EU defense and foreign ministers to discuss Afghan war effort, meet NATO chief

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EU defense and foreign ministers mull Afghanistan

BRUSSELS — EU defense and foreign ministers meet on Monday to discuss how to shore up Afghanistan’s shaky government, amid plummeting public support in Europe for the U.S.-led war effort in Central Asia.

Kai Eide, the top U.N. official in Kabul, will brief the rare joint meeting that will assess the progress that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is making on forming a new government after his tainted re-election, EU spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said.

“The European Union is engaged in Afghanistan and we will continue to be engaged,” Gallach said.

The EU, a major aid donor to that country, seeks a new arrangement with Karzai’s administration to ensure good governance and an end to corruption.

“We need to hear from Karzai that he is putting together a government that faces the challenges that Afghanistan has before it,” Gallach said.

No decisions on Afghanistan are expected at the two-day meeting, Gallach said.

European nations, which provide about 30,000 troops to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, are still waiting for the outcome of President Barack Obama’s strategic review of the war before deciding on specific collaboration and possible troop contributions.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen will also attend the meeting to discuss improving cooperation between the military alliance and the EU, officials said.

Public opinion polls have shown growing disenchantment with the escalating war at a time when the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, is requesting thousands more U.S. and European troops. Surveys show widespread skepticism regarding claims that Afghanistan is central to the national security of European countries.

In Britain, a poll conducted for the newspaper the Independent on Sunday showed 71 percent of respondents supporting an end to combat operations within a year.