GERMANY: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a direct appeal to Europeans to support the war in Afghanistan at an annual gathering of security and military experts in Munich

Record ID: 676108

  • Title: GERMANY: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a direct appeal to Europeans to support the war in Afghanistan at an annual gathering of security and military experts in Munich
  • Date: 11th February 2008
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF POLICE CARS WIDE OF CONFERENCE UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF DEFENCE ROBERT GATES WALKING TO PODIUM GATES STANDING AT PODIUM/ DELEGATES SITTING
  • Embargoed: 26th February 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA981F309GIDXR492UOJPWZ9LND
  • Story Text: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a direct appeal to Europeans to support the war in Afghanistan at an annual gathering of security and military experts in Munich, Germany.
    U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a direct appeal to Europeans on Sunday (February 10) to support the war in Afghanistan, warning that violence and terrorism could surge world-wide if NATO was defeated there.
    While admitting U.S. policy mistakes -- and his own role in one of them -- Gates urged the allies to come together in the fight against Islamist militants in Afghanistan and said the viability of NATO itself was at stake.

    "The threat posed by violent Islamic extremism is real -- and it is not going away," Gates told an annual gathering of security and military experts in Munich, Germany.

    "I am concerned that many people on this continent may not comprehend the magnitude of the direct threat to European security," said Gates, admitting public support for the war in Afghanistan was weak in Europe.
    His speech was the latest move in a campaign he has undertaken -- sometimes quietly, sometimes through blunt public statements -- to persuade NATO allies to back the war and supply more troops and resources for the mission.
    Gates cited more than a dozen attacks or plots against European targets, including bombings in London and Madrid, and recalled the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
    Later, in response to a delegate's question, Gates praised Germany's "terrific job" in Afghanistan.

    "The Germans are doing a terrific job in the North and their contribution is immensely important and they have one of the largest contingents in Afghanistan," Gates said.
    Russia and the United States must lead efforts to replace existing arms limitation rules with an international, legally binding regime, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Sunday (February 10).
    He made the call at a security conference in Munich, in a conciliatory speech that was in stark contrast to President Vladimir Putin's repeated attacks on U.S. arms policies he says risk sparking a new arms race.
    Ivanov, a Kremlin hawk who until recently had been viewed by analysts as a favourite to succeed Putin, said it was time to replace the SALT 1 arms control pact agreed between Washington and Moscow during the Cold War.
    Putin's preferred successor, Dmitry Medvedev, has not yet set out his foreign policy priorities ahead of March elections and it was not clear what status Ivanov's call had.
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