NATO to double military strength to Afghanistan

The visiting secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jaap De Hoop Scheffer, on Thursday said that the western military alliance would double its troops to Afghanistan.

"Let me stress again that NATO will double the number of its military, the number of its soldiers," he told journalists at a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

He gave this assurance amid an increasing Taliban-linked insurgency in the southern Afghan provinces, where more than 800 people have been killed over the past two months.

More than 9,000-storng NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is presently serving in Afghanistan to assist Afghan government in ensuring stability in the post-Taliban nation.

He made these remarks in the backdrop that NATO is going to formally take the command of the U.S.-led coalition forces in the country on July 31 while more than 1,100 people including some 50 foreign soldiers have been killed in the violence in the war-torn country.

The NATO secretary general was optimistic that the alliance mission will succeed in the post-Taliban central Asian state.

"We really come in a very serious way. The NATO's young men and women will do every thing they can and they will succeed," he stressed.

Linking development to durable security, the NATO leader said that NATO will create a climate of stability which is a pre- condition for development.

Though he expressed satisfaction over the progress such as having elected government and elected parliament in Afghanistan over the past nearly five years, he called for more international support to the war-shattered Afghanistan.

"My message is today let us lift the game and lifting the game means lifting the game of international community, lifting the game of the Afghan government in the fight against narcotics, in the fight against corruption, and in having the competent and decent people where they should be," he added.

The increasing poppy cultivation and reported corruption in the government departments have caused concern among Afghans and the international community.

"We will not fail because we cannot afford that and every party which tries to spoil this process in the south will fail, I can assure you," the NATO top leader said.

Source: Xinhua