NATO Chief Urges Mission’s Expansion

NATO defense ministers meeting here struggled Monday to plug gaps in their peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan, after warnings that a failure there could return the country to chaos and destroy the alliance’s credibility.

“Governments must have the political will to deploy and to use forces in much larger numbers,” said George Robertson, secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “We must stay the course in Afghanistan.... If we don’t, Afghanistan and its problems will appear on all of our doorsteps.”

At a news conference, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said, “My estimate is that within a reasonable period of time, [Robertson] will be able to encourage, persuade ... NATO nations to provide the forces necessary.”

The two-day meeting, which began Monday, gave European allies a chance to discuss with Rumsfeld a plan agreed to last weekend to boost the European Union’s ability to mount its own military operations.

Robertson also suggested that NATO might begin talks next year on a wider role in Iraq, perhaps taking charge of the central zone currently managed by Polish troops.

The ministers also agreed to cut NATO’s peacekeeping force in Bosnia-Herzegovina by almost half, to 7,000, preparing the way for a likely end to that mission in late 2004.

On the Afghan issue, Robertson is demanding that ministers offer 14 helicopters and about 400 specialist troops to the NATO force of 5,700 in Kabul, the Afghan capital. He also wants them to muster extra forces so the alliance can keep its pledge to the United Nations to expand the operation.

Although Norway, Iceland, Spain and others offered some personnel, nations were reluctant to provide the much-needed helicopters.

In the longer term, Rumsfeld suggested the alliance could further expand its operation in Afghanistan, perhaps eventually taking over the entire military mission. Currently, a U.S.-dominated combat force of 10,000 operates apart from the NATO mission there, fighting remnants of the Taliban regime and its Al Qaeda allies.