PARIS, Nov 27: France wants its NATO partners to set up a “contact group” to review and reorganise the alliance's mission in Afghanistan, President Jacques Chirac said in remarks released on Sunday on the eve of a NATO meeting later this week.NATO took over responsibility for security in Afghanistan from the United States this year and the 32,000 troops in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) force are fighting the toughest war in the alliance’s 57-year history.
Its mission is set to dominate discussions at a two-day summit of the 26-member alliance in Riga, Latvia, from today .
“Establishing a Contact Group which brings together the countries of the region, the main countries involved and international organisations, as exists in Kosovo, seems necessary to me,” Chirac said in comments due to be published on today in a number of European newspapers.
A so-called Contact Group was set up in the early 1990s by major world powers concerned by the civil war in Yugoslavia. It is still active today and is playing a leading role in trying to determine the future of Kosovo.
France is concerned the situation in Afghanistan could get out of hand and wants to improve international coordination.
A French diplomat, who declined to be named, said on yesterday that Paris feared the NATO mission to Afghanistan was trying to impose rather than keep the peace.
The same source said any contact group would look to revise ISAF operations, but maintain its key objective -- to strengthen the Kabul government.
Afghanistan is going through its bloodiest period since U.S.-led coalition forces overthrew the Taliban's radical Islamic government in 2001.
Chirac said NATO's operation in Afghanistan should be part of a broader political strategy.
“To create the conditions of success, our operation must be part of a global strategy, of a reaffirmed political and economic process,” he said. “To adapt the alliance is also to give our operations a political framework,” he added.
France has some 1,100 troops in the Kabul area which are under NATO control and up to 200 special forces tied to the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom. However, Paris is reviewing the deployment of the elite forces.
