AFTER WINNING over crowds in Strasbourg and Baden-Baden yesterday, US president Barack Obama hopes to win support from Nato allies today in implementing his new Afghanistan strategy.
Even by Mr Obama’s standards, it’s an audacious hope at a summit that was ostensibly about celebrating the 60th anniversary of the alliance that saw off the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact.
But amid welcoming Croatia and Albania and the return of France as a full partner, Nato members acknowledge that their long-flagged discussion of a new security strategy is inextricably linked to its eight-year mission in Afghanistan.
Today’s meeting is about balancing the demands of the US for greater mutual responsibility on that mission with Franco-German ambitions for future co-operation between Nato and EU security bodies.
Within minutes of arriving in Strasbourg yesterday, Mr Obama worked to establish a narrative linking his new Afghanistan strategy to this week’s G20 deal to stabilise the world economy, and Nato’s search this weekend for a new strategic agreement in a post-9/11 world.
“As we restore our common prosperity, we must stand up for our common security fates tied together common,” he told an enthusiastic town hall meeting. “People are more prone to war and conflict when they are desperate economically, you in Europe know that more than anyone.”
Then, after meeting the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, he worked to dispel German suspicions that Washington wants Europe to sign off on American plans for a Nato role as “globocop”.
“I didn’t come bearing grand designs – I’m hear to listen, to share ideas and, jointly as one of many Nato allies, to help shape our vision for the future,” he said. “If Nato becomes everything, then it’s nothing.”
Recalling the Bush era, Mr Obama said the US got “side-tracked” in Iraq, and that the pictures of prisoner humiliation in the Abu Ghraib prison were a “recruitment tool” for terrorists.
With that firmly in the past, however, Mr Obama said he was determined to “make Europe feel good about our joint efforts and not give excuses not to participate”.
Members of al-Qaeda occupying the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan – the target of Washington’s new strategy – remain a danger, he said, even more to European cities than American. “I think it is important for Europe to understand that even though George Bush is no longer president, al-Qaeda is still a threat. We cannot pretend that because Barrack Hussein Obama got elected as president, everything is going to be okay.”
During talks yesterday, the US president impressed on Dr Merkel and Mr Sarkozy that, by year end, US soldiers in Afghanistan will outnumber Nato ally troops by two to one.
The Washington view is that this cannot continue indefinitely. Until things change, US officials said they expect greater financial assistance and a better use of existing resources – dictated by military and not political needs.
British prime minister Gordon Brown has decided to send “several hundred” troops to Afghanistan, but only during elections in summer and autumn.
Belgium and Spain said they can muster up another 82 extra soldiers.
Other European leaders, lead by France and Germany, haven’t ruled out extra funds but insist they are not in a position to send further troops or redeploy to military duty soldiers charged with training police and soldiers and building up the civilian administration.
Military deployments are highly unpopular across the continent and in Germany require parliamentary approval. A September general election complicates matters further for Dr Merkel.
Mr Sarkozy offered to take one Guantánamo Bay detainee when the camp closes. He also welcomed the US agreement with Russia for talks on nuclear disarmament.
“The proposal Mr Obama made is excellent news,” he said. “We need the world to unite, we need Russia to shoulder its responsibility – it’s a great country and would be great help to find solution in the Iran crisis.”
Mr Obama surprised his Nato colleagues by previewing his own strategy at Sunday’s EU-US summit in Prague, where he promised to “lay out an agenda to seek the goal of a world without nuclear weapons”.
Outside the summit fortress yesterday, French police fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse protesters who set fire to wooden pallets and rubbish bins.
About 24,000 French and German riot police are on standby in Strasbourg, across the Rhine in Kehl and in the spa town of Baden-Baden.
But so far only a few thousand protesters have shown up. Gathered at a camp 10km outside of Strasbourg, they will march in the morning: they aim to block roads leading to the summit this morning.
Police said yesterday they were still holding 100 of the 300 people arrested on Thursday evening.
