Defense ministers of NATO countries involved in Afghanistan are meeting Friday in eastern Canada to discuss how to better manage the mission in the war-torn Asian country.
The U.S. plan to send more troops will be one topic of interest and participants would expect their U.S. counterpart Robert Gates to give more details about the surge, Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said Friday before the meeting at a naval training center in Nova Scotia province.
The United States has committed 3,500 additional Marines being sent to Afghanistan before the year end as well as an army brigade of about 5,000 soldiers for early 2009. As many as three additional Army brigades could also follow in the months after that.
"I expect that Secretary of Defense Gates will want to enlighten his fellow ministers that are currently representing countries in regional command south as to the numbers, the location and whether these troops, for example, will be close to the border to Pakistan," MacKay told reporters in the Nova Scotia village of Cornwallis.
He also said ministers will likely discuss "how we will deal with a large troop influx which will no doubt impact other countries there, including Canada."
MacKay said ministers will also be in discussion on ways to further build the capacity of the Afghan National Security Forces.
Source:Xinhua
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