Dutch defense minister to discuss Afghan mission with allies

Dutch Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop will visit Canada next week to meet his counterparts from Canada, the United States, Australia and Britain and discuss the Afghanistan mission, the minister said after the cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Van Middelkoop will, among other things, inform his counterparts that the Netherlands will take a decision this summer on whether to extend the Dutch mission in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, Dutch news agency ANP quoted the minister as saying. The Netherlands has about 2,200 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. The Dutch troops in Uruzgan have a two-year mandate ending in August 2008, and so far the government has refused to make any commitment to an extension of the mission as is requested by Washington.

The defense minister will also discuss improving the training of Afghan police officers and the Afghan army. All the allied partners are doing something in this respect, but the tasks and the information exchange should be better coordinated, the minister said.

Source: Xinhua