NATO defense ministers on Friday agreed to raise the percentage of troops deployable in overseas operations from 40 percent to 50 percent, said NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.
The 10-percentage-point increase could add substantial troops ready for deployment, he said.
The NATO chief said the ministers also agreed to look into the benchmark for sustainability of troops overseas. But they failed to agree on specific targets. NATO countries at present aim at 8 percent of troops sustainability.
De Hoop Scheffer, however, expressed disappointment at failure of the ministers to agree on an initiative to update helicopters for overseas missions.
"There are thousands of helicopters in the NATO fleet. Allies should definitely not have this kind of trouble getting a few hundred to theater to support our operations," de Hoop Scheffer told a press conference at the end of a two-day informal meeting of NATO defense ministers.
"I am disappointed there, to say it in frank terms."
He said there are technical and financial reasons for this failure.
"It is technically complicated and it is financially complicated. But the bottomline is that we need political will," he said.
More helicopters are badly needed in Afghanistan but the high altitude and harsh climate conditions in the Asian country make most NATO helicopters undeployable.
The ministers were discussing an initiative to update, even re-engine current helicopters so that they can be used in Afghanistan. But obviously they could not reach agreement on financial burdens that would incur.
Source: Xinhua
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