A United States envoy said Friday he was reassured that European allies in Nato would provide funds to equip Afghanistan with "sufficient and sustainable" security forces after 2014. US and Nato commanders are planning to withdraw most of their troops and leave Afghans in charge by the end of 2014, leaving a much-reduced military presence to provide training and back up.
But the strategy requires the international community to pay for the Afghan army and police. How big it should be and how much money should be provided for it is a key question for a Nato summit in Chicago in May. "We are consulting on the total number, and then trying to figure out how that number gets divided around," the US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, told reporters at Nato headquarters in Brussels.
"What I heard around the table today was a real commitment to supporting a sufficient and sustainable Afghan national security force," he added. Grossman refused to confirm reports that the US were looking for European allies to shell out 1.3 billion dollars a year, out of a total estimated cost of 4.1 billion dollars. The US would contribute 2.3 billion dollars, while Afghanistan's own share would be 500 million dollars. "This is a consultation, the numbers are decided in Chicago by heads of state and government," he said.