rou...

http://gulfnews.com/news/world/other-world/afghan-exit-nato-bypasses-pakistan-1.1032046

[Toramana]

07:50 GMT, June 6, 2012 WASHINGTON | NATO has reached agreements with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to allow troops and equipment to transit these Central Asian nations to and from Afghanistan, NATO’s secretary general said Jun. 5.

“These agreements will give us a range of new options and the robust and flexible transport network we need. I thank all three partner countries for their support,” Rasmussen told reporters during his monthly briefing from NATO headquarters in Brussels.

“NATO will continue to actively engage with Afghanistan’s neighbors,” he added, “to build wider support for the country’s stability.”

During a briefing at the Pentagon today, spokesman Navy Capt. John Kirby said the United States also has bilateral agreements with the three nations through the Northern Distribution Network, to move goods in and out of Afghanistan.

“We are very appreciative for those arrangements and continue to use them,” Kirby added.

Such ground routes are needed to supply the war in Afghanistan and will be critical as the combat role of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force comes to an end in 2014, and troops and equipment begin to make their way home.

Shorter routes through Pakistan have been closed since November, after a cross-border incident involving NATO troops in Afghanistan mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Defense Department and NATO officials have said that negotiations are underway with Pakistan to reopen the routes.

Kirby said defense officials “do believe having the ground gates open at Chaman and the Torkham gates [on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan] for the flow of coalition traffic in and out of Afghanistan remains valuable.”

He added, “And we continue to be in discussions with our Pakistani counterparts about trying to get those gates open and, in general, trying to improve the relationship with Pakistan writ large.”

In Brussels, Rasmussen said he invited Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to last month’s NATO summit in Chicago, during which “President Zardari confirmed that it is his clear intention, it is the intention of Pakistan, to engage positively in finding solutions to the conflict in Afghanistan.”

The secretary general declined to comment on details of the negotiations with Pakistan, adding, “I'll just reiterate that I still hope that a solution can be found in the very near future.”

At the same time, he said, “we actually concluded a number of very important transit agreements at the Chicago summit and of course that will contribute in a very positive way to our operation in Afghanistan as we gradually wind down our combat operation towards the end of 2014.”

NATO already has a reverse transit arrangement with Russia, Rasmussen added, “and the fact that we have now concluded … three concrete transit arrangements with Central Asian countries at the Chicago summit will make the use of the Russian transit arrangement even more effective.”

The secretary general also declined to comment on details of the Central Asian transit agreements but said, “ … We have concluded agreements that are of mutual satisfaction of the involved partners.”