UPDATE: Germany's Merkel: 500 More Troops For Afghanistan
January 26 2010 - 7:12AM
Dow Jones News
Germany will increase its deployment in Afghanistan by 500
troops and nearly double aid for reconstruction in the northern
regions where it operates, Chancellor Angela Merkel said
Tuesday.
The larger deployment and more than EUR400 million in
reconstruction aid are designed to help the Afghan government move
toward greater ownership of the country's security by 2014, Merkel
told reporters in Berlin.
"We emphatically support President [Hamid] Karzai in his
declaration that by 2014 we want to have a situation in which
Afghanistan can guarantee its own security," Merkel said.
The additional German soldiers will help train Afghan security
forces that Merkel wants to see playing a much broader role in
securing the country by the end of 2011.
The number of German troops training Afghan soldiers and police
officers will rise from 280 to over 1,000, Merkel said, adding some
350 German soldiers will be assigned to a "flexible reserve" to
address shifting mission priorities, such as securing parliamentary
elections.
In December, the Bundestag extended its forces' deployment
through 2010 with a troop ceiling of 4,500.
Merkel also said that beginning this year Germany would nearly
double aid for education, jobs training and other civilian programs
from EUR220 million to EUR430 million. In addition, Germany will
pledge EUR50 million over five years to an EUR350 million
international fund for reintegrating insurgent fighters into Afghan
society, Merkel said.
Germany's involvement in the war is unpopular in Germany, and
opinion polls have consistently shown that Germans want their
troops brought home.
"I have always said it's a dangerous deployment," Merkel said.
"But I think we can only look at it with an absolutely realistic
perspective, that only when we do more training, and work more
effectively with the local population," will security improve.
Merkel announced her government's new strategy ahead of a
conference on Afghanistan to be held in London Thursday.
-By Patrick McGroarty; Dow Jones Newswires; 00 49 30 2888 4128;
patrick.mcgroarty@dowjones.com