WARSAW, 15 September 2006 — Poland announced yesterday it would send 1,000 more troops to Afghanistan in the first offer since an urgent NATO appeal for reinforcements, but it said they would only be on the ground by next February.
NATO’s top commander last week requested up to 2,500 extra troops to help combat fiercer-than-expected Taleban resistance in the south before the onset of winter in coming weeks. But nations failed to make any firm offers at talks on Wednesday.
Polish officials said the bulk of the troops would go to east Afghanistan rather than southern provinces where British, Dutch and Canadian NATO troops are battling Taleban insurgents. While the Polish offer by no means solves NATO’s troop and equipment shortfalls, Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer welcomed it and said the contingent could be a reserve force supporting operations across the whole country. “This is a very important step,” he said in Brussels.
“If it comes, it would free up other forces. The idea is a reserve for the whole of Afghanistan. We are not linking this to the north or south or east,” he told reporters, adding its precise deployment was still being discussed.
Polish Deputy Defense Minister Boguslaw Winid told Reuters Poland had agreed with NATO that most troops would go to east Afghanistan, but it was not settled if some could go south. “This is still a subject of discussions. We have to talk through all details with NATO and the final decision will be made by the president soon,” he said in an interview.
Yesterday’s announcement confirmed long-held plans for Poland, which currently has 100 soldiers in Afghanistan, to add troops there as part of a NATO rotation due next February.
Alliance officials say it will take total troop levels of its International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) up to 21,000.
“It is urgent to try now to send these 2,500 forces which would make a great deal of difference,” the European Union’s Afghanistan representative Francesc Vendrell said in Brussels.
