NATO HQ, Brussels 8 Feb. 2006

Background briefing by the NATO Spokesman Multimedia Audio file .MP3/5094kb Biography James Appathurai JAMES APPATHURAI (NATO Spokesman): Colleagues, thanks. Thank you, again, for coming. Let me turn to Afghanistan. I'll give you a quick update on where we are as far as I know it. I've been in the room, obviously, for 40 minutes, but then we can turn to your questions. One is, and let me stick to the political level, because ISAF itself, of course, is briefing on the latest operational details and they have more knowledge than I do, but politically, the North Atlantic Council met today, with, not only the NATO Ambassadors, but also the Ambassadors of troop-contributing nations. This was obviously not a regularly-scheduled meeting, but it was called by the Secretary General to discuss the security situation on the ground. The Secretary General informed all the Ambassadors present that he had called President Karzai in Afghanistan earlier today. President Karzai committed to doing whatever he can to contribute to stabilizing the situation. The Secretary General also called the Norwegian Prime Minister. I understand that he was attempting to call the Finnish Foreign Minister as well. I couldn't possibly pronounce his name, but he was attempting to call and they will have called him by now. I am not aware. The latest information that I have is that the situation is indeed calming. The Afghan authorities on the ground, including the Afghan National Police, are fully engaged. The reserves that NATO has sent from inside Afghanistan, I should stress, for those who might have misunderstood, these are not reserves being sent from outside Afghanistan, certainly not from the United Kingdom, but the in-theatre reserves have been deployed and have begun arriving. In Meymaneh, yes. In Meymaneh, thank you. That is all I want to say on the operational situation, except let me add one other point and that is, and this is raised by one of the questions. There should be no doubt of NATO's commitment to this operation as a result of these incidents, and no doubt of NATO's intention and capability to continue with the expansion of the mission this summer. So let us not link these two issues. They are not linked. To answer some of your questions: do I feel... do we feel that the Norwegians were in particular targeted? There have been demonstrations today in the capital in Kabul, in Baghlan, Baghlan, and in Herat. This obviously represents a broad range of nationalities in the forces that constitute those different NATO presences. So this is not an issue, obviously, or at least the organizers did not particularly... excuse me, the demonstrators did not particularly target only the Norwegians. However, I think it is worth saying that the Afghan people, according to all the reports that we have always had, since ISAF deployed, have trust and confidence in ISAF and I believe that that will come through in the coming days. I should also note the very strong contribution that the Scandinavian forces have made to security in Afghanistan, and include not only the NATO Scandinavian countries, but the non-NATO Scandinavian countries as well. I personally have seen the Danes, the Norwegians, the Fins and the Swedes all making a very important contribution, and I think that that should be noted. I should also note the great restraint and care taken by the NATO forces in what have been very difficult circumstances today that I think have contributed very much to the stabilization of the situation and I think it really should be noted how difficult the situation was, particularly in the PRT, the Norwegian and Finnish PRT, and how great the restraint was that was shown by the forces there. Just as an aside, for those of you who didn't read the Secretary General's speech in Munich, he did point out that when we flew into Kabul you could see a Royal 3 aircraft, C3-130s parked on the tarmac. One was Royal Swedish Air Force, one was Royal Danish Air Force and one just said Royal Air Force. That was obviously the British with their own, no need to identify themselves. That's all I wanted to say on Afghanistan. Do you have any other questions? Paul, and then Leon. Q: The question I asked earlier, in the riot is there any consideration, re-thinking of the Danish deployment into the south? APPATHURAI: The short answer to that is no. There will be... there is no, let me put it that way, there is no re-thinking of the Danish deployment to the south. And again, I stress, the Danes have made from the beginning an important contribution to peace and security in Afghanistan and I'm quite sure they will continue to make that contribution. Q: How many have they sent into the south? APPATHURAI: I believe the Danish cabinet has approved a deployment of 300. UNIDENTIFIED: (inaudible)... APPATHURAI: And the Parliament, Carmen informs me, the Parliament has also ratified this. Leon, did you have a...? Q: Yeah, (inaudible)... as well, just to clarify, the Danes are going where exactly? APPATHURAI: The final configuration of where the Danish troops go, along with all the other forces that will go to the south, will have to be determined when the full package is put together. But they have committed to deploy southwards into Stage 3. Q: Okay. Now just to come back to my earlier question. You said the Afghan people have showed that they trusted ISAF and you expect them to show it in the coming days. They'll come through, or something like that you said, in the coming days. What allows you to say that, since things seem to be spiralling off and I'd be kind of reluctant to make that kind of a prediction. APPATHURAI: Well, I say that based on the reports that we have all have in NATO Headquarters, and in all our capitals since ISAF has deployed. ISAF has built a strong reputation with the Afghan people because ISAF has been there helping the Afghan people and they all see it. Winning hearts and minds is obviously part of the job of ISAF, and every report we have had since the beginning of the deployment has been that they have been successful at doing that. Now this, of course, has been a serious series of incidents. No one doubts that, but I don't think it should be taken in any way as calling into question ISAF's relationship with the population of Afghanistan. This is obviously a much larger issue that is one that, as I say, international, almost global and is related to something different. But I don't think we should in any way see this as calling into question ISAF's relationship with the contribution... with the population or Afghanistan. Q: (inaudible)...you've already just half-answered that question, but you did say that the demonstrations or the demonstrators are not particularly targeting the Norwegians. What would you characterize them the thing that they are targeting? APPATHURAI: I don't want to speak for the protesters. I don't think that that's for me to do. I can say obviously that there is... the press reports indicate that this is linked to the editorial cartoons and the outrage that is clearly felt in the Muslim world over those cartoons. But beyond that I was not there and I cannot speak for them. Sharon(?) and... Q: So you're saying the two issues aren't linked--what happened today and your deployment to the south--but surely they are, because they raise security concerns and they raise increasing security concerns. APPATHURAI: Absolutely. To say they are no linked... the linkage I was making was with the deployment itself. It goes without saying that on a day-to-day basis NATO commanders, and of course the political leadership here, will pay very close attention to the security environment. They will take into account the developments that took place today, just as, for example, in Kosovo after the March riots of last year... I guess two years ago now, it was clear that our forces needed to be better trained in crowd and riot control and that was done. They were given better training and indeed more equipment in crowd and riot control. It is imperative that the security environment is taken into account. But the political commitment to Afghanistan's future, manifested through the expansion of ISAF, that will not be called into question. Q: This is a follow-up to that question really, but at the NAC meeting today, I mean, were there any calls for a kind of a review of the risks, given this episode has clearly increased tensions between, you know, western nations and Islamic nations. APPATHURAI: Yes. Ambassadors will want to hear and the military will provide regular updates to the Council on the security environment. That is not something particularly new. They do it on a regular basis. Afghanistan is not Switzerland, so of course we have to take into account the security environment. And it changes. It changes in the north, it changes in the west, and now of course this new development means we have to look at it again. So yes, they will look at the changing security environmental, but not, it is not something new. It is part of a regular reassessment of the changing security environment in Afghanistan. Please. Q: The in-theatre reserve was sent, but is the strategic reserve on alert or anything like that? APPATHURAI: There's no discussion of the strategic reserve. The quick reaction force has been deployed and that's all that has been deemed necessary until now. Q: Can you say how many troops deployed (inaudible)...? APPATHURAI: I didn't. Q: But could you? APPATHURAI: No. No. I don't want to go into troop numbers. Especially because it's going to change on an hour-to-hour basis. So there's no point. I really have nothing else to add today. Those are the main elements and you've been here for quite a while. Thank you.