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November 19, 2010
Afghan Strategy Is Focus as NATO Meets
By JACKIE CALMES
LISBON — President Obama arrived in a foggy, gloomy Portuguese capital on Friday morning to review strategy for the war in Afghanistan with NATO allies and hear directly from its president, Hamid Karzai, amid growing tension between Mr. Karzai and the coalition partners and mounting opposition to the war in their countries.
Other pressing issues also crowd the agenda for the two-day summit meeting: NATO’s “reset” of better relations with Russia, parallel to that between the United States and Russia; an alliance missile-defense system, perhaps with Russia’s cooperation, and a new strategic doctrine to justify NATO’s continuance for the post-cold war 21st century.
Before returning to Washington on Saturday night, Mr. Obama will also participate in a two-hour summit meeting with the leaders of the European Union. It comes amid renewed concern about the euro zone’s debt crisis, triggered by Greece earlier in the year, after a week in which Europe scrambled to bail out Ireland. The summit’s host country, Portugal, is among the zone’s most troubled economies.
Only days after he returned to Washington from a 10-day diplomatic sweep through Asia, Mr. Obama left Washington late on Thursday and flew through the night to Lisbon. He had spent the day conferring at the White House with his advisers and Congressional leaders both about the administration’s reappraisal of Afghanistan policy, which he will preview for allies ahead of its December release, and about efforts in the Senate to salvage a nuclear-arms control treaty with Russia after Republicans this week blocked ratification.
The snag for the treaty, New Start, now clouds summit talks here on Saturday — and the broader reset efforts — between Russia and the 28 NATO members. NATO, which was founded after World War II as a defense alliance against the Soviet Union, has had an association with Russia since 1997. But the Lisbon summit is the first since the relationship was suspended in 2008 after Russia’s conflict with Georgia, a former Soviet republic.
Mr. Obama will meet separately with the pro-Western president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili.
Afghanistan will dominate the NATO summit. The United States and its 47 coalition partners are trying to coordinate strategy for a transition aimed at giving full responsibility to Afghan’s government and military by the end of 2014. Mr. Obama has said American combat troops will begin withdrawing in July 2011.
On landing Friday morning, Mr. Obama immediately drove to meet with American embassy staff before separate meetings with the president of Portugal, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, a leader of a center-right party, and with Prime Minister José Sócrates of the Socialist Party.
On Friday afternoon Mr. Obama is to attend the opening session of the NATO summit and then a working dinner with other leaders to make decisions on the strategic concept and missile defense.
The summit’s main event is on Saturday morning, when the group expands from NATO’s 28 members to the 48 countries in the Afghanistan coalition. They will hear from Mr. Karzai just days after he criticized the alliance’s strategy and operations in his country — comments the Western diplomats publicly disparaged as unhelpful in the days prior to the summit. Mr. Obama and Mr. Karzai also are to meet privately.
“We are viewing this Lisbon summit as a strategic milestone for the ongoing mission in Afghanistan,” said General Doug Lute, special assistant to Mr. Obama for Afghanistan and Pakistan, at a briefing for reporters this week.
Coalition partners will hear from Mr. Obama and American officials about their ideas for the gradual transition to Afghan control in its 34 provinces, and the need for more allied trainers to build the Afghan police and military forces, which are widely considered unprepared for the task ahead. The allies also will discuss commitments to support the nation’s security beyond 2014.
After a press conference at the conclusion of the NATO meeting, Mr. Obama will participate in a two-hour summit with the E.U. leaders — José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, and the European Council president, Herman Van Rompuy — to discuss economic, security and environmental issues.
Their talks come at a time when many European governments are implementing austerity budgets even as the global economy remains fragile, and, like the United States, are facing increasing protectionist pressures at home against freer trade.
Afghan Strategy Is Focus as NATO Meets
By JACKIE CALMES
LISBON — President Obama arrived in a foggy, gloomy Portuguese capital on Friday morning to review strategy for the war in Afghanistan with NATO allies and hear directly from its president, Hamid Karzai, amid growing tension between Mr. Karzai and the coalition partners and mounting opposition to the war in their countries.
Other pressing issues also crowd the agenda for the two-day summit meeting: NATO’s “reset” of better relations with Russia, parallel to that between the United States and Russia; an alliance missile-defense system, perhaps with Russia’s cooperation, and a new strategic doctrine to justify NATO’s continuance for the post-cold war 21st century.
Before returning to Washington on Saturday night, Mr. Obama will also participate in a two-hour summit meeting with the leaders of the European Union. It comes amid renewed concern about the euro zone’s debt crisis, triggered by Greece earlier in the year, after a week in which Europe scrambled to bail out Ireland. The summit’s host country, Portugal, is among the zone’s most troubled economies.
Only days after he returned to Washington from a 10-day diplomatic sweep through Asia, Mr. Obama left Washington late on Thursday and flew through the night to Lisbon. He had spent the day conferring at the White House with his advisers and Congressional leaders both about the administration’s reappraisal of Afghanistan policy, which he will preview for allies ahead of its December release, and about efforts in the Senate to salvage a nuclear-arms control treaty with Russia after Republicans this week blocked ratification.
The snag for the treaty, New Start, now clouds summit talks here on Saturday — and the broader reset efforts — between Russia and the 28 NATO members. NATO, which was founded after World War II as a defense alliance against the Soviet Union, has had an association with Russia since 1997. But the Lisbon summit is the first since the relationship was suspended in 2008 after Russia’s conflict with Georgia, a former Soviet republic.
Mr. Obama will meet separately with the pro-Western president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili.
Afghanistan will dominate the NATO summit. The United States and its 47 coalition partners are trying to coordinate strategy for a transition aimed at giving full responsibility to Afghan’s government and military by the end of 2014. Mr. Obama has said American combat troops will begin withdrawing in July 2011.
On landing Friday morning, Mr. Obama immediately drove to meet with American embassy staff before separate meetings with the president of Portugal, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, a leader of a center-right party, and with Prime Minister José Sócrates of the Socialist Party.
On Friday afternoon Mr. Obama is to attend the opening session of the NATO summit and then a working dinner with other leaders to make decisions on the strategic concept and missile defense.
The summit’s main event is on Saturday morning, when the group expands from NATO’s 28 members to the 48 countries in the Afghanistan coalition. They will hear from Mr. Karzai just days after he criticized the alliance’s strategy and operations in his country — comments the Western diplomats publicly disparaged as unhelpful in the days prior to the summit. Mr. Obama and Mr. Karzai also are to meet privately.
“We are viewing this Lisbon summit as a strategic milestone for the ongoing mission in Afghanistan,” said General Doug Lute, special assistant to Mr. Obama for Afghanistan and Pakistan, at a briefing for reporters this week.
Coalition partners will hear from Mr. Obama and American officials about their ideas for the gradual transition to Afghan control in its 34 provinces, and the need for more allied trainers to build the Afghan police and military forces, which are widely considered unprepared for the task ahead. The allies also will discuss commitments to support the nation’s security beyond 2014.
After a press conference at the conclusion of the NATO meeting, Mr. Obama will participate in a two-hour summit with the E.U. leaders — José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, and the European Council president, Herman Van Rompuy — to discuss economic, security and environmental issues.
Their talks come at a time when many European governments are implementing austerity budgets even as the global economy remains fragile, and, like the United States, are facing increasing protectionist pressures at home against freer trade.